Goals
- To be accessible to your existing customers and fan base
- To build a larger fan base for your product
- To network with wine industry contacts, including distributors, retailers and restaurants
Social media sites are for socializing! These are not appropriate venues for a hard-sell product pitch, or for consistent and annoying brand messages.
The really excellent news is that social media can both replace and supplement old-fashioned stumping.
Inter-personal contact has always been important in the wine industry. Wine pourings, charity events, ride-alongs with sales reps ... and of course, the tasting room. Anyone in sales or marketing in the industry will confirm that the personal connection is important. Wine is a fairly expensive luxury good and customers want to know the artisans behind the brand.
Social media gives wineries a golden opportunity to expand that personal connection. You can build a collection of friends and fans, contact them regularly with a personal 'wazzup' and be accessible on their favorite platforms. While it is not an appropriate avenue for hard sales, social media is just as important as personal appearances. In many ways, it's actually more effective because you can relate to your customers on their schedule, and not on yours. Instead of a once-every-six-months appearance at a wine bar, you are accessible at any time.
How to Use Social Media: The Smartfast Way
For wineries, I recommend Facebook.
Why? It's the leading social media site, with over 250,000 new users per day. Facebook also has a more mature demographic and tighter controls than other social sites like MySpace. Wineries will find that most of their socially active net users are on Facebook. Focus on just one social medium, and do it well. Make a splash.
Make friends.
Facebook offers two identity choices. You can build a professional 'fan' page—a corporate identity that requires your contacts to sign on as 'fans' of your product—or you can choose to build a personal profile for your business and ask contacts to connect with you as 'friends'. I recommend the latter.
Why? Because building your brand quickly on a social media site will depend on the quality of your professional contact base, and many businesses are reluctant to become 'fans'. It sounds too much like a product endorsement. But 'friends'? That's another matter entirely. We are all willing to be friends, network, and help each other out.
Start by approaching others. Look up neighboring wineries in your area first and request contact. As you establish your interest in wineries and wine, Facebook will begin to suggest friends with similar interests and keywords. Send out 10-12 friendship requests a day. As you increase your visibility, your Facebook name and photo will begin to circulate among people with a similar interest in wine. After you reach 200 or so, people will begin to come to you, and all you have to do is hit the "accept" button.
Be judicious, however, In my case, I quickly accept anyone holding a wine glass or bottle, or wearing chef's whites. I'm suspicious of beauties in evocative poses. You definitely want to avoid anyone who looks like a Russian princess 'looking for love'.
Be personable.
Be personable and approachable. Give quick insights into winery operations or your daily life. Keep sales-related material to a minimum. Ask thought-provoking questions. Post daily.
Keep your Facebook site clean.
You want to encourage interaction on your site, but be selective. Encourage only friendly and mature discussion.
Unfortunately, Facebook users design applications that may be fun for the purely social users, but they can be also be annoying and fill your profile with clutter that detracts from your identity and message.
Block silly applications. When people send you gifts, valentines or other kitschy stuff, click on the name of the application (in the message). It will take you to that app's page in Facebook. In the left column, click 'Block Application'. Then return to your profile and remove the offending post if it still exists. (Just scroll over the right hand side of any message on your Facebook profile and a 'Remove' button will appear.)
Block silly application users. If someone persists in sending dumb messages from various applications, click on that user's name. It will take you to their profile; scroll down to the bottom of their left-hand column and click on 'Block or Report User'. Block that person and they can never contact you again. Don't worry about being cold-hearted. First of all, if this person cannot respect your business, they don't need to be a contact. Second, when you block a user, that person is not notified so you are not overtly insulting anyone, just preventing spam.
Link your Facebook account to your blog, Networked Blogs and Twitter.
This is fairly complex, so in a later post, I will show you step-by-step how to link these three accounts together. When you publish a blog post, a thumbnail photo, link and summary will automatically appear on Facebook and a short teaser on Twitter. And anything you post directly on Facebook will simultaneously publish on Twitter. It's pretty awesome—you can reach 3x as many people with every post!
It's called 'piping' your accounts together. It takes some time to set up but once done, it expands your reach dramatically.
This should get you started! If you have any questions feel free to give me a call at 805-835-5669 or email me: [email protected]. I am available for social media coaching and account setup.
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