Wine Marketing & Website Tips

To make social media effective for your winery, your posts and tweets need to reflect your personality and the personality of your winery — this is how you gain fans and hopefully, loyal followers and consumers. But do you have time to do all the social media marketing yourself? And if not, is it possible to outsource some of your social media responsibilities without losing your unique ‘voice’?

I am an AVID following of Donna Gunter’s blog ‘Get More Client’s Online’. What makes her blog so pertinent is her information is focused on small businesses — which easily translates to small wineries. This latest article of hers is a case in point: 7 Most Effective Tasks to Authentically Outsource in Your Social Media Marketing.

In this article, Donna explains what can’t be outsource, and what CAN — and knowing this may help you delegate some of your social media responsibilities so maybe, you can get a much needed break!

Researching for this article made me feel like Alice falling down the rabbit hole — each FaceBook discovery and answer led to a NEW FaceBook discovery and answer! It was NEVERENDING! But on the flip-side, it also made me more excited than ANY OTHER MARKETING OPPORTUNITY has!!!!!

Where else can you easily set up a virtual business front, actively track down your target market and ask them to become part of your potential client pool just by having them do something as simple and unassuming as becoming your ‘fan’? I truly see this as an opportunity for you small, boutique and micro wineries to gain the same popularity as the larger wine brands — you just have to take the time follow through on it!

Because this turned into such a monster of an article, I’m posting it in two parts. This 1st part includes ‘Is My Target Market On FaceBook?‘, ‘Glossary of FaceBook Terms‘, ‘Types FaceBook Accounts‘ and ‘How to Setup Your FaceBook Page‘. The second part should be up in the next few days and will cover ‘Getting Fans’, ‘What Makes it Viral’ and ‘Maintenance’.

Is My Target Market On FaceBook?

Here are some interesting FaceBook stats provided by Richard Beaudin (who gleaned them from Isstrategylabs):

Glossary of FaceBook Terms

FaceBook has created a lot of its own terminology, and I found myself constantly scratching my head trying to devine what such words as ‘Poke’ or ‘Gifts’ meant — which lead me to this wonderful FaceBook Glossary.

Types of FaceBook Accounts

Currently, FaceBook has 3 types of accounts: Profile, Page and Group.

In a nutshell, FaceBook ‘Profiles’ are for the individual, ‘Pages’ are for a business or brand and a ‘Group’ is made up of a group of people united around a common issue or interest.  ‘Pages’ are a relatively new FaceBook feature so if you think you already created one, make sure. Its possible you may have created a ‘Profile’ instead and still need to create an official ‘Page’ for your winery.

For the purposes of this particular blog, I’m going to focus on the FaceBook ‘Page’. (But know you will need a profile in order to actively recruit a following for your business ‘Page’, so recommend setting up a profile at the same time you set up your ‘Page’.)

How to Setup Your FaceBook Page

Setting up your FaceBook Page is INCREDIBLY easy! Just go here and fill in the appropriate fields and check the appropriate boxes. (I had considered putting together a step-by-step tutorial with pictures on this initial process but felt if wouldn’t be necessary. If you’re having problems signing up and feel I should rethink the tutorial PLEASE let me know and I’ll add it.) But for now, here is the first screen in the ‘Page’ creation process:

Once you’ve followed all the steps you are taken to your new, blank ‘Page’ and your first order of business is to upload a picture and edit your information:

When uploading a picture, I know most of us are just going to put up our logo, (that’s what I did), but here is a little article I read by Nick O’Neill I think you’ll find interesting:

So now, (if I can find the time), I’m going to try and come up with something a little more interested then my blah logo!

Now that you’ve uploaded your picture and edited your information, I want to explain a little bit about your new ‘Page’. The initial page you are brought to is called your ‘Wall’, which is where you and your fans can post messages. After that is your ‘Info’ tab and by clicking on the ‘+’ next to your last tab you can add even more tabs.

The tabs you can choose from are pretty self explanatory and what is really cool about them is you can link directly to any of your tabs. For example, if you just had a successful wine club event you may want to send an eNewsletter to all your club members with a link to the photo album you created of the event.

You can also see, off to the right on your ‘Wall Page’, a link for ‘Settings’. This is where you can update the overall settings for your FaceBook Page.

The only setting you may want to consider changing is your default landing tab. Right now, your default landing page is your Wall.

But what if you don’t want the first thing everyone sees are all the messages posted by you and your fans? In this case, you can choose to have visitors initially go to your ‘Events’ page, ‘Photo Gallery’, ‘Info’ or to any other Tab you have set up.

Now that you have a basic understanding of what makes up your FaceBook Page, you should be able to add some pictures, post a few updates and then start hunting for ‘fans’ (which I’ll explain more about in the next section).

One more note on setting up your Winery ‘Page’: If you’re like me, you may want to get ideas for your ‘Page’ by checking out some of the more successful Winery Pages on FaceBook. So here is a list of the top 5 winery pages (per Richard Beaudin):

This is just a snippet from his article ‘Wineries Using FaceBook? You Bet!‘ and I recommend reading the whole thing if you get the chance.

Coming up next

‘Getting Fans’, ‘What Makes It Viral?’ and ‘Maintaining Your Page’.

When I proposed the topic "Ins and Outs of Social Media," I knew it was going to be a difficult beastie to tackle. But I also knew how important it is to the future of wine marketing for the smaller wineries and so when that topic won the vote (WHY couldn’t y’all have voted for "Common winery website mistakes?"), I started researching what would be the most beneficial Social Media (SM from here on out and NOT to be confused with S & M) avenues for you to pursue and how to utilize them.

Because this is too large a topic to tackle in one post, I’m going to break it up into sections with ‘Planning Your Social Media Strategy” appearing today, and then an indepth review of one or two Social Media sites will appear each following Monday. Since SM is especially challenging for small, boutique and micro wineries who do not have the budget for a marketing and/or social media director, my focus in these reviews will be how each SM site could (or could not) benefit you, briefly explain how it works, and some ideas on how to use it. Next week, I’ll be posting my review of FaceBook.

Define Your Goals

Although it may seem like a constantly growing, complicated entity, SM should be treated just like any other marketing tool in your arsenal and you need to develop a strategy on how to use it. Your first step? Deciding what you hope to gain from your SM efforts. Do you want more site visitors? More wine club sign-ups? Wine sales? Tasting room visits? Defining your goals will help you decide which SM avenues will benefit you the most.

Choose Which SM Sites to Pursue

Now you need to decide what SM sites will not only benefit you the most, but also which ones you would be able to successfully participate in. For example, although YouTube could help you in your marketing efforts, if you aren’t interested in videography this would not be a viable option for you.

After A LOT of research, I’ve put together a list of what I feel are the most important SM sites for small, boutique and micro wineries. Please know this is by no means a comprehensive list of ALL the SM sites out there!!! Its just the ones I feel we have heard the most about and/or have the most potential to help you achieve your goals. (I’ve included some that may not be very beneficial just because I’m sure you’ve heard of them and if I don’t list them, you’ll wonder why.)

This list could possibly change over the next few weeks as I start reviewing them and if I’ve missed anything, PLEASE let me know!

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Yelp
• YouTube
• Flickr
• StumbleUpon
• Winery Blog
• Cruvee
• digg
• Delicious
• Friend Feed (I didn’t think this one was a big deal until I found out it was purchased by FaceBook)
• Yahoo Answers

Set Up Tracking

Before you actually start participating in the SM of your choice, it is INCREDIBLY HELPFUL to have tracking tools in place so you can measure your SM effectiveness. The two tracking tools I recommend are Google Analytics and Google Alerts (which I discussed here).

By setting these up, you’ll know when and where your wines/winery are mentioned on the Internet and if this has affected your website visits. Both of these tools are free, only requiring you to set up a Google Account.

Decide How Much Time To Invest EACH DAY

Because Shana Ray of Breath Media explained this so well in her planning for her presentation for the Social Media Success for Wineries panel at the Wine Industry Technology Symposium, here is a direct quote from her website:

15 Minutes Per Day

"First I want to talk about the VERY bare minimum that is recommended – 15 minutes a day. This is the starting point of listening to what is being said about your brand and your competition online."

"Within these 15 minutes a day you may find time on Twitter to send out a few links to promotions you are doing or to great articles about your brand and hopefully reply if anyone says anything about your brand, but this doesn’t give you enough time to engage people."

1 Hour Per Day

"By putting in one hour a day, you allow for engagement with your followers and online friends. You can create actual relationships with bloggers, journalists and consumers. Do this both on Twitter and Facebook, but you can also do this on the blogs themselves. Take some time to read some wine or food or travel blogs and interact on these websites, many times you will get new followers simply by making a well written comment."

"Set some time each day in the morning when you first get into work and then in the afternoon to be on these sites – Ask questions, post links, have conversations and go beyond the small talk to get to know people."

You can read Shana’s entire article at here.

Get Started!

Beginning your SM campaign is more then just setting up accounts and participating. It also involves linking to your SM accounts from the home page of your website and getting everyone involved. Let your tasting room staff know about any ‘Twitter’ promotions and encourage visitors to post comments and pictures about your wines/winery on your FaceBook page.

Understand SM Success Won’t Happen Overnight

Building relationships through SM takes a long time — so plan to be in it for the long haul and try to make it a regular part of your business life.

Next Week: FaceBook

Explaining how Twitter can help you attract potential wine buyers, make your current customers more loyal and help your website’s Search Engine rankings — along with ways to gain more followers and some free tools you can download to make Twitter more manageable.

Twitter

A free social messaging tool that lets people stay connected through brief text message updates that can be up to 140 characters in length. These posts (called ‘tweets’) allow users to post their thoughts, observations, and goings-on in their day.

I have to admit, even though I have a Twitter account and have posted a bunch of tweets, until today, I really wasn’t sure what to do with it! I knew to send out a new tweet every time I posted a new blog topic or finished a new design, but other then that — what could I possibly post that people would be interested in? And then I read ‘Twitter Demystified for Business Users’ by Nancy McCord and Boy, were my eyes opened!

Getting to Know You

Twitter is not just about telling people what you had for lunch, its about expressing your personality and allowing your followers to get to know the real you!

Now I’ve met MANY of you small vineyard and winery owners and so know from personal experience what an interesting bunch you are! You come from all walks of life, a myriad of careers and life experiences and you use this rich personal history in your approach to the vine and/or wine making process. You want to share this with your Twitter followers!

So, if you were a history professor in a previous life and have decided to use your knowledge of the past to make wine using a little known historical technique, tweet your ideas and progress to your followers. (And since you can send in tweets from your cell phone, you can’t use "I’m never near a computer" as an excuse! )

Or here’s an interesting scenario I’ve run into a few times — a husband and wife team who’ve both worked full time jobs for a million years and have finally decided to make a leap of faith and start their own winery. Who WOULDN’T be interested in hearing about the trials and tribulations you experience during this grand adventure?

Tweet about how long you had to wait for label approval, what a nightmare it can be getting state shipping licenses or how your adult children won’t answer your phone calls anymore because they’re afraid you’re going to ask them to help trim vines!

Not only is this interesting, but it can also be fun and informative too!

Another thing I just learned about Twitter is you can tweet with pictures using http://twitgoo.com/. Just the fact that you ARE a vineyard or winery means you have access to a LOT of photo opportunities that wine lovers would find interesting. So, if you’re in the middle of bottling, take a picture of the line and ‘tweet’ it!
Your followers will LOVE it!

Power of the Millennials

Another reason to embrace Twitter is to reach out to that growing Millennial market we’ve all been hearing so much about. This is especially important to you small, boutique and micro wineries because according to Leah Hennessy’s phenomenal article ‘Where Millennials Are Buying Wine: Some Tough Love For The Wine Industry‘ most Millennials have NEVER been to a winery! They mainly buy their wines from grocery stores!!! So unless you’ve netted yourself a great distributor, you NEED to focus on Millennial Outreach!!!

"Talk to your favorite wine shop, encourage them to reach out to this age group.  If you are a winery and the shop carries your brands, offer to hold a tasting there geared towards younger drinkers.  If you are a retailer,  look into social media – even if you’re intimidated, all it really takes is a Facebook page.  Throw events, reach out to younger social groups in your area, get creative.  I know of a young BOOK CLUB in LA that has all their meetings at a wine shop with a tasting bar." (This is a quote from the Leah Hennessy article referenced above and be sure to think of Twitter as part of your social media repertoire.)

Search Engines

Search Engines (especially Google) do index Twitter (in fact, because the content is updated so frequently, tweets probably carry more Search Engine weight then web pages!) and so you want to be sure to link to your site in your tweets.

For example, if you’re offering a 2 hour Twitter sale on your ‘Willamette Valley 2005 Pinot Gris’, then be sure to link to your 06 Pinot Gris ‘Buy’ page. This way, when the Search Engines index all the various tweets your website will be ranked along with the keywords ‘Willamette Valley’, ‘Pinot Gris’ and so forth. (You can learn about more about Search Engines in my Demystifying Search Engines for Winery Websites post)

Getting Followers

Followers

The people following your tweets on Twitter

Now that you’ve committed yourself to the Twitter experience (riiiiiiigggggghhhhhhttttttt), your next step is to attract ‘followers’. Here are a few ideas to make it happen:

• Post a link to your Twitter account on your website so visitors can immediately start following your ‘tweets’
• Make sure your Twitter username is on all your print materials.
• Start posting regularly!!!! (This is something I’m trying to do myself!)
• Be sure to respond to any tweets sent directly to you.
• Completely fill out your Twitter profile with a link to your main website and a picture (I won’t follow someone who doesn’t have a profile)
• There are TONS of wine enthusiasts using Twitter to express their love of wine — these are the people you want following you! So once you have your profile set up and a few tweets under your belt, use Twellow to search for Twitter profiles that involve wine and ‘Follow’ them. This alerts them to your presense and if they like your posts, they will probably follow you right back.
• Use the ‘hashtag‘ (#) in your posts. (I’m still trying to figure this one out, but I take it to mean words that are prefixed with a # are grouped and can be found and tracked back to you — and if I’m wrong, somebody PLEASE correct me
• ‘Retweeting’: Per Wiki Answers, to "retweet" is to repeat/quote someone’s tweet. Usually when you come across an interesting tweet and want to publish it as your own tweet so that people who follow you see it too – you retweet it. The syntax of your tweet should start with the abbreviation RT or the word Retweet followed by the username of the person who tweeted it and then finish with the content of the actual tweet. Example: RT @WineryMarketing Rachell is the greatest wine marketer of ALL TIME!!!!

A little nicety that can spread good will amongst new followers is to reply directly to each new follower with a little note saying something to the effect “Thank you for following us!”

Free Twitter Tools

Here are some of my favorite Twitter tools
and ones I’ve just learned about and plan on using regularly (I’ve listed them in order of importance — to me anyway

• http://tweetbeep.com
  Keeps track of conversations that mention you, your wine, your winery, anything — with hourly updates! You can even keep track of who’s tweeting your website or blog, even if they use a shortened URL (like bit.ly or tinyurl.com).
• http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta
  TweetDeck works like a ‘Twitter’ browser that allows you to organize the people you follow into various groups and then displays their tweets within each group to help make some kind of order out of what could very possibly be twitter chaos. I have the following groups set up: Wineries, Marketing, Technical and Fun.
• http://twitgoo.com/
  Allows you to add pictures to your tweets
• http://tinyurl.com/
  Shortens long urls so you can add them to your Twitter posts and still stay under the 140 character limit.
• http://useqwitter.com
  Qwitter emails you when someone stops following you on Twitter — it will even let you know what was the last post they read before they quit! So if you see a bunch of people quit after you posted "Robert Parker SUCKS!!!" you’ll know you have a lot of Parker fans out there and may have some serious making up to do.
• http://retweetist.com/
  A way to track your ‘retweets’
• http://twuffer.com
  Twuffer allows the Twitter user to compose a list of future tweets, and schedule their release.
• http://twitter.grader.com
  This is just a fun application that allows you to see where you stack up against other Twitter users. Twitter Grader measures the power of a Twitter user based on followers, number of updates, and posting frequency.
• http://twitterfeed.com
  Posts your blog posts directly onto Twittter and other microfeed sites.
• http://twitoria.com
  Twitoria finds your friends that haven’t tweeted in a long time so you can give them the boot!

So, are you sick of everything ‘Twitter’ yet???!!!!! Until I wrote this article I never realized how many things started off with ‘tw’ and am thinking of adding a few of my own: ‘twittercide’ (death by twitter), ‘twitterphobi’ (afraid of everything twitter), the ‘Twitter Defence’ (Twitter made me do it) and
‘twitted out’ (sick of twitter).

But as much as it may overwhelm you, or even if you’re already sick of it, Twitter has proven to be an incredibly effective marketing tool. So why don’t we all just bite the bullet (I’m including myself here), and give it a shot?

Oh, and while you’re here, could you help me out and let me know what kinds of posts from me you’d be interested in? As some of you may or may not know, along with my passion for marketing, design and helping small vineyards and wineries, I also have 2 teenage sons, a housefull of animals (including a pig and a possum), a co-dependent relationship with my pug ‘Pugsley’ and volunteer regularly with at-risk teens and non-profit animal organizations.

So, should I be tweeting about EVERYTHING? Or only things relating to the wine industry? Please check what things you’re interested in in the pole below (because who wants to hear about the pig getting into the pantry when all you really want is more wine marketing advice! Select as many answers as apply.

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.