Social Media
By now you’ve probably heard the term “Social Media.” Everyone is talking about it. The buzz about it is deafening. And that is exactly what Social Media is. Buzz. Excitement. People talking. What are they talking about? They are talking about you. You will want to talk back.
| social media is a set of tools to create a conversation about you |
Social Media - What it is and How to Use it
Before the telephone was invented, people spoke directly to others within a very small circle. Written communications with people a distance away took weeks if not months.
Then email made instantaneous written communication possible.
With each new advance in technology, the circle of friends, acquaintances and business associates widenened, and people needed to keep track of more and more conversations.
In the wine business, years ago, to find good wine, a customer had to go to his local wine shop and ask the merchant for recommendations. When publications such as the Wine Advocate and the Wine Spectator appeared, people could read about wines and go to the same shops and tell the merchant what he wanted to buy.
With the advent of Internet e-commerce, not only could you know what wines you wanted, but you knew everyone's price and could decide from which shop or winery to make your purchase.
Social Media not an entirely new concept, but a further expansion of your personal and professional circle. And it expands everyone's circle. Information is no longer one way, from authority (e.g., wine shop owner or The Wine Advocate) to consumer. It's now from everyone to everyone else. It is impossible, of course, to communicate directly with everyone. So just like choosing where to spend your advertising dollar, you have to choose with whom you wish to communicate.
How will you use this enlarged circle to promote and sell your wines? Don't look for a single answer here. There is no one answer. Just as different wineries made different choices in which markets to enter and which publications in which to advertise, a winery has to choose social media carefully.
And you can't do this without a plan. So the real question for a winery or other wine seller is not "What is Social Media?" but "How does social media fit within my marketing plan?"
What is your marketing plan?
eWinerySolutions has explained this in more detail in its White Paper on Social Media. (Click here to download.) What we will attempt to do here is to show you the various facets of social media so you can make an intelligent decision about what to use, how to use it and describe some of the advantages and pitfalls of each one. As Dario Sattui said in the New York Times on February 17, 2010: "Making wine, that's the easy part. it's selling it that's hard." In the same article, Rick Bakas, Director of Social Media at St. Supery Vineyards in Napa says: "Where wineries need to focus most is on signing up new wine club members through social media" rather than on tourists who drive up to the tasting room.
Read additional thoughts on social media here
| If Social Media is not part of your strategy, and/or wish to learn more about how it can work for you, you need to call now. Contact Larry Chandler at 707 200-4373 or send an email to larry@ewinerysolutions.com. Special low rates are offered to clients of eWinery Solutions. Larry Chandler is Director of Social Media for eWinery Solutions. |
