Social Media Without a Net (or Strategy)

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:17:00 -0700

Everyone is talking about social media. In fact, that is what social media is, getting everyone talking. But are they talking about you? And if so, what are they saying?

So perhaps you do want to be involved in social media. What is social media anyway? Social Media is simply a set of tools to enable individuals and businesses to communicate easily with other individuals and businesses.

Unlike traditional media, social media is a two-way street. Traditional media, whether it is newspapers, TV, or even websites, is a one-way street. Information comes from the source, and is distributed to the readers, viewers, and users.

But with social media, everyone creates content, and everyone absorbs the content that is created—if they choose to pay attention to what you create.

So it’s important to get people to pay attention to you. But here’s an important question: How? And Who?

And the answer to that is called a strategy.

But a strategy really doesn’t need to be a dozen people sitting around a conference table for 6 months figuring it out. That is quite daunting. There are just a few steps involved, and that involves asking questions about both your customers and yourself:

1. Know your customers. Are they young, impulsive, eager to try something new? Or are they older and buy full cases of your $200 Cabernet solely by allocation?
2. What is lacking in your current marketing efforts? Are your sales declining in restaurants, in the wholesale market, at the winery itself, through the wine club? Or do you sell everything you make and then go skiing in Switzerland for 6 months?
3. Do you have a marketing department and/or a large staff generally? Do you do everything including making the wine and sweeping the floors or are you a multi-brand Mega Winery?
4. Are you looking to establish new brands? Social media is great for this.
5. Look at the existing social media sites and see where your competitors are. Do they know something you may not?
6. Are you patient? Or are you the type to expect results from Day One?
7. Are you nimble enough to change tactics and strategy if necessary?

All of this is relevant to what strategy to pursue. And it will be different for each winery. And monitor the results and make changes based on what you find.

Most important though for the winery to think about, if you don’t really “get it,” if you just don’t see the point of social media, then don’t do it. You won’t do it well, and may actually harm your brand.

And sometimes the best strategy is to sit it out until it is clear just how to monetize all this. There’s no need to buy commercial time on TV if you don’t know whether your customers are watching 60 Minutes, Desperate Housewives, or the WWE Smackdown.

Plan your destination first. It’s better to be left behind at the station than to get on the wrong train.

-Larry Chandler

Why Blog?

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:23:00 -0700

By now everyone has heard of the term blog (short for weB LOG). If you're not quite sure what it is, think of it as an op-ed piece for the local paper, except it's not op anything, and it's not written on paper.

But it is your thoughts, your ideas, put up on either your website or just your own blog software. And other people can read what you say, find out what you think, and perhaps like it (or hate it) enough to comment.

Blogging is a great way to communicate to untold numbers of people. And don't think for a minute you have nothing to say. As a winery owner, winemaker, or tasting room associate, I'm sure you have stories you regale your friends with, ideas you share with colleagues, promotions of your wines you want to announce to your customers and potential customers.

What blogging does is establish a two-way line of communications with your customers, your potential customers, your friends and colleagues. This is the essence of Social Media, that other term that is bandied about casually everywhere.

Yes, you can send out an email. But even your best customers may not want to get email as often as you want to send it. You can cut back on email and put much of it on your blog. You can blog every day on how the current vintage is faring, what's coming up in the next wine club shipment, what wines are drinking exceptionally well right now. Talk about events at your tasting room, winemaker dinners coming up. Get people interested enough to sign up or want to read about the next one.

Make it exciting and people will want more. And they will come back to your blog and your site over and over. But on their schedule. When they want. You can even arrange for an RSS feed for those who want to read every word you post. This is like your customers begging you for more email!

You can include photos of your winery, your vineyards, yourselves. Make it personal, informative, interesting, and your blog can be your top salesperson. And you don't need a hard sell. But the eWinerySolutions blog does allow you to offer wines for sale right on the same post going right to your shopping cart. Something that even WordPress cannot do!

Blog posts can be long, short, or in-between. It's up to you. Say what you want to say, then stop. And the eWinerySolutions blog software allows multiple contributors. You don't need to assign one person to take it all on. The setups are multiple and flexible.

Blog posts can be searched on Google and other search engines. If you have accounts on Twitter, Facebook, or the myriad other social media sites, you can link right to a specific post. And even better, your can administer your blog posts from the same admin panel as the rest of your site.

It's relatively simple to get started with your blog on your website. Call eWinerySolutions to get started on installing the blog.

eWinery Solutions

Social Media Without a Net (or Strategy)

Why Blog?