Social Networking for the Wine Industry

Cheryl Wolhar MyVineSpace.com

“To some, wine and the Web are an uneasy pairing. Thousands of years old, wine is a visceral, not virtual pleasure, made to be enjoyed in company.”

Michelle Locke – Mercury News

Eagles Nest Winery Donati Family Vineyard

•  Cheryl Wolhar – MyVineSpace –  Introductions and Overview

•  Brandy Bell – Donati Family Vineyards –  Social Efforts and Results

•  Dennis Grimes – Eagles Nest Winery –  Social Efforts and Results

•  Q & A

Agenda

•  Why Social Media

–  There are 250 million people in North America and 1.5 billion people worldwide surfing the web

•  44% of luxury consumers turn to the Internet above all other media sources

•  31% of luxury shoppers are influenced by newspaper ads •  24% are influenced by magazine ads

–  Advertise online… It’s economical, influential, very responsive, and allows you to connect with those “hard to reach” luxury consumers. Gain effective traffic and build your luxury brand.

Luxury‐Insiders.com

• Social Media receives the most additional funding in 2009

• Social Media has benefited from the perception that it requires minimal capital investment

• Social Media is a time intensive tactic and requires significant investment in human capital

•  The most significant barrier to social media adoption is lack of knowledgeable staff

•  Social Media has benefited from the perception that it requires minimal capital investment

•  Social Media is a time intensive tactic and requires significant investment in human capital

•  Social media is difficult to measure

•  The ability to accurately measure ROI has nothing to do with the effectiveness of the tactic

• Measure the value of the resulting conversations and relationships qualitatively, and not focus on moment-in-time transactions like traffic, hits, etc.

Jennifer Laycock – Making Link Bait and Viral Marketing Work

IOR = Impact of Relationships

–  Allows us to detail how a relationship develops with our winery

–  How that relationship has impacted the totality of our business

–  Measure the amount of interaction they have with our community

–  How many comments they leave on our blog –  This IOR data becomes just as valuable as

ROI

–  The number of times they reference us on their Twitter feed and other social media sites

–  IOR is a great additional barometer to show the gains made through social media activities

–  This IOR data becomes just as valuable as ROI

•  Don’t start a blog… start a community! –  Create a customized and unique, online community that reflects the

unique voice of your winery

–  An online community will permit you to reach consumers across the globe and, most importantly, allow them to communicate with you

–  Social Networking allows you to interact with your customers in a way that was not possible before

•  Community Benefits for the Winery: –  Build an active, vibrant online community –  Cultivate and strengthen lifetime customer relationships –  Create a channel of trust through word of mouth interactions –  Expand your online brand –  Build brand loyalty by communicating with customers instead of at

them –  Publish and manage effective winery blogs and forum discussions –  Augment your marketing efforts with targeted campaigns to your

community –  Leverage viral marketing best practices

•  Community Benefits for the Consumer: − Learn and enjoy wine within a friendly, like-minded community − Interact directly with winery staff and winemakers − Receive insider info on special offers, upcoming events, breaking

news − Participate in fun contests for prizes − Publish your own blog and forum discussions − Upload your own content such as photos, and videos − Make new friends and socialize about wine

Donati Family Vineyard Brandy Bell

Marketing and Wine Club Manager

•  Donati Family Vineyard – Planted in Paicines AVA in 1998 – Produced 11,000 cases in 2008 – Opened Tasting room in early 2007

Varietals :

• Chardonnay • Pinot Blanc • Pinot Grigio • Merlot • Cab Sauv

• Cab Franc • Syrah • Malbec • Petit Verdot

•  WineSpace - Social Network (Ning) –  http://winespace.donatifamilyvineyard.com

•  Launched in March, 2008 •  426 members •  18 are employees

–  the rest are customers or industry folks

•  Contributed <$1000 in revenue

Donati’s WineSpace

• @donatifamily has been a member of Twitter since January 25, 2009 and has Tweeted 3012 times since then. @donatifamily follows 1987 people, tweets from Just Outside of Paso Robles(Time Zone: Pacific Time (US & Canada))

• @donatifamily gained 833 followers in 96 days and 22 since yesterday:

•  @donatifamily will have 2,218 followers in 30 days according to TwitterCounter:

• Twitter Account @donatifamily

• @donatifamily has been a member of Twitter since January 25, 2009 and has Tweeted 3012 times since then. @donatifamily follows 1987 people, tweets from Just Outside of Paso Robles(Time Zone: Pacific Time (US & Canada))

• @donatifamily gained 833 followers in 96 days and 22 since yesterday:

•  @donatifamily will have 2,218 followers in 30 days according to TwitterCounter:

• Twitter Account @donatifamily

7% of Twitter followers have purchased wine

.006% joined the wine club

.003% ordered again

Eagles Nest Winery Dennis Grimes Owner and Winemaker

•  Eagles Nest Winery – Located in Ramona AVA near San Diego – Boutique Winery with a vacation destination twist – Case Production: 1000 cases

Varietals : • Picpoul Blanc • Viognier • Merlot • Cabernet Sauvignon

• Syrah • Zinfandel • Tempranillo

•  Winery Website (Web 1.0) – http://eaglesnestwinery.com

•  Winery Network (Ning) – http://eaglesnestwinery.ning.com

•  Private blog and site for friends and club members

•  Public blog (WordPress) – http://winetastingsandiego

•  Public blog

Eagles Nest Winery

•  Twitter Account @eaglesnestwine • @eaglesnestwine has been a member of Twitter since December 19, 2008 and has Tweeted 979 times since then

•  @eaglesnestwine follows 7429 people, tweets from San Diego, California, USA(Time Zone: Pacific Time (US & Canada))

• @eaglesnestwine will have 9,117 followers in 30 days according to TwitterCounter: http://twittercounter.com/eaglesnestwine?p=30

•  Live wine tastings/events streamed live over the web

Summary Cheryl Wolhar Social Media Consultant

MyVineSpace.com

•  Best Practices: –  Listen to your customers

»  Act human, be present, be authentic »  Listen and actively respond

–  Be available and engaging with your online audience –  All your online communications define the level of success

you'll have in your targeted community, including the personal touch you put in your:   Blog posts   Blog comments   Twitter tweets   Facebook   MySpace   LinkedIn

•  Create BUZZ –  Build presence and post links on top social networks to drive traffic to

your website, network and blog posts   Tweets on Twitter   Videos on YouTube   FaceBook pages (fan page and staff member pages)   MySpace pages (company page and staff member pages)   LinkedIn   Photos on Flickr   Comments/blogs on Wine networks and wine blogs   Wine conferences

•  Measure, Measure, Measure… –  Social Media directly effects email collection, wine club membership and event participation which all contribute to overall revenue

 Wine Club growth/revenue

 Email collection growth/response rates

 Event Participation/Revenue

 Social Marketing/Branding Efforts

 Community member growth

 Member participation

 Website metrics

 Social metrics such as Twitter followers and FaceBook fans

Questions?