How many wineries have a fan page built on facebook and how many of those have at least 500 fans participating?

I must have too much time on my hands, so I decided to do some digging on my own. If you are a winery you might find some of these data interesting.

Now there are a few caveats that I need  to point out before presenting the data:

1. The research was done at a particular point in time (June 23rd). With fans coming and going each day, and new sites coming on board each day, any reseach can only be accurate as of a snapshot in time. The data reflected below was researched on June 23, 2009.
2. There is no easy way to know when a winery page became active. Therefore, it is hard to make any conclusions in regards to how quickly a page is growing (acceleration), or how long it took to reach its current numbers. This can only be done by comparing data over a period of time.
3. Although one can objectively point out the average number of applications on these pages as well as denote whether winery, fan or both drive activity on the site, there is no way of correlating that with any separate marketing activity (such as PPC ad or email) that might help drive some of the activity on any page.
4. One can make some assumptions on why one page seems to be building more momentum regarding fan enthusiasm over another, but this cannot be relegated only to the activity on the page, but rather also to the type of activity and the interaction between the fans and the winery beyond the page itself (as an example, enthusiasm based on an event or a tasting that is now being discussed on the page).
5. As pointed out in many social media articles, there is a viral nature to social networking. Therefore, some pages may grow their fans at a quicker pace due to the fan base that they attract, and the additional number and interests of  those connected to the winery fans.
6. Although data was pulled for over 250 wineries, the data is concentrated mostly on the first 50.

For a more detailed view of facebook and winery fan pages and data, visit my hubpage: Building wine fans on facebook: A moment in time.

The above said, here are some results that you might find interesting:

The winery with the largest fan base is Duplin Winery in North Carolina with a whopping  3613 fans. The second (Chateau Morrisette) had 1965,  the third (The Round Barn Winery) had 1505, the fourth (Murphy-Goode Winery) had 1273, the fifth (Palminia Winery) had 1208.

98% of the first 50 wineries are located in the United States (one is in South Africa).

Of the first 50, 62% are located in California, 8% each from Michigan and Washington State, 4% each from Georgia, Missouri, and North Carolina, and finally 2% each from New York, Ohio, Oregon and Virginia

66% of the first 50 had additional groups and/or employees with a presence on facebook

Again, focusing on the first 50, 40% of the pages had been updated within 48 hours or less, 42% had been updated within the last two weeks, and 8% had been updated within the last month. Only 10% had not updated their page in June.

In terms of appications, 86% shared photos, 16% shared favorites, 70% shared events, 20% shared notes, 38% shared links, and 22% shared videos. (These will not add up to 100% since most wineries share multiple applications.)

Regarding applications, only 10% shared one application, 24% shared two, 40% shared three applications, and 16% shared at least 4.

The oldest winery with a facebook page was founded in 1858 and the newest in 2006.

• Finally, in terms of the page activity, on 16% of the pages the activity was driven by the winery, on 14% the winery drove most of the activity, on 6% the fans drove most of the activity, and on 64% the page activity was equally driven by the winery and the fans.

So what conclusions can be surmised from this brief research?

• At least 500 wineries have determined that it is to their advantage to build a special page on facebook. Now, that needs to be qualified a bit. For instance, some pages are very new with only 1 or no fans as of yet. Only time will tell if the effort will in fact provide benefit to the winery. In addition,  some pages that have a substantial amount of  fans have not been updated in quite some time. Without speaking with the winery there is no way of knowing whether the inactivity is due to a belief that the effort is not worthwhile, or simply due to time limitation or a lack of knowledge.
• Adding up the number of fans for each winery (up to the first 250), 37,524 are fans of the first 50 wineries, the number jumps to 52,135 fans of the first 100, and finally, 72,742 following the first 250 wineries. Even with some of these fans on multiple pages, these numbers are significant, and I would venture to guess beneficial to the wineries interacting with them.
• With 64% of the pages being driven equally by the winery and the fans, one could conclude that an active dialogue is going on. That dialogue may be talking about a recent event, a new award, the next harvest, the wine club, the tasting room, the weather, an anticipated trip to the winery, or a recent meal paired with one of the wines. Regardless of the dialogue, the fans are engaged and I have to suspect that this can only help to increase business as well as loyalty for the winery.

How many wineries think it is beneficial (meaning it helps to drive additional sales and customer loyalty) by positively interacting with their customers and/or  prospective customers?

How many wineries spend marketing dollars to target customers and prospective customers  without knowing whether or not they are reaching that audience?

At a time when small and medium wineries face stiff competition, a challenging distribution environment, increasing costs, and a tough economy, social media and networking can help to reach new customers and increase profitability, if it is done as part of an overall marketing strategy.