Comments on: Wineries on Twitter? How Tweet it is!

By: maryccwineblogs

maryccwineblogs — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:31:03 +0000

Exactly. I have met many, many talented winemakers, true winemakers, who were working folk with limited capital and they wisely began their careers in a small way, purchasing grapes and sharing facilities. There are a lot of small, deserving startups out there that benefit from exposure in social media.

By: maryccwineblogs

maryccwineblogs — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:31:03 +0000

By: rbeau

rbeau — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:33:51 +0000

Thanks for the suggestion Barbara …. just wanted you to know I will be posting survey results very soon .. more insight that might be useful.

By: barbarakeck

barbarakeck — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:24:12 +0000

Extremely interesting information! You might want to contact Smoke Wallin or Lesley Berglund at Wine Industry Technology Symposium to present your research next year. The latest WITS was very useful, and your findings would fit right in!

By: johnnewell

johnnewell — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 04:01:11 +0000

I am 100% behind vineyards / wineries in promoting themselves via new media and social media – of which Twitter forms an integral part. My own identity on twitter ( @magillamax ) has over 15000 followers often tracking my work with vineyards in the Yarra Valley and the local industry in general ( heating up with the Healesville Festival being promoted using social and new media almost exclusively ).

My own research shows that in the Napa Valley ranks highest for uptake with about 72% of wineries using Twitter ( not all regularly or effecetively ), The Margaret River in Western Australia also has a very high rate of Twitter activity and uptake. Yarra Valley, by comparison is around 15% and only just starting to move forward.

The secret to Twitter is the knowing which format to use :
(a) closed groups – of which I run 4 – that are focus groups used exclusively for industry segments ( wine-growers, wine-makers, cellardoor and new media in general ) all around 20 participants in total and active across the planet.
(b) committed followers – this is hard to work twitter as – unlike pubs and bars that can be frequented as regularly as a few times weekly – vineyards only see even the dedicated a few times annually. Numbers stay low and are watchful temporarily and rollover continually.
(c) Open service – used as a shoutbox to respond faster than email services do. To report live from events – such as i have done during Grape Grazing etc offerign advice at to what is best on the day
(d) Enlistment service – by far and away the best use of twitter, which arguably has the smallest window of opportunity to capture attention and a follower. So, grab attention, migrate to a weblink back to a dynamic site and try to find a more appropraite vehicle of communication, such as for events notification, wine notes and restaurant events.

On the last point, Twitter offers an opportunity for venues such as Helen's Hill (@allannalder ) and @TokarEstate to sell wine, promote and book out Fireside Dinners and Spanish nights.

Education and the process is paramount and I am happy to elaborate if required……

By: rbeau

rbeau — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:58:22 +0000

Actually for the top 50 I have that information, although in the data above I provided only a summary. A spreadsheet with all of the data was offered to the wineries as a thank you for taking the survey that will be published shortly with many more details. Thanks for the comment.

By: Name

Name — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:08:59 +0000

Would be more interesting to see a list of those with high Follower to Following ratio. It is very easy, if not time-consuming, to build a huge list of Followers that follow you back in turn, however may for the most part be quite worthless. That's what most of your headliners have done and breaking some sort of 'biggest' record is not that exciting.

By: laurenctyson

laurenctyson — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:10:58 +0000

Thank you – - good work! LT

By: billrobo

billrobo — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:39:55 +0000

De Bortoli Wines from Australia is now also on twitter:

http://twitter.com/DeBortoliWines

By: rbeau

rbeau — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:28:24 +0000

Thanks for the comment Tim .. you are correct that many of the top wineries on Twitter are small and/or in some cases not mainstream. That said, the objective was to point out the benefits of using Twitter (and previously Facebook) to connect, engage, and dialogue with customers. Whether a winery grows its own grapes, processes someone elses grapes, or simply markets a wine that is already made, I don't think is as important as to point out that the use of social media / networking can be a good opportunity for those in the wine industry.