Following a recent article that identified the top 50 wineries on Twitter as of July 28,2009 including data related to those rankings, a survey was sent to these wineries to gather more insight. Here are the results! (UPDATED: New updated results based on 68% Response Rate)

Talkin up the grapes via “tweets” by wineries is happening every day. There are over 172 wineries using Twitter to help identify, connect and dialogue with their customers.

Although many still trying to correlate revenue and profit with social media investment, some are finding the engagement good for the business and the bottom line.

As promised! Follow-on survey results focusing on the top 50 winery fan pages in Facebook. Thanks to all the wineries that so graciously contributed!!

Differentiation has always been a critical part of any marketing strategy. It becomes even more important when adding social media and networking to your overall marketing plan.

Have you every wondered how many wineries have built facebook pages and how many fans they are attracting? I had too much time on my hands on June 23rd and started digging into the data. Enjoy!
NOTE: My apologies to Chateau Morrisette for not correctly listing them as #2!

Certainly, a small or medium winery needs to make money in order to fund its operations and cement it’s long term viability. So why would anyone invest in social media if it is impossible to measure return on investment?

Social media continues to evolve and change not only each day, but sometimes hourly. Social network sites, wikis, blogs and microblogs, and bookmarking sites appear, evolve and sometimes disappear overnight.

All companies need to incorporate marketing to sell their products. Social media can and should be a part of your marketing plan. But before you take the plunge, figure out how you will incorporate this into your overal marketing plan.

Social media is in the cards for small and medium sized wineries, but before taking the plunge, approach and cost must be considered.