Preface:

Earlier this month I posted a blog entitled: Wineries using Facebook? You bet!

This was the result of research done on June 23rd and June 24th, 2009  regarding the over 500 wineries that have a presence on Facebook.  The data collected reflected observations and information readily available on the winery fan pages of  the top 50 winery pages.

The new survey below  provides some additional insights from the wineries themselves.

The survey request was sent  to each of the identified wineries shortly before the July 4th Holiday and was kept deliberately brief to encourage participation.

Although it would be optimal to have heard from all 50, I am very happy with the 28% response rate I received, particulary since I have no personal connection with these wineries, and so it was very gracious of them to take the time to respond to the survey.

So first let me say: THANK YOU! to all the wineries that responded. (One reason I love the wine business is because of the passion and sense of sharing I see from so many in this industry! )

Survey Results:

Note: In several instances percentages do not add up to 100 since multiple responses were possible.

When did you build your winery page on Facebook?

The two highest percentage categories (35.7%) either built their Facebook winery fan page less than 1 year ago or less than six months ago. Another 21.4% more than a year ago, and finally, 7.1% less than 3 months ago.

This is a very interesting piece of data in that the vast majority (+70%) of the respondents of the top 50 winery fan pages were built less than one year ago, suggesting relatively good acceleration in terms of building a fan base.

What activities were used by the winery to help publicize the new Facebook page?

 The top activity (71.4%) was through traditional email or newsletter. The next closest activities tying at 57.1% were the placement of a widget or similar on the winery website and messages sent to Facebook fans by winery employees who  have their own account on Facebook. Other activities included PPC on another website (7.1%), PPC on Facebook (7.1%), other (28.6%), and finally, no additional activity (7.1%).

How is the Facebook page supported?

The top answer (57.1%) indicated that a single person manages the page, but multiple people participate. In some cases, these might include shipping department personnel if a shipping question is asked, or a marketing person if there was a question regarding an event or offer.  28.6% assigned a single person with 14.2% having assigned multiple people. None of the respondents supported the page ad hoc.

Which applications on the page seem to be of most interest to your fans?

In the initial research I indicated the various applications implemented on winery Facebook pages (photos, videos, favorites, links, contests, etc.).  However, additional insight is needed in order to better understand the effectiveness of these applications.

 The top two activities scored the same at 64.3%. These included events and discussions of new offerings.

The other activities of most interest included photos at 57.1%, videos at 35.7%, favorites at 14.3%, and then lastly all at 7.7% – discussions on awards, discussions on methods or processes, and discussions on “green”  (wind/solar/water reclamation).

I do believe that a more thorough vetting needs to be done regarding applications and activities.

Perhaps another survey in the future?

Does your winery participate in or use other social media or networking sites?

92.9% of the respondents indicated that they do participate in or on other social media or networking sites. The remaining respondent indicated it would soon setup a presence on Twitter.

Of the 92.9% that do participate elsewhere, 84.6% do so on Twitter, 38.5% have a separate blog, 30.8% participate on Wine2.0, 23.1% on LinkedIn, and 23.1% on the Open Wine Consortium. 7.7% indicated participation elsewhere (MySpace, Flickr).

What benefits have you achieved from investing in a fan page on Facebook?

  Finally, the proverbial question that is often asked regarding whether it is worth the effort for a winery to invest in social media. The top answer at 71.4% was gaining a better understanding of and alignment with customers. Following fairly close behind at 64.3% was an increased interest from customers or prospective customers. The remaining responses were increased stories or acticles on the net (28.6%),  increased interest from retailers, distributors or importers (14.3%), incremental members in wine club or similar (14.3%), incremental sales (14.3%), identification of new business partners (7.1%), and finally, no benefit has been realized to date (7.1%).

Summary:

So …. what are some conclusions I may suggest as a result of the survey (in addition to those from the initial research)?

1. Social media investment can build results fairly quickly. Case in point, three quarters of the top 50 respondents have built the most fans after having setup the dialogue with their customers (i.e., built their Facebook fan page) less than one year ago. You noticed, I did not suggest a quick direct payback such as incremental sales. Social media does not by any means guarantee immediate or even short term increased sales revenue. However, increased connection and dialogue with customers is significant and beneficial.
2. In order to grow fans on the Facebook page, wineries have resorted to a mix of more traditional (email/newsletter) activities and relatively new social media (widgets on website) actions.
3. None of the respondents have left the building and maintenance of the page to chance. All have one or multiple people assigned, and most have assigned the job to one person to manage.
4. All use one or more applications to help engage their fans. In some cases the simplest and most obvious work the best (photos, events, discussions of new releases).
5. Over 90% have invested beyond Facebook (with over 80% also investing in Twitter)

Finally, all of the respondents have indicated that they feel the investment has a value, although a few have not been able to directly tie the benefit to the investment.

Now for some questions:

• Could a winery build a page and accelerate even faster using more non-traditional means? For instance, using more PPC on Facebook itself to attract new fans.
• Would discussions on “green”, biodynamics, or similar draw more interest if the winery is able to identify and seek out potential fans who have strong interests in these topics?
• Can a winery gain higher participation and integration with its actual location, website, and social media presence by focusing on more integration between the three? As an example, prominantly display its fan page at the tasting room on a system and encourage visitors to input their comments and impressions from the tasting / tasting room experience (to the fan page on Facebook), then posting scrolling updates to comments on the website?
• Have all of these wineries focused as highly as they could on setting social media goals and then measuring and adjusting in order to gain a better understanding of the costs and benefits of the activity? Have they fully leveraged the excitement and enthusiasm of their customers whenever possible through testamonials or similar?

There are many additional questions to be asked..and answered. I am hoping that over time and following  interaction and dialogue with wineries that have and will invest in social media, that I will be able to report more details in the future.

Lastly, again…

My sincere thanks to all the wineries that participated in the survey and congratulations to all that made the top 50!

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.