There has been a very long tradition in the wine industry of helping those less fortunate. One of the oldest and  most well known is the Hospices de Beaune established in 1443 by Nicolas Rolin and his wife, then chancellor to the Duke of Burgundy (Phillipe le Bon). The elderly, disabled, the sick, and orphans were given refuge following 100 years of war.  The giving continues to this day when each November there is a charity wine auction held in the great hall.

There are countless other efforts by individual wineries such as Humanitas Winery, B.R. Cohn, Charity Wines, Tolosa Winery, Clos La Chance, Gargiulo Vineyards, DeLoach Vineyards, to name only a few. There are dozens more out there helping the less fortunate every day. The recipient charities are often local or national efforts supported by sales and events of one or multiple wineries.

I applaud all of these efforts, but today I wanted to focus on a new global effort soon underway to help children in Laos (Lao Rehabilitation Foundation, Inc.).  So what is the WorldWine Tour 2010?

Two people (George Janssens, from Merced, California and Anja Cheriakova, living in Utrecht, The Netherlands) will travel to 17 countries and over 300 wineries starting in January 2010  asking them to donate a small number of their top bottlings, which subsequently will be shipped and auctioned off at the Robert Mondavi Winery in Napa Valley with 100% of the proceeds going to the Lao Rehabilitation Foundation to help rebuild after the devastation of massive flooding of the Mekong River in 2008.

This actually is a continuation of an idea conceived in 2003 called ‘Vignes sans Frontieres’ (Vines without Borders) by a young French couple who completed their tour in 2004.

In each subsequent year a different traveling pair interpreted the concept in a way that incorporated their own views on life.

In 2010 Georges and Anja have set an objective to raise $150,000 for the Lao Rehabilitation Foundation, Inc. , an organization dedicated to providing medical services to Laotian citizens, such as the building of health care clinics,  the diagnosing and treating of hundreds of patients, and general  improvement of sanitation conditions, all with a strong emphasis on children.

To follow their wine journey in 2010, become a sponsor (see current sponsors to the left), or donate a bottling,  visit the World Wine Tour 2010 website or simply contact Georges or Anja (contact details below). 

I wish Anja and Georges a safe and successful journey and over the course of the next several months,  I will update this blog as that  journey unfolds.

Anja Cheriakova : anja.cheriakova@worldwinetour2010.com

Georges Janssens : georges.janssens@worldwinetour2010.com

50 Top Wineries on Twitter

UPDATE: The initial results were posted on 7 August 2009. Shortly thereafter, additional wineries completed the survey taking it from 62% to 68% response rate. All of the numbers in the survey have been updated as well as those in the slides. Please feel free to download the new set of slides.

For the most part, the additional surveys simply reenforced the initial results.

As with the earlier Facebook Survey, let me first take a moment to thank all of the wineries that took the time to respond to the 50 top Wineries on Twitter Survey. 

I am happy to report that 68% of the wineries participated… a very high percentage for any survey! (Note: If more surveys are completed I will update this post)

Its one thing to gather data, but it is another to gain insight. As I continue to experience it, people in the wine industry are passionate about what they produce and the customers they produce it for,   and equally generous with their peers in sharing information and experience.

So … a very gracious Thank You! to those that took time out of their very busy schedules to complete the survey (glad I didn’t try this during harvest!).

Please note the following:

• The survey contained 10 questions aimed at gaining a better understanding of Twitter as a social media tool for wineries, the result of each is provided below.
• Many questions allowed multiple answers. In these cases, the numbers will not add up to 100.
• Several questions included the ability to “write in” an answer. These are identified below.
• There is a link at the end of this article that can be used to download a presentation with the results.

Question #1: How long has the winery had a presence on Twitter?

The majority have had a presence more than six months but less than a year (38.2%). Only one winery has had a presence more than 2 years.  14.7% had a presence more than one year and less than two.  Another 26.5% have been on Twitter more than three months but less than six months, and finally 17.6% have only been on Twitter for less than three months!

Question #2: Who is responsible for tweets and/or responding to messages?

Over 78% of the respondents answered that there was a single person responsible and a single person normally tweets and responds. Another 9% said a single person is responsible but multiple people tweet and respond, with an additional 12% having multiple people responsible who also tweet and respond. None of the wineries had a presence without establishing ownership. In one case a winery had multiple accounts (again single person responsible), and in another although there is a primary person responsible, tweeting is shared with this person, the winemaker, and innkeeper.

Question #3: Is your Twitter account part of your overall marketing plan?

The question is really whether or not the wineries view Twitter as an independent activity where “tweets” are done on an ad hoc basis based on what the winery might feel would be of interest to its followers, or is it more planned out in conjunction with their overall marketing objectives or plan. Here the response was primarily split between work ad hoc (50%) and work to a plan but also tweet ad hoc (38.2%).  The remaining 11.8% work to a marketing plan.

Question #4: How often do you tweet?

As you may recall, the initial data collected on Twitter suggested that in terms of activity where more than 25 tweets in 24 hours = high, more than 15 but less than 25 = med, less than 10 = low , and 0 = none, there were 5 high, 4 med, 22 low, 19 none. We took this one step further in the survey and here are the results:

• More than 25 times a day = 6.3%
• More than 10 but less than 25 times a day = 15.6%
• More than 1 but less than 10 times a day= 56.3%
• Less than 1 time per day =9.4%
• Less than 5 times a week = 12.5%

One winery said they “tweet in spurts based on the activity at the winery”.

Question #5: What do you normally tweet about?

This is one of those questions that included multiple answers so … here goes:

• Winery News = Top choice at 97.1%
• New Product releases = 67.6%
• Awards = 50%
• Questions of the Day = 11.8%
• New varietals = 26.5%
• Harvest news = 61.8%
• Tasting Notes = 47.1%
• Wine Industry News = 58.8%
• Blog = 47.1%
• Other = 44.1%

In terms of other, here are the “write ins”:

• Weather, personnel quirks likes/dislikes
• Tweets that engage, RT’s, reply to mentions, questions
• Life as a winemaker
• Misc. of Interest, Personal, Food & Wine, Food Photos
• pictures from around the winery
• everyday hapenings
• general musings, obervations, rants
• Personal stuff
• WBC (Wine Blogger’s Conference)
• Real estate opportunities and wedding events
• Music, politics, general news, Facebook events, TV, other items of interest

Question #6: What tools do you use to help you tweet and manage your presence on Twitter?

Again, a multiple choice question with the ability to add other non-specified tools. The choices and distribution were as follows:

• TweetLater = 14.8%
• TweetDeck = 92.6% (Top Choice)
• Twhirl = 0%
• Twitterfox = 0%
• Twitterfeed = 18.5%
• WeFollow = 48.1%
• Tweetscan = 0%
• Tweetstats = 3.7%
• Tweetbeep = 0%
• Twellow = 3.7%
• Twitterback = 3.7%
• Hashtag = 11.1%

Although not listed, these Twitter tools were identified as also being used by the top 50 wineries:

• Tweetie
• iPhone
• Seesmic
• UberTwitter
• Twitter search
• Tweepularity
• Twitter Karma

Question #7:  In your opinion, has your presence on Twitter been beneficial to the winery?

Obviously a very important question. The results are very telling:

• 82.4% said “Yes”
• 0% said “No”
• 17.6% said “Not Sure”

Questions #8: If you answered “Yes” to the previous question, how has your presence on Twitter helped your business?

The answer to Question #7 was important, but only when combined with Question #8 that attempts to identify what the benefit is. Again, I asked the wineries to check all that apply (in question #9 I asked them to indentify the top benefit only).

Here are the responses with percentages:

• It has helped to manage the winery’s online reputation = 67.9%
• It has driven more business to our website = 64.3%
• It has driven new fans to our Facebook fan page = 50%
• It has driven new followers / fans / interest to other social media sites that we have built or participate in = 60.7%
• It has helped us engage more with our customers = 96.4%
• It has helped us to hone our business to the needs of our customers = 10.7%
• It has helped to drive incremental sales of our products in our tasting room = 35.7%
• It has helped to drive incremental sales of our products in retail outlets and/or restaurants = 46.4%
• It has increased participation in our wine club = 10.7%

As in previous questions, I provided a space for wineries to write in a benefit if not listed. Here is their input:

• Wine Blogger reviews, recomendations
• Created brand awareness for our new start-up, boutique winery
• It has helped me meet key industry contacts and media
• Helped us connect with other wine industry people outside our area in California. Also, connected helped us develop a relationship with wine blogger and writers
• We have people ‘pop’ in the winery all the time now saying ‘I found you on Twitter’!
• Has helped us gain media coverage (print mostly)
• Mailing list sign-ups

Question #9: Looking at the answers selected in the previous question, what one benefit do you feel has been most important to the winery regarding your presence on Twitter?

• It has helped to manage the winery’s online reputation = 14.3%
• It has driven more business to our website = 7.1%
• It has driven new followers / fans / interest to other social media sites that we have built or participate in = 3.6%
• It has helped us engage more with our customers = 57.1%
• It has helped to drive incremental sales of our products in our tasting room = 14.3%
• It has helped to drive incremental sales of our products in retail outlets and/or restaurants = 3.6%

In addition to the answers above, two wineries added that “Networking with others in the wine industry” and “Has brought more people to us” as being among the top benefits.

Question #10: Which other social media/networking  sites do you participate in?

This again was a multiple answer question where the percentages will not add up to 100 as follows:

• Facebook = 93.5%
• Linkedin =45.2%
• Wine2.0 = 41.9%
• Open Wine Consortium = 38.7%
• Snooth = 32.3%
• Your own Social Media/Networking site = 16.1%
• Winery Blog = 61.3

Lastly, there were some comments indicating Ning and MySpace as other sites where the wineries participated.

Summary & Comments:

General comment:

As noted in my earlier post Wineries on Twitter? How Tweet it is!, none of the 50 top wineries on Facebook were in the top 50 wineries on Twitter even though over 80% did have a presence on Twitter, and vice versa even though there was a 93% overlap. In a recent Mashable post there was a large number of comments  regarding when to use Twitter versus Facebook. Based on those comments, for many individuals the common denominator seems to be Private(family/friends): Facebook – Public:Twitter.

However, for a business (in this case a winery), this doesn’t necessarily work since in order to be successful, the family and friends of a business need to expand over time to find new friends (called sales!). From what I can see, either platform seems to be beneficial to wineries in that although there was no direct correlation between the top 5o on either platform, in the subsequent survey with both groups the top benefit was essentially the same – “It has helped us engage / connect more with our customers”. With that said, I did see slightly more saying that increased business was a benefit on the Twitter side, but that could be somewhat skewed since a higher percentage of the top wineries on Twitter  participated in the survey than the top 50 wineries on Facebook (68% versus 26%).

Summary:

1. Things happen quickly in social media / networking. So it was not surprising to see that 82% of the top 50 wineries on Twitter have not had a presence for more than a year, with only 1 winery having a presence over two years.
2. As with the survey of the top 50 wineries on Facebook, all of the top wineries on Twitter have a person(s) assigned to tweet and respond. None of the wineries leave this to chance.
3. Again not surprising that 88% responded that ad hoc tweets are used since Twitter is a microblog that thrives on relatively short (max 140 characters) messages. However, the more interesting news is that almost half consider the activity part of the overall marketing plan and strategy.
4. Does a higher number of tweets ensure success? From the survey, it certainly doesn’t hurt, but its not imperative since 56% tweet less than 10 times a day.
5. So if you are going to tweet, what should you tweet about? It seems  the top billing ( 97% of the top 50 wineries on Twitter) tweet about winery news. Not surprising. What might be more interesting is that 44% of the wineries also tweeted about non winery news… information, insights, personal musings, conferences, etc. that they thought would be of interest to their followers.
6. Those that are new to Twitter may find it odd that there are so many tools / applications that have built up around the social networking site. TweetDeck (downloaded on the desktop) took the top billing followed by WeFollow.
7. I see this question asked over and over again – Is investment in Social Media / Networking beneficial? Although the jury is still out across the board, for the top 50 wineries on Twitter the overwhelming answer was YES (82%). Further, based on the type of benefits listed it would seem that there was ROII - a combination of Return on investment  as well as Return on Influence.
8. See comments above
9. See comments above
10. As with the Facebook study, a very high percentage of the top 50 wineries on Twitter (96%) had a presence on Facebook and vice versa (+80%). Why the individual wineries chose Twitter versus Facebook is unknown (see comments above). Over time it will be interesting to see whether one or the other platform becomes the primary focus of wineries and/or whether one or the other results in more benefits. In either case, leveraging of these and other social media/networking platforms is making a positive difference for wineries that are willing and able to make the investment.

If you wish you may download a copy of the presentation 50 Top Wineries on Twitter Download the updated presentation here.

Finally, a big THANK YOU again to those wineries that took the time to participate in the survey!

Wineries on Twitter

After researching and reporting about wineries on Facebook recently, I thought it would be interesting to do the same for Twitter. And as I suspected … yes… many wineries are taking the opportunity to get their message out on Twitter as well as Facebook (not surprising since a very high percentage of the top Facebook wineries indicated they are on Twitter as well).

Anyone care?   Well, on July 30 over 100,000  Twitter followers did!

That’s the number of followers that have signed up to “listen to” over 170 wineries that are currently tweeting.

Note: Regarding Wineries on Twitter

1. As with the research on Facebook, it is only possible to gather data in a “moment in time”. Unlike other mediums, 24 hours can make a big difference in the numbers (case in point, EaglesNestWinery increased their followers by 128 in the last 24 hours!).  With that in mind, the numbers below reflect the data as of July 29,2009.
2. The numbers on Twitter and WeFollow did not match exactly, but were always relatively close and did not seem to skew the placement
3. In some cases WeFollow listed companies that were wine related (such as tour companies, etc.) but were not wineries. These were not included.
4. Listings on WeFollow are based on tags. Both the tag “winery” and “wineries” were used to identify the listings.
5. As with the previous study, the research focuses on the top 50 wineries, with specific details and recognition for the top 5

Top 5 Wineries on Twitter

#1 EaglesNestWinery (CA, USA) takes the top honors with 6772 followers.   Their ratio is .92 (followers divided by follows), with 1113 tweets.

#2 In the number two slot is Teusner Wine (Barossa, Australia) with 4828 followers, a ratio of .91, and 1536 tweets

#3 Carpozzi Winery (pinotblogger) is #3 (CA, USA) with 3408 followers, a ratio of .99, and 3790 tweets

#4 In the #4 slot is Tassel Ridge Wines (Iowa, USA) with 3004 followers, a ratio of .91, and 1317 tweets

#5 Finishing up the top 5, Mouton Noir Wines (NYC, USA) with 2648 followers, a ratio of 1.08, and 1589 tweets

Regarding the top 50 wineries:

Click here to download the full list of the top 50 Wineries on Twitter as of July 28, 2009

• Total followers = 70,229 (average = 141405, median = 1019)
• Total follows = 76,377 (average = 1528, median = 1166)
• Total Tweets = 51882 (average = 1038, median = 477)
• Average ratio (followers/following) = .97, Median = .9
• All but 5 had custom themes
• Location: 1 Australia, 3 Canada, 1 Germany, 5 New Zealand, 1 Spain, 36 USA
• (In USA: 25 California, 1 Georgia,1 Illinois, 1 Iowa, 1 Massachusetts, 1 Miami, 2 New York, 1 Ohio, 3 Oregon)
• In terms of activity where more than 25 tweets in 24 hours = high, more than 15 but less than 25 = med, less than 10 = low , and 0 = none, there were 5 high, 4 med, 22 low, 19 none
• Tags are used to help find the accounts on Twitter. The top tag was “winery” used 40 times and the second was “wine” used 37 times (39 if counting other language use – vino/wein). The location of the winery was used by 13 of the top 50, while varietals were tagged by 4. Other tags used included “winemaker” (12), “vineyard” (5), “wineblogger” (3), “winemakers” (2), “wineries” (2) and “wineblogger” (2). Other terms used once only included “sustainability”, “sustainable”, “sommelier”, “tourism”, “farm”, “education”, “tasting”, “tastingroom”, “vlogger”, “blogger”, “fun”,  “foodie”,  “family”, and “agritourism”.

Conclusions:

• Wineries are actively using Twitter to connect with current and/or potential customers
• Its never too early to start .. Carpozzi is #2 waiting on the first vintage!
• None of the top 50 wineries on Twitter match up with the top 50 wineries on Facebook. Why? My opinion is that Twitter and Facebook although both social networking sites, are basically very different, and as a result participation on one or both likely takes on a different priority for the individual wineries.  According to a recent post on Mashup -  ”While on the surface many social networks look the same, there are significant differences, both in their structure and what they emphasize, but also in the attitude that users bring. The more we understand these, the more we can know which social networks to use for what purposes.” As an example, whereas one may use Twitter as a primary communications vehicle (microblog), others may see Twitter as a secondary vehicle to drive more activity on their website, blog, or Facebook page.
• The “volume” of tweets is much less important than the “quality” of tweets in terms of finding followers. In other words, it is much more important to understand and tweet about things of interest to your target audience than simply tweeting for the sake of it.
• For the most part, the top 50 have a close ratio of follows to followers indicating a balance that may be simply a result of “follow those that follow you”, or it may mean the wineries are doing a good job of attracting their target audience (real mutual interest).
• Tags are instrumental in helping to identify the wineries. A vast majority (48/50) of the top wineries used the term “winery” versus ”wineries”. Those thinking of setting up an account should take care in the tags used to identify themselves. 

(NOTE: I will be updating this post within the next few days with the results of a survey of the top 50 wineries on Twitter, which should provide a great deal more insight as to the approach and benefit realized to date – stay tuned!)

Does Social Media Payoff?

I came across a new study (July 2009) yesterday prepared by WetPaint and Altimeter entitled ENGAGEMENT:db. The study tracks and ranks the top most valuable brands and how they are engaging in social media.

The study included rankings in the  Retail, Leisure, Consumer Electronics and Products, Business Services, Food & Beverage, Financial, Apparel, Manufacturing, Auto, Media and Technology industries.

Specifically, they focused on the:

• Depth of engagement – How many channels and how many individuals in the company are engaged in Social Media (Starbucks got the top score of 127 engaging in 11 different channels.
• Engagement Profile – The study defined four profiles:

1. Mavens – Engaged in +7 channels w/above average activity (Starbucks and Dell in this category)
2. Butterflies – Engaged in +7 channels but with below average activity (American Express and Hyundai here)
3. Selectives – Engaged in 6 or less channels w/above average activity (H&M and Philips in this category)
4. Wallflowers – Engaged in 6 or less channels but below average activity (McDonalds and BP here)

• Financial Performance – Focusing on a financial correlation between those deeply engaged and those that outperform their peers.

The conclusi0n: Heavy engagement and focus on social media does pay off. The Mavens ended up on top and outperformed the other groups in revenue growth (18%) as well as gross (15%) and net margin growth (4%). As you might expect, the Butterflies came next, followed by the Selectives (although the higher activity kept this group closer to the numbers of the group above), and finally the Wallflowers fell in negative territory.

Although ranking the top 100 brands, the study provided additional insight into four brands including some best practices:

• Starbucks: Deputize people throughout the organization, Understand how each channel provides a different dimension of engagement, Central coordination, Find champions who can explain and mitigate risk
• Toyota: Be in it for the long haul, Pick channels carefully, Spread engagement to employees beyond the Social Media Team
• SAP: Open the platform to everyone and anyone, Encourage employees to tap into Social Media to get work done, Engage in new channels where people already are, Support engagement as an extension of the company culture
• Dell: Be conversational from the start, Make Social Media part of the job, just like email, Modularize and synchronize content across channels

Key Takeaways?

• Engagement via social media is important – and it can be quantified
• What’s in it for me? There does seem to be a correlation between social media engagement and financial performance metrics – revenue / profit
• Emphasize quality, not quantity – fresh relevant content and engagement is king
• To scale engagement, make social media everyone’s job
• Doing it all may not be for you, but do something - ignoring social media risks falling behind
• Find your sweet spot – better to be consistent in fewer channels.

OK … so how does this correlate to the wine industry? There aren’t many wineries with the size and resources of the companies listed above. In fact, many wineries may not even have a marketing person at all let alone a Social Media team available to engage as suggested by the study. Oftentimes the winemaker is also the farmer, owner, chief administrator, spokesperson, tasting room manager, and/or top sales person, not to mention various other potential assignments.

Does that mean there are no lessons to be learned or takeaways for wineries to think about? Not at all.

Manyof these best practises outlined above are already being used successfully by wineries. I can assure you that some of these are in play by the top 50 wineries on Facebook.

So what are the wineries doing:

• Seeking out current and prospective customers
• Engaging them based on their interests and concerns with relevant, consistent and timely content
• Building a dialogue with them in order to better understand and satisfy them
• Keeping the discussion on-going

Eagles Nest Winery of San Diego is  a prime example of a winery that understands the value of social media. Dennis Grimes is the winemaker as well as a blogger, a video producer, taster, and administrator of Eagles Nest’s own social network built on Ning. Eagles Nest has a fan page on Facebook and is the #1 winery on Twitter with over 6000 followers, and was recently featured on another blog – Best practices on Twitter: Wine industry.

Wineries may not be able to do things at the same scale, but the benefits are there and the opportunity is waiting.

I expect that over time there will be more and more evidence of the benefits (in revenue and profits) of engaging in social media and networking.

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!

In wikipedia, marketing differentiation ” is the process of distinguishing the differences of a product or offering from others, to make it more attractive to a particular target market.

Further it suggests that “Differentiation is a source of competitive advantage…. Marketing or product differentiation is the process of describing the differences between products or services …. This is done in order to demonstrate the unique aspects of your product and create a sense of value. Marketing textbooks are firm on the point that any differentiation must be valued by buyers.”

I chose to use this particular definition because it touches upon almost all the salient points of why differentiation is so important to any business, and certainly no less important to those in the wine industry.

Reviewing the highlights above:

1. Differentiation allows your wine business to be more visible to a targeted audience of wine enthusiasts.
2. It provides competitive advantage when clearly defined and clearly communicated to that audience.
3. Competitive advantage is achieved because the differentiation conveys a sense of value that directly correlates with the values of your customers.

Differentiation has always been an important principle in regards to successful marketing. However, it takes on even greater leverage in the internet era of social media and networking. Why? Because of the critical need and ability to selectively target and connect with your current and/or prospective customers.

So what was missing in the definition?

The fact that differentiation is NOT relegated only to your product and service! In this age of social interaction, it can relate to the product or service (varietal, blend, wine club, tasting room), but it can also relate to many other things, such as background, gender, culture, production methods, beliefs, memberships,passions. even a target generation.

Case in point: I recently had a conversation with Galen Struwe, President of Desnous Imports LLC, whose website is Sacrebleuwine. Having established profiles and a presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace, and YouTube, he gets the power of social media, and more importantly, he understands the importance of connecting with his target audience. Look at his webpage. He is selling fine wine from France. Do you see any pictures that relate to bottles of wine, grapes, or vineyards? No.

What you will see is a very conscious effort to connect with a specific target audience. Visit the site.  Click on the picture of Laetitia Bleger, Ms. France 2004. Hey .. we are talking about wine here! We are talking about a winery in Alsace where Ms. Bleger is adding a passion for wine to her resume.  

You will also notice a very visible area that offers visitors a chance to share the site and contents with their peers and friends. Is this differentiation? You bet.

 However, whatever differentiation you choose (and it can be more than one), it must be part of your overall marketing strategy and it must be genuine. 

Disingenuous differentiation will be spotted almost immediately, and will likely backfire badly in conjunction with social networking.

For more details on how to differentiate your winery with examples of those that are using differentation, check out this related article I just posted – “Wineries: Differentiate to Increase Business through Social Media”.

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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.

Last evening I was fortunate to attend a tasting of Paso Robles wines from Four Vines and J. Dusi Wines in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. Bill Grant of Four Vines and Janelle Dusi (wine makers) presented their wines, provided some history and anecdotes about their wines and wineries, and generally interacted very well with an appreciative crowd (over 100 fans).

Four Vines / J Dusi Tasting

First to the wines. A total of 10 wines were tasted during the event including 9 from Four Vines and 1 from Dusi Wines (see list below). Much of the grapes were sourced from the vineyard itself and the surrounding area in Paso Robles, and the rest from other prime grape growing AVAs in California such as Dry Creek Valley and Russian River.

I can’t say this for every tasting I have been to, but for this one all of the wines tasted (with the exception of the Naked Chardonnay) were full bodied, complex, a virtual (no pun intended) pleasure. This is not to suggest the chardonnay was not well made. Rather, the chardonnay is one of Four Vine’s entry level offerings. It is a very good every day quaffer, but simply did not have the same kind of complexity as the other offerings.

My personal favorites included the Sophisticate, Anarchy, and a very different style but nonetheless very well made, abeit more femine style Zinfandel from J. Dusi Wines. The 2005 FV Zin Port was also really nice with a great balance of sweetness and alcohol, and a mouthfeel and finish that went on and on. Wiht that said, I can say that all of the wines are highly recommended!

Bill Grant & Janelle Dusi

Besides the tasting itself, both Bill and Janelle got the crowd going with anecdotes about making wines, winery costs, quality, wine storage,  and tidbits about the different varietals including of course Zinfandel, but also Syrah, Mourvedre, Petit Syrah, Tempranillo,
Malbec, and Petit Verdot (really enjoyed the Monachy as well, which is a blend of the last three and normally only available at the winery).

However, being a long time marketer I also wanted to take note of the great teamwork that went on to make this event a success. Keeping in mind the current recession, competition continues to be very keen for wineries around the world. There are neary 6,000 bonded wineries alone in the US all competing for shrinking dollars.

Bill Grant (left) & John Hannum

In order to standout in the crowd, wineries need to provide access to their wines so that avid wine consumers have a chance to try their wines and become loyal fans. That said, having worked in marketing for many years, I was very pleased to see such great cooperation between the wineries (Four Vines and J. Dusi Wines), the distributor (M.S. Walker), and the retailer (Yankee Spirits).

The adage of the evening was  “if you can’t get the people to the tasting room, get the tasting room to the people”. In this case, Yankee Spirits advertised the event to their mailing list, which consists of customers of their Sturbridge, Swansea and Attleboro locations. These locations are spread apart, about 2 hours between Swansea and Sturbridge and 1.5 hours from Attleboro to Sturbridge.

This distance would most likely have discouraged some of the participants from attending. However, Yankee Spirits tried something new last night: they offered to bus their customers free of charge from the other locations to Sturbridge. This was a win win for everyone – for the wineries, retailer and distributor it no doubt translated into incremental sales, and for the customers an evening to try some new wines and learn more about the industry.

Bravo to all those involved.

Now  .. for the Pièce de résistance !

There is a great deal of buzz today about social media and how wineries can take advantage of it to increase their visability, grow brand recognition, and increase sales. Here is an example of marrying smart traditional marketing and social media: the wineries, distributor and retailer setup and sponsored the event, and now I am taking that event and splashing it through my blog, Twitter, etc.

Social media and net working are not to be feared  .. it is simply another set of tools to help connect with your current and prospective customers.

All in all …. Great wine, Great grapes … and a Great tasting!

For more information, visit Four Vines and J. Dusi Wines.

List of wines tasted at event:

2008 Four Vines Naded Chardonnay
2007 Four Vines “Biker”
2007 Four vines “Sophisticate”
2006 Four Vines “Maverick”
2007 Four Vines “Anarchy”
2006 Four Vines “Loco
2007 Four Vines “Peasant”
2006 Four Vines “Monarchy”
2007 J. Dusi Zinfandel
2005 Four Vines Zin Port

The landscape of social media is anything but straightforward:

1. Social media continues to evolve and change not only each day, but sometimes hourly. Unlike the photo above, social media and networking is not “written in stone” or constant by any means. Social network sites, wikis, blogs and microblogs, and bookmarking sites appear, evolve and sometimes disappear overnight.

2. As suggested in #1 above, social media and networking refers to a large number of potential activities on the net. Here is a brief list of the possibilities:

Personal Social Network Sites: These are sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn where like individuals can connect either individually or through membership in one or more groups.

Focused (Wine) Social Network Sites: These are sites such as Adegga, Snooth, MustLovewine, Wine2.0 and many others whose members focus on wine in general. Here too there are groups within these sites that focus on specific aspects of wine such as tasting, varietals, distribution, etc.

Blogs and microblogs: Blogs are sites that “talk about” a particular subject (like ViralVines.com!. )In the case of wine it could be focused on value priced bottlings, varietals, wines from a particular region, winemaking, wine tasting, etc., or a combination of one or more of the above. Examples include Fermentation, ThinkWine, Dr. Vino, and many more. There are also microblog sites, the best known being Twitter, where in 140 characters or less a message (tweet) can be sent to 100 or 100o or 10000 followers multiple times a day.

 Media Sites: These  include sites for video upoad and review (YouTube, kyte), photos (zoomr, flickr), or audio (BlogTalkRadio, graperadio).

Wikis and White Label Social Networks: Wikis (pbwiki, wikipedia) are communities where users contribute directly to the site. White label Social Networks (Ning) allow anyone to build or start up a social network.

Collaborative tools: These are sites that support online collaboration including planning, calenders, and email such as Zoho, Zimbra, and Google (tools), as well as tools to support online events such as Webex, eventful, and zvents.

The key to successfully adding social media to your overall marketing is:

• ensure social media is not a separate activity; it needs to be an integral part of your overall marketing plan and activities
• understand (assess) where you are and what you expect from social media (set clear and measurable goals),
• understand the social media landscape – use tools such as mind mapping to help
• decide on how much or how little to invest in order to achieve the goals (where will you participate and how often),
• and then measure results.

Finally, you need to revise your activities based on your measurements. For instance, if you have decided to engage with multiple wine social networks and you realize through analysis that only two are providing the results you have set, you may want to drop activity on those that are not performing for you, and focus on only those two or investigate other potential sites.

There I go again … talkin up the grapes!

Assessment

Before stepping into the social media landscape, its important to do a self assessment. In order to be successful, the adoption of social media  should be well connected and integrated within the overall marketing plan and activity of the company.

You may feel some of the assessment is obvious. It may be. However, it never hurts to review goals and strategies. Times change, markets change, and personnel change.  Timely assessments help to get everyone up to speed and marching in the same direction.

Here are some things that should be part of your assessment:

1. What is your primary business mission, goal or objective? Yes.. I know it is to sell wine, but be specific: How much, though what channels, in what timeframe, etc.?

2. Do you have a presense currently on-line? Do you sell your wine online or is this site primarily an introduction to the winery and its wines? Do you make any special offers on this site? Do you list or promote events?

3. Describe your target audience. Yes, if  located in the  United States it includes those over 21. However, is it babyboomers? Millenials? Both? Others? This makes a difference in social media since specific targeting is not only possible, it is key. Your target audience will help determine where you will focus or not.

4. Are you currently engaged in social marketing? Are you or some of your employees active online? If yes, how experienced and knowledgeable are you? How much time are you currently devoting to social media?

5. If you or some of your employees are online, which social media and/or social wine  channels do you participate in? Why?

6. Why are you interested in focusing on social media/marketing? Is it primarily brand recognition? Direct sales? Driving more traffic to the tasting room? Reaching out to wine lovers that are also Green and/or organic supporters?

7. If you are active online, what is working well for you and what is not?

8. What are your competitors doing online? How has it impacted their business – for better or worse? If you are online, are you and how are you managing your reputation?

9. What are the results you expect from engaging in social media? How are you planning to measure these results?

10. What positive impact will your activity have on your current and/or prospective customers? This is your ‘giving back’. Again, social media is not about direct selling.  Its about dialogue and reaching out to current and prospective customers.

After the assessment … you’re ready to evaluate how to navigate the social media landscape. To be successful, you don’t have to play everywhere. In fact, you likely don’t want to play everywhere.  Like any other marketing activity you need to focus, test, measure, and adjust.

There I go .. talkin up the grapes again!