Focus on Successful Social Media For Wineries
Why is social media marketing for wineries so important? Social media is the bane of many winery’s existences. They don’t understand it. It takes a ton of time, they can’t see any proof that it works for them……the list of excuses for not focusing on social media is long.
But, If you are a winery trying to bring more people in the doors of your business (and therefore make more $ in sales) it is to your advantage to not only pay attention to and be on social media but to engage and be responsive.
There is a lot of data to support the claim that social media works. It works to build brand awareness, it works to increase your customer base and therefore it works to make more sales. The hardest thing is tracking sales back to where someone initially heard about your winery. But even this is getting easier (though most small businesses don’t have the resources or don't put the resources towards truly tracking this). To track results, you have to do a lot of work on a lot of different levels and most small businesses just aren’t going to hire a team to do that. So let’s just agree to the premise that social media works and move forward.
Like most other types of marketing, social media has to be done well to get results and it is not an overnight process. The work has to be put in day after day over time to see results from those efforts down the line.
Social media marketing for wineries is a powerful tool. Also, remember that your competitors are already using this powerful medium. We want to help you get it right. To give you an idea, here is a list of the wineries with the most Facebook likes in the Fall 2017. These are specific wineries. There are some wine brands that have 10xs as many Facebook likes.
What Doesn’t Work
Buying your social media followers
The whole point of having followers is to have people following your brand that can become customers, to engage and delight current customers or to attract brand ambassadors. If your followers are fake, you have no potential customers or brand ambassadors and are simply wasting your time. This is our most basic tip for anyone interested in social media marketing for wineries.
Treating social media like an afterthought
Assigning a tasting room person or your tasting room staff to ‘post stuff’ once and a while with no plan or calendar for what, how much and how often you will post is not effective.
Marketing at your audience
Audiences don’t like to be marketed to. They prefer to see entertaining, informative or visually appealing content and to feel that a brand is approachable and that you are engaging with them (like a friend on Facebook). ‘Buy now!’ or ‘Sale today’ posts put out regularly simply cause your audience to stop reading or paying attention to what you are posting.You can market to your audience but the frequency of your non-marketing posts should far outweigh the frequency of your marketing posts. Build the trust of your audience and fans first before marketing to them.
Social Media Marketing For Wineries That Works
Post regularly
Regularly post your social media marketing items at peak times. Makes sure these posts contain relevant, entertaining, informative or visually appealing content. Consistency is key. Keep to a schedule and over time you will see your results pay off.
Use Images and Videos as Often as Possible
Think about posting ‘How to’ advice (e.g. pairing wines with food, decant a cabernet and so on) videos. Social media followers also love watching videos of working wineries (grape picking or crushing, vine pruning, etc). Photos of bottle shots in vineyards or glasses of wines with a beautiful setting may seem trite but people love to see these! Just make sure to mix these up with photos that have actual people in them.
Remember that you don't have to create all this yourself. Visit feeds of other wineries or wine-related Facebook feeds like www.Facebook.com/wineryadvisor and forward the content onto your social media followers. This takes off some of the pressure of constantly creating engaging content.
Be Responsive
When someone comments on an Instagram/Twitter/Facebook post and implies some sort of interest in visiting your winery or asks a question, answer them! And within the hour is best. You’d be surprised how many people will actually show up at your winery because you got back to them. Particularly if it’s in response to a post about a certain wine, event or something special you do.
Choose a few channels that work and stick with them
Wineries (and small businesses) often try to be everywhere at once and then fail or become so exhausted and disheartened by the effort that they quit. Choose a few channels that you feel you can maintain regularly and create high-quality content for and just stick to those! For example Instagram, Facebook, and your blog. Or Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube.
There should be one person in charge of running social media
Keeping your wineries social media marketing posts on schedule, managing content (even if they are not creating it all themselves) and making sure that someone is available to respond to customers is key. This deserves at least part of someone's time each day.
What Will Happen If You Get Your Social Media Marketing Right
You will increase your brand awareness
People who never knew about you or your winery will suddenly know who you are.
You will be "top of mind" for people who have visited your winery or tried your wine.
Regular engagement will encourage fans of your winery who love you and do visit you (but maybe not often enough) to visit more often.
Your engagement will begin to translate into sales
Social media followers will want to stop by and taste or attend an event. This can lead to increased visibility/brand ambassador opportunities as well as real sales!
People will look at you as an expert
You will receive more questions about events, questions about your winery and your wines, etc. This is an opportunity to gain new customers and educate people! To tell them about all the cool stuff you’ve got going on and make them feel that you are real people answering them personally (because you are!). This is what today’s consumers not only want but expect.
Our conclusion, hire a social media marketing person this year. Or, find an existing employee who has promise. Give them some training. Then ask them to manage your social media for a few hours a day. You will be happy you did.
