In the meantime, I hope you’ll join the conversation at our fan page at facebook.com/womenwine. Real people real opinions – real wine drinkers in every category of interest.

Best,
Julie Brosterman

Listening is a great way to connect!

Not that hard to do these days with online tools

“Consumers are still skeptical of buying things online that they can’t experience first. Especially so with wine.”

I know that of the wines I have tried personally, I would say 30%/40% of them I have tried because of wine blogs that I have “social connections” with via Twitter/Facebook. For example, I have learned to “trust” Gary Vaynerchuk’s palate (I LOVE high acid whites like he does – along with JustJess’s Jessica Altieri.

For me, as a wine consumer/wine “hobbyist”, the social media connections I have are not about accepting a sales pitch to purchase online. I “unfollow” those peeps that try to “sell” to me. It’s actually about one-on-one relationship/communication with a (in this case, winery) spokesperson that – for me – gains my trust.

One last thing about all this, if I can just sum up my feelings, and use Rick as an example. Because of Rick Bakas’ transparency and “realness” throughout his social media presence (and yes, I do take into consideration that this is his “job”) – I will purchase St. Supery wines at any opportunity, whether at a restaurant/wine shop/wine tour at their winery, or online. Why? Well, it’s not because I’m 100% sure that all of their wines are all highly rated, like 99 pointers by Wine Spectator or something – and that I would agree. It’s really because (via social media):

#1: I trust Rick (via social media)
#2: I can ask Rick specific “consumer” questions, and know I’ll get a reply (via social media)
#3: I can provide MY review of (St. Supery) wines – and tweet that to my almost 200 Twitter followers (MANY of whom are wine lovers) – or blog about it on my websites and 2,171 member email list.

Just my 2 cents…

Best Regards,

Martin
@gsbmartin

Thank you!

It’s great to know that social media campaigns can drive sales and the success you had last October was indeed hard-earned but evidence that it’s worth continuing to work at it.

It seems St Supery is one of the few larger wineries who realistically sees social media as a sales channel AND as a tool to grow brand awareness. But then again, it’s a winery that gets “it” on so many levels, so that’s not surprising.

Keep up the great work and I’ll keep drinking your wine! I love that 2003 Merlot!

Best,

Jess

It’s good to see counter points to all the social media buzz in the wine industry this year. Your post is one of the few I’ve seen that looks at the topic factually with data rooted in what realistic. The idea of selling wine using social media is shiny and new, but we’re a long way from it being consistent as a sales channel.

For the interview in the Times, that quote wasn’t exactly the sentiment I expressed. In fact, I did not say “winereies need to focus on signing up new wine club members through social media rather than cementing relationships with tourists.”

That’s just plain silly. No winery would say that, including ours. Wine club members, visitors to the valley and our distribution partners are all important. We focus on building synergy between all three.

And I think that’s what you’re trying to say in this post. As a side note—in the six months I’ve been at the winery, we’ve had some successes which we shared with the Direct to Consumer Symposium last month.
Last October we did an offer specifically for social media, and in the first 72 hours we sold over 290 cases. So it is possible, but it took 3 months of laying the groundwork online to make that possible.

We aren’t necessarily trying to sell wine as much as we’re using social sites as an extension of the in-person interactions, and for customer service no matter what the price of the wine is.

Thanks for the refreshing viewpoint!
Cheers,
Rick