Social Media for Dummies

It seems virtually all wineries are now using social media – more specifically Facebook and Twitter – to communicate with their customers.  And why not? A new report from Business Week magazine put the number of people now using Facebook at more than 300 million.  Twitter is ranked as one of the 50 most popular websites worldwide.  Yet most people still have not the slightest clue how to leverage this incredible new technology – yours truly included.

If you think about it, it is quite remarkable how communication has changed over the past decade.  It used to be that we would send letters (Snail mail as Wilma calls it) along with printed facts on our wines and other forms of written communiqué.  Nowadays, we hardly mail a thing (no wonder the United States Postal Service is suffering) and virtually everything we do is via the World Wide Web.  Breaking it down even further, the amount of dialogue and chatter on the web due to social media has reached a fever pitch.  It's no wonder that recent posts by Wilma have her overwhelmed and maxed out – it's quite a challenge just to keep up with what lands in your inbox on a daily basis much less make sense of tweets, twits, and whatever else.

And so that's where I come in as the winery's Director of Communications – to try and make sense of the senseless.  To try and forge relationships with new customers, build a web of strategic partners and create a buzz around our family business and our wines.  So, how am I doing?  Well, if I'm honest, I'm trying to learn as I go – on the job training – hence my reason for picking up the latest “for dummies” edition – Social Media Marketing for Dummies.  I mean, no one likes to admit they are a dummy but in this case, it's a steep learning curve and I need all the help I can get.

So far, we have more than 500 Facebook fans and as “DCVguy,” my handle on Twitter, we're gaining some momentum “tweeting” about news and events here at the winery.  Currently, we're not using these outlets to sell wine.  From what I've learned, it's more about establishing a dialogue with people and getting them talking about subjects and topics that are important to them.   For now, this “dummy” is learning and I'd like to take this opportunity to invite you to join in on the conversation!