The Winery Web Site Report

Does Your Winery Have Balls?

A lot of wineries cite concern about the possibility of negative comments when asked why they are reluctant about using social media like Twitter and Facebook.

Here's a company in an industry which is easy to hate (insurance) that let's it all hang out on their Facebook page: Esurance.  The comments are unmoderated, so you see complaints with praise.  There are two things that make this page work in favor of Esurance:  they actively participate in responding to customer comments, and they seem to care.

And yes, this takes time and effort on their part.  Social media benefits are not free, or even cheap.

Social media for wineries takes balls.

Additional reading:

Esurance commerical which talks about their Facebook presence (they're "in a relationship"):

 

Article: Hitch Your Boat to Customer Advocacy (also mentions failed Twitter campaigns from McDonald's and RIM)

 

Heimoff on "The Biggest Mistake Most Wineries Make"

Love him or hate him, wine critic/blogger Steve Heimoff hits this particular nail on the head:

The biggest mistake most wineries make online is to establish a website, put some stuff up, and then let it molder for months if not years. I routinely get tasting samples in the mail ...So I’ll go to the website for info, only to find that the vintage hasn’t been updated for two years!... when you deliberately go to a website expecting something new and useful, only to find a bunch of old, boring stuff, it’s an insult. You actually feel resentment to the company for being lazy and uncaring and unprofessional. Not good.

(from An example of how social marketing works for a winery -- maybe).

The top error for winery websites remains a lack of freshness, from home pages which haven't changed in years, to a lack of information about new vintages, to "News" pages where the last update was more than a year ago.

A related mistake is to throw out the "old, boring stuff" on your website wholesale, instead of archiving items which have long-term value to visitors.  Disk space is cheap and search engines are your friends.  Someone just might want to read about that 10-year-old vintage they pulled from the cellar for tonight's party.  Ideally, your website has information about every vintage you've every produced.

Why you still need a website for your winery

John Scalzi echoes a point which was also made by my pals at Vin65:

So, let’s go back to 1998. You’re a new writer winery and you want to establish a permanent residency online. Which would be wiser: Having your own site at your own domain, or putting up a site at GeoCities?

It's easy to get caught up in the swirl of excitement around Facebook, but your winery website is still the anchor for your online presence because you control it.

(By the way, Scalzi writes science fiction, and if you haven't read Old Man's War , you're missing something.)

The Ultimate Guide to Facebook Marketing

A comprehensive list, organized by topic, of 70+ articles covering everything you might want to know.

If your winery is marketing on Facebook, this is a terrific resource.

You're welcome.

Should You Let People "Like" Your Wine?

I got some comments on a recent post which doubted the value of Facebook in actually driving sales.

You may find these statistics about the impact of a Like buttom on sales interesting.  One example:

American Eagle added the Like button next to every product on their site and found Facebook referred visitors spent an average of 57% more money than non-Facebook referred visitors

Your Winery Website Is The Hub

Just in case you missed it, I want to call your attention to a great post on the Vin | 65 blog: Your Wine Website is the Hub 

I only wish I'd written it.  The signal-to-noise ratio on the Vin | 65 blog is very high, and if you're not subscribed, you should be.

Does Your Winery Have One of These?

It probably should.  And your winery website should probably have one of these:

 Agree?  Disagree?  Leave a comment.

Looking for "Likes"?

If you are using Facebook to engage with fans of your winery, learn how to convert visitors to your Facebook page into "fans" (i.e. getting them to Like your page) much more effectively.

Basically, it entails recognizing whether someone is already a fan (or not) and giving them an appropriate (and possibly personalized) message.

If you do this, please send me a note so I can visit your Facebook Page!

Pinotblogger Quits Facebook: News At Eleven!

 

On the off chance you've been locked in a freezer today, please check out  Josh Hermsmeyer's latest post on pinotblogger: Why I Quit Facebook, and Why Wineries Should As Well

After all the hype and recommendations about Facebook as a method of connecting with your customers, this is a pretty big deal, and you should read his post  (and the comments, which are always a valuable part of any blog post).  At the same time, I need time to consider his points before giving my own opinion.  I encourage you to comment on Josh's post.

Stay frosty.

Lazy Sunday: Why Seth Godin Is Not On Twitter

Starting at the 4 minute, 17 second mark of this video interview:

You may want to watch the whole 7 minutes or so, or visit Seth's blog.

Virtual Wine for Real People?

You can send virtual gifts from 1-800-Flowers to your Facebook friends.  It's called virtual gifting, and as this article points out, virtual goods allow people to interact with your brand at little or no expense.

I'm sort of surprised that giving a virtual bottle of wine hasn't surfaced on some winery's Facebook fan page yet.  As you can see from the 1-800-Flowers fan page above, it's not tremendously complicated.  And it would be cool to send a very expensive bottle of wine as a virtual gift, since 12 grand is a little out of my price range.  (K&L, are you listening?)

Virtual wine gifts don't require Facebook.  Something quite similar (and possibly even better) can be done on your winery's Web site today with e-mail and a little clever design.  It's really only a more imaginative way of doing "tell a friend."  It's just that social media (like Facebook) makes us more prone to thinking about giving gifts to our friends.

What do you think?

The Millennier

What do you mean you've never read it?

If you're wondering who you'll be selling wine to when every one in your club has died off, go read Leah Hennessy's blog about marketing wine to Millennials.

That is all.

Winery Social Media Question of the Day

If someone visits your winery and checks into FourSquare or Gowalla, or even just tweets about being there, do you know about it right away?  What chances to be awesome (and talked about) are you missing out on?

Here are some more ideas on How to Use Surprise to Generate Word-of-Mouth.

Text Messaging, or SMS and Your Winery

This is a great quick read on ways in which businesses can make effective use of text messaging (also known as SMS, for Short Message Service): Are You Utilizing Text Messaging?

Regardless of whether you're currently making use of texting as a winery marketing tool, take a look.

And remember, Twitter = broadcast text messaging, i.e. a single text goes to lots of people ("followers" in Twitter parlance).

How To Make $$$$ With Twitter

Here's the secret.

Hey, what did you expect?

Having just attended the Direct To Consumer Symposium (DTCS) on Tuesday, I can say that everyone wants to know how to forecast the ROI for social media.  It seems pretty clear that it's hard to measure (although there are definitely things you can measure, it's not easy to equate them with hard dollars in your bank account).

The big issue for wineries, large and small, is that Twitter (and other social media venues) takes time, which means a person.  And that person costs money.  And that has to get paid for, somehow.  Which brings us back to ROI.

Fundamentally, you either have to believe in social media, or you have to be big enough to afford the experiment.

I tend towards the view that social media has value, but it's primarily the sort of value associated with having a pleasant, competent person answering your phones.  

On the other hand, Rick Bakas of St. Supery gave a case study of using Twitter (plus a landing page) to sell 250+ cases of their 2003 Merlot (at $150 a case, including shipping, it was a terrific deal).  Of course, he also pointed out that two subsequent offers didn't garner as strong a result.  It appears that offers need to be spaced out to avoid "offer fatigue."

(Disclaimer: I bought one of those cases.)

So, how are you trying to make $$$$ with Twitter?

Wine Marketing Via Twitter

 

This post from StartupNation.com has several useful ideas for wineries trying to market via Twitter: 

I truly believe social media is the future for small business marketing and I hope you can find at least one of these ideas helpful in your efforts to engage online. Always be on the lookout for innovative new ideas to reach your customers and don’t be shy. A sincere, heartfelt, and playful “hello” to your customers will be appreciated more times than not. Just make sure you have the infrastructure in place to monitor, measure, and manage all those new customer interactions.

If your winery is active on Twitter (and even if it's not), take a look.

(And as long as you're at it, please take my 2010 Winery Sales survey.  Results will be summarized in a future post.)

Do's And Don'ts For Your Winery On Facebook

Here's a great list from Margie Tosch at WineryAndHospitalityJobs.com, entitled The Top Do's and Don'ts for Facebook Fan Pages for 2010.

I learned something new from it, specifically that you can create a vanity URL for your winery's Facebook Fan page.

(If you own or manage a winery, please take a moment to take my 2010 Winery Sales Survey.  I truly appreciate it.)

3 Types Of Video

Are you trying to go viral, convert visitors, or create loyalty?

This is the kind of thinking you need to do if you are considering adding video to your winery Web site.  The link above leads to a picture at CommonCraft, which leads to an in-depth article at ReelSEO.com.  It's worth following the chain.

How To Use Social Media

Guy Kawasaki, on American Express's OPEN small-business site, interviews Dan Zarella, the author of The Social Media Marketing Book:

In this interview I try to pin him down and tell me when to use specific social media platforms, services and practices to run a business.

If you're trying to decide between Twitter, Facebook, or a blog, take a look at this post.  

The AMEX OPEN Forum also has a RSS feed which is worth subscribing to (which is how I found this interview), as well as a section devoted to social media (including this e-book ).

New Media And Wine

(Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers. I'm thankful that you take the time to read and comment.)

If you haven't already flipped through this presentation from VinTank, take a few minutes and do it now:

New Media and Wine

The big takeaways for me were "fishing where the fish are," the idea that social media is your "free" club, and the fact that e-mail still drives sales.

Definitely worth the time to flip through the slides and draw your own insights.

The 7 Harsh Realities Of Social Media Marketing

Here are a few cautions from CopyBlogger:

1. No one is reading your blog.
2. You've got to give (some of) your best stuff away.
3. It will eat your life if you let it.
4. Social media hates selling.
5. What they say is a million times more important that what you say.
6. A blog is not a marketing plan.
7. You don't get to opt out.

It's not exactly encouraging, but the article has suggestions on how to deal with these realities.  As usual with a general marketing article, not all items apply directly to wineries (e.g. #2).  But for wineries looking to use social media for marketing, the last four are especially relevant.

(Social media, of course, includes blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and a raft of similar sites.)

For your winery, what are the best and worst aspects of social media?  Please leave a comment.

Lazy Sunday: The Social Media Guru

Definitely NSFW (Not Safe For Work) or anywhere delicate ears might hear it (no sex or nudity, just good old Anglo-Saxon words).

This cartoon is spot on with regard to the rise of the Social Media carpetbaggers.  Remember the main point: With social media, you do the work.

Please let me know if I stepped over the line with this one.

Lazy Sunday: Social Media

I hadn't watched this until now. Pretty amazing. Particularly the Kindle statistic.

I know for a fact that traffic to this blog increases when I tweet about a post. As with blogging, other forms of social media like Facebook, Twitter, and You Tube aren't for every winery, take time to pursue, and can be (sometimes unwittingly) abused.

Enjoy the video (the music is Fatboy Slim's "Right Here, Right Now").  And, for those who haven't see it, the inspiration for this video, also full of illuminating factoids:

The Top 50 Wineries On Twitter

If you haven't already seen it, 50 Top Wineries on Twitter is worth a read.  It's the results of a survey of winery use of Twitter conducted by ViralVines.com

The vast majority of wineries that tweet find it useful, as it helps them connect with their customers.  And most wineries that tweet also have Facebook pages.

There's lots more detail, so take a look and draw your own conclusions.

Blog Post Friday?

It could happen.

I do agree that blogs still have an important role to play in the social media sphere.  It's not all Twitter and Facebook.

Facebook for (Winery) Marketing

I got this offer of a free "Facebook for Marketing" kit in my e-mail, so I pass it along to my readers who might be interested in the topic.

If you download it, please leave a comment for others with your opinion of the kit.

JD Pulls The Plug

John Danby, of Facebook for Wineries, is pulling the plug on his blog and nascent social media consultancy.  You can read about it from JD himself.

On the one hand, I'm sorry to see John go.  On the other hand, I can totally appreciate what he's doing.  I pulled the plug on The Winery Web Site Report (original custom report version) a long time ago.

I would recommend reading all 18 of JD's blog posts from the past few months, and taking notes as appropriate to your winery.

Best of luck to you, John!

Luxury Wine and Social Media

From Luxury Wine Market Reels from Downturn in the Wall Street Journal:

Some of the newer operations are using new marketing techniques to cope. Alpha Omega, a boutique winery in Rutherford, Calif., has begun using online services Facebook and Twitter to reach out to its customers. The winery three years ago began targeting consumers directly, and the strategy is now paying off; revenue is up 40% so far this year, compared with a year ago, in part because it doesn't have to share many revenues with a distributor, says co-owner Robin Baggett.

For small wineries (where margin is critical), direct sales are enhanced by social media interaction (blogs, Twitter, Facebook.  For large wineries (where you don't have much direct interaction with customers), social media is a way to keep tabs on what people actually think of your product.

Want To Sell More Wine?

Remember the You Factor:

The most fascinating topic in the word, at least to you, is you.

Sure, we'd all like to believe that people buy what we're selling simply because it's a great product.  Wine makers have a lot invested in believing that their wines are terrific.  And some fermented grape juice is better than others.

But regardless of how good your wine is, you'll sell more of it when you understand the You Factor and apply it to marketing and selling your wine.

"Which Acme Wine are you?  Answer these three questions and we'll tell you the Acme wine that matches your personality."  This, or some variation of it, is perfect for a Facebook page, where people will cheerfully take "Which X are you?" quizzes without a second thought.

But enough about what I think.  What do you think of what I think?  Leave a comment!

Now, Winery Lifestreams!

Evidently, blogging has become passé.

Now you need a lifestream, like PR maven Steve Rubel.

While I'm poking a little bit of fun at the idea, I think Rubel's workflow is worth a look if you're interested in the idea of creating a lifestream for your winery, a central feed of everything that you want to communicate to your fans.

As always, one needs to evaluate new developments with this in mind: it's always about selling more of your wine, whether it's a Web site, a blog, Twitter, Facebook, or a lifestream.

Facebook For Wineries (the blog)

"JD in Napa" has started an interesting blog on winery marketing through social media, which deserves your attention: Facebook for Wineries

And I would say that even if he hadn't been nice enough to mention this blog in a couple of hist posts.

Joe Bob says, "Check it out!"

Are Winery Blogs Dead?

Are Facebook pages replacing winery blogs?

I saw this interesting comment on the Wind River Cellars blog:

Hey everyone! Sorry I've been such a lame ass with the blog lately...   I'll try to update this blog more frequently, but to tell you the truth, it's easier to just post things on Facebook. I prefer Facebook because it's easier for you all to post pictures and comments. If you're a Facebook geek, just search "Wind River Cellars" and become a friend.

And thinking about it, Joel has a point.  Facebook has a richer interaction environment than common blogging platforms like Wordpress and TypePad.

Of course, Facebook can be confusing.  When I followed the instructions above, here's what I saw:

(click for a larger image in a popup window)

I couldn't immediately tell what to do:  join the Wind River Cellars Fan Club group, or add Wind River Cellars as a friend?

Of course, an untended Facebook page for your winery is just as bad as an untended winery blog.  In the end, you've got to decide whether you really want to interact with people online (I think you're missing something if you don't, but would love to hear "responsible opposing viewpoints").

What's your take?  Leave a comment!

(Interesting related post: Should a Facebook Page Be Part of Your Digital Marketing Strategy)

FLASH: Facebook Vanity URLs For Your Winery

If you're using Facebook to promote your winery, you'll be able to get a vanity URL for your Facebook pages on a first-come, first-served basis beginning at 9:01 PM on Friday, June 12^th.  Here's a good explanation of the details.

Basically, this allows a winery to have a URL (Web address) for their profile that looks like

http://www.facebook.com/Acme.Winery

instead of the standard geeky numeric URL that Facebook has always used.

Go to http://www.facebook.com/username/ at the appointed time to get your vanity URL (it currently displays a countdown timer, and links to more information).

IMPORTANT UPDATE 2009-06-10: As JDinNapa points out in the comments below, if you didn't have a Facebook page as of 5/31, you can't get a vanity URL for that page: 

If you signed up for a Facebook Page after May 31 or a user profile after today at 3 p.m. EDT, you may not be able to sign up for a username immediately because of steps we've taken to prevent abuse or "squatting" on names.

There are protections for copyright holders.  More info at the Facebook blog and Username FAQ.

Promoting Your Wine 2.0

Every time he says "book,", you say "wine."

 

A Long Path to Adopt A Grape

Yes, I have.

This all started when my pal Edward Wallis of Wallis Family Estate sent me a link to Calwineries ("California's wine defined" -- now what the hell does that mean?), with which I was unfamiliar.  It appears they are trying to build a community of people who are interested in California wines.  A tough row to hoe, I think, given all the other "social media" avenues that are competing for your attention.  But I digress.

I noticed that Calwineries has a blog, so I went there to see what I might find past the "official" face of their Web site.  Blogs, in my opinion, give you a pretty good flavor of what's happening.  If the blog is fresh and interesting, it says good things about the company behind it.

At the top of their blog, I found this video of respected and well-known winemaker Heidi Barrett talking about something I found interesting:  How do you decide when to pick the grapes?

I love finding examples of video that's interesting to watch (since so many winery videos are like watching paint dry while water drips slowly on your head).  In less than three minutes, you get a pretty good picture of how she approaches the problem.  It helps that Heidi is well-spoken and photogenic.

(Note: I decided to watch the video for two reasons.  I recognized Heidi Barrett's name, and the still image of the video looked like it wasn't going to be "corporate speak".  Something to think about for your own video.)

Since I'd never heard of the video's creator, Adopt A Grape, I decided to listen to their introductory video as well:

Duane Hoff of Fantesca Estate & Winery is the man behind Adopt A Grape, and appears in the video.

Since it's my job to stay on top of new online approaches to marketing and promoting wine, I "adopt'd" a grape (it's free).  I got to choose a grape from one of seven different blocks of grapes (2 Petite Verdor, 5 Cabnernet Sauvignon).

Although the above video was posted relatively recently (3 months ago), the Adopt A Grape site itself seems pretty quiet.  The last update for my adopted block of Cab was in November of 2007, which certainly doesn't feel very fresh.  The latest post on the Adopt A Grape site/blog is apparently December 18, 2008.

Any winery could do what Adopt A Grape is doing in creating a tighter bond between the winery and the (potential) customer.  Of course, it takes a fair amount of effort to blog and create videos.  Situations like that provide a business opportunity for someone willing to provide and manage the service. I wonder if Adopt A Grape was started with the idea of expanding to multiple wineries where people could adopt grapes.  Since the signup contains an opt-in to learn more about Adopt A Grape wines, they were clearly hoping to build a permission mailing list where they could offer wine for sale (note the choice of words - you can only interest people in buying).

One goal of your winery Web site is to inspire enough interest and trust in people, so that they will give you their e-mail, so that you can contact them about more interesting stuff in the future (some of which might inspire them to buy some of your wine).  One way to create interest and trust is with short, interesting video, and Heidi Barrett and "Laurie" Wood are two good examples from Adopt A Grape.

(If you're interested, there are more Adopt A Grape videos at Vimeo and at VIRB.)

Your Winery On Facebook: A Page or A Group?

Here's a great summary of the difference between a Fan Page and a Group on Facebook.

I don't think there's any question that a Fan Page is a must for your winery, as long as you are willing to give it some love. I disagree with the notion of doing both a Group and a Page (see the comments to the article above), since diverts both your attention and that of your visitors.

Of course, feel free to tell me I'm wrong! :-)

To help you take the plunge, here's a step-by-step guide to creating a Facebook Page for your business.

If you have a Facebook presence, please leave a comment with a link to your page/group and what your experience has been with it.  If you've decided against Facebook presence, what's your reason?

Are Winery Web Sites Dead?

Maybe.

There was an interesting article in the most recent Fortune about Facebook, where CEO Mark Zuckerberg is quoted:

We think that if you can build one worldwide platform where you can just type in anyone's name, find the person you're looking for, and communicate with them," he told a German audience in January, "that's a really valuable system to be building.

Here's a list of wineries on Facebook., courtesy of Tim Elliott of ACAN Media.  I'm sure he'd like to know if he missed your winery's Facebook page.

Do you see Facebook replacing your winery Web site someday?  Leave a comment!

Are You as Brave as Skittles?

Skittles (you know, the rainbow colored candy thingies that aren't M&Ms) has done something really interesting with social media.  They've (almost) completely done away with their Web site.  

Instead, when you go to www.skittles.com, you get the little floating menu above, with links to:

• Home (the Skittles page on Wikipedia)
• Media (their YouTube channel and their Flickr page)
• Chatter (a running Twitter search for tweets containing the word "skittle") 
• Friends (their Facebook page)
• Other Gobbledygook (just a drop down menu with links to parent company Mars) 
• Products  
• Contact   

The last two are the only pages at Skittles.com. In other words, most of their Web "presence" consists of links to social media.  All they're missing is a blog.

I'm not sure a winery would do something this extreme, but it does show what's possible when you think about it.  A slightly less-extreme version is what Donati Family Vineyard is doing with their "Winespace" and by featuring social media connections on their home page.

What do you think about Skittles.com?  What can your winery take away from this experiment?

And what wine (if any) goes with Skittles?

Social Media Marketing Tips

If you're considering using Facebook and/or Twitter to help drive interest in your winery and wines, check out this useful post over at the Startup Nation blog, entitled Social Media Marketing Tips

VinTank's Social Media Report Survey

If you write a wine blog (e.g. Vinography), a winery blog (e.g. Dover Canyon), or a wine industry blog (e.g. Fermentation), please spend five quick minutes taking VinTank's Social Media Report Survey.  If you have to hunt around for your monthly pageview and unique visitor statistics, it may take you a bit longer.

Why should you?  Because VinTank is trying to produce a free report with real numbers on the wine industry's use of social media.  We'll all benefit from that.  

I'm interested enough to see their results that I'm willing to invest my five minutes.  I hope you are, too.

Take the Survey.

(PS - if you haven't already done so, please take my one-question survey, too!)

Your Social Media System

John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing provides a nice checklist of what he does hourly (!), daily, weekly and monthly to maintain and grow his social media network.

I do think that participating fully in social media as a business and marketing strategy requires discipline, automation routines and a daily commitment. Now, you’ve got to balance that with the fact that much of your activity is about building long-term momentum and deeper networks and that doesn’t always make the cash register ring today. So, some of what I do won’t be right for all, but I thought I would share my systematic approach in the hopes this may reveal some tips that make your experience more fruitful.

The list is good advice for wineries who are interested in social media (twitter, facebook, linkedin, blogs, digg, etc. etc. etc. ...)

Even better, he's now started a series of posts asking the same question of prominent marketers, starting with Chris Baggott on Small Business Social Media Workflow, which focuses on blogging as the centerpiece of his social media strategy.

Check it out!

Something To Shout About: A Checklist

If my wines were listed here or here, you can bet that I would do all of the following:

1. Create a high-quality image of the bottle with the award (suitable for the media to use)
2. Update the front page of my Web site  
3. Update the product page(s) for my award-winning wine(s) 
4. Write a post for my winery blog
5. Tweet the news to my followers on Twitter 
6. Send an e-mail to my mailing list 
7. Make sure I mention it in my next newsletter 
8. Do a press release (along with a nice bottle+award image)
9. Let my distributors, retailers, and restaurant know about it with a updated product PDF and shelf-talkers
10. Make sure that everyone in the tasting room knows about it (employees and visitors)

In every case, you have the opportunity to make a special offer to the people you are contacting.  For example, people who have already bought the wine might want to add to their cellar.

I can almost bet, though, that most of the award-winners won't do any of  these things.

Winning an award isn't just a time to feel good, it's an opportunity to advance your brand.

(Thanks to the Harney Lane blog for inspiring this post)

Let's Talk: Social Media for Small Business

Interested in using that "social media thing" for your winery marketing?

Microsoft is offering a free download of a 23-page e-book entitled Let's Talk: Social Media for Small Business, written by John Jantsch of the Duct Tape Marketing blog.  It covers blogging, RSS, social search, social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook), social bookmarking, and microblogging (Twitter).

Although Microsoft is offering the book to promote Microsoft Office Live Small Business, the book makes almost no mention of Microsoft, so I can recommend it without reservation.

Lazy Sunday: Social Media

This is a bit long for a Lazy Sunday post, but since not everyone is interested in social media as part of their winery marketing program (Lazy Sunday being reserved for things which some readers may find less interesting), I'm leaving it here.  It's OK to read it on Monday.

Social Media is loosely defined as media which take advantage of user participation and user-generated content (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Flickr, wikis, Tumblr, Digg, YouTube, etc., etc.).

Why Your Competitors Are Keeping Customers and Gaining New Ones Through Social Media

has interesting details about a company that cut its advertising budget by 80 percent when the company turned to social media over traditional advertising.

I must also point to Tim Elliott's ACAN Media blog (a social media approach to wine marketing), Udi Barone's BeesAndWine.com (helping wineries use MySpace), Twisted Oak's El Jefe, who Twitters more than any winery I know, and the folks at Inertia who regularly blog about social media.

Donati Family Vineyards has a social media site in addition to their main Web site, created by MyVineSpace.com (the underlying platform is Ning, a Web-based roll-your-own-social media-site service).

Of course, CellarTracker may be the best example of a popular, wine-related social media site.  If you're curious about what real people (not critics, but wine enthusiasts nonetheless) are saying about your wines, CellarTracker can be an enormous resource.  Go to the CellarTracker home page and search for your winery (e.g. Emeritus) in the search box at in the upper left corner (under the CellarTracker corkscrew logo).

(Also, see my previous post on using Twitter to track people's experiences with your wine.)

If you're interested in the use of social media to promote your winery, you may also find this list of interest: What Blogs Should You Be Reading?

What is your winery doing with social media?  Tremendous boon or waste of time?  And if you're a winery on Twitter or Facebook or MySpace, leave a comment.