One year ago today cnn presented an online article on wine marketing featuring non other than wine guru Gary V. There are many valuable lessons to be learnt for all who are currently interested in wine marketing, social media and a really goode job.
#1 Lesson from Wine Guru Gary Vaynerchuk: Become part of the conversation.
“I became part of the conversation instead of dictating the conversation,” says Vaynerchuk. Becoming part of the conversation (online) means you need to find that conversation. What has been your focus? Who are you trying to converse with? Are you talking to them or are you talking with them?
Essentially, your average consumer is responding to messages that are more closely attuned to his or her individual preferences – so it pays for you understand these preferences or better yet, to help shape those preferences. You need to understand your target audience, and people: your target audience is not Murphy-Goode.
Take some time now to think about and understand who MG wants to reach: have you geared your campaign with the consumer in mind? Have you engaged in conversation? Is it all about wine? Or are you able to look beyond this and communicate on a deeper level? Wine media needs to be like wine drinking: a beautiful accessory to the conversations you enjoy, not the full content and over dominating denominator of your purpose. You need to remember this especially when you are a guest at someone else’s blog.
On your own turf, it might help to remember that although some people will blurt out there needs and desires, many will be too intimidated to come out and ask you questions or engage in conversation. This is why you must consider how you will present any information you wish to transport to your reader. Are you a wine marketer looking to land the MG gig? Then you may need to get over your lingo and learn to engage with your reader from a different perspective… from a perspective which resonates with the non-wine marketer, more specifically: with the wine drinker.
One year ago today, the article closed with these words: “It’s all part of Vaynerchuk’s plot to transfer control of the wine conversation out of the hands of trained professionals and to those who might once have been afraid to buy off a restaurant wine list.”
You can become part of this vision. Are you “in”?
“Wine media needs to be like wine drinking: a beautiful accessory to the conversations you enjoy, not the full content and over dominating denominator of your purpose.”
Some great reminders here. I’ve thought a lot about the very job title we are all going after – Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent (not Wine Correspondent). Says it all, doesn’t it? There is a lifestyle and a story to be told and that in itself is communicating on a deeper level.
Yeppers!
Great post, Andrea.
Gary V has made wine accessible to people who felt embarrassed…neglected…inadequate in the face of perceived wine culture. I know because I’m one of those people.
It’s absolutely necessary for wineries getting into social media to relate on a personal level. They need to share their stories and communicate on a one-to-one level so that people feel invited into the world (and experience) of wine.
Brava.
Thanks Natasha and Todd…
you know, one of the things that strikes me is that next to perhaps music (mp3s) and flicks (YouTube et al), wine seems to be truely predestined for social media, in a curious sort of manner.
On the one hand it is typically a social drink. However there are plenty who feel self-conscious about their lack of savviness that it really puts them in an uncomfortable situation. [Enter the wine country lifestyle correspondent]
I am learning quite a lot from you and I look forward to seeing how you engage with your followers on this very down to earth approach to wine…
What kind of projects do you envision for your MG gig?