Social Media Tips for the Champagne & Sparkling Wine Industry

Long gone are the days that social media was seen as a waste of time, something that you used to just tell your mates where you drank coffee this morning or where weirdos got together online to share the latest craze… Today, like or loathe it, most of us will admit that social media has grown to become part of everyday life.

What makes social media so important is that, in most occasions, it enables latest news to be released by and read by each and every one of us – We can determine what we share and what we see, our searching is limitless as are the audiences – Here are some facts to put social media’s importance in our lives and the for those marketers out there, the value it can offer your business when used correctly:

“The population of the world is said to be approximately 7.5 billion (as of October 2017 as per Wikipedia)“

• There are approximately 3.05 billion users of social media today
  (www.slideshare.net/wearesocialsg/global-digital-statshot-q3-2017)
• 65.8% of companies in the USA with employees of 100+ use Twitter for marketing
  (www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1013290)
• Most users of Instagram, approximately 90%, are below the age of 35
  (www.thinkdigitalfirst.com/2016/01/04/the-demographics-of-social-media-users-in-2016/)
• There are 10.9 million posts on Instagram with the hashtag of #Champagne

There are so many other facts and figures about social media that will really make you jump back in your seat, some are indeed scary as the pace of these platforms grow and the content shared builds, but what we really must take from these kind of mind boggling numbers is that social media is being used, it is popular and people are spending more and more time on them and is great for your SEO.

Not only is social media being used, but it is also becoming more and more accessible such as on our mobile phones, tablets, computers, televisions and more. If you want help with your digital marketing, check out MangoMatter Media – There are fewer and fewer places left on the earth that we live which hasn’t access to WIFI and thus access to social media. Social media is here and for the time being it is here to stay!

So, with this massive channel of communication open to us on varied platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and more, just how can we go about getting the best from our endeavours to attract clients to our business and as per the title in this blog, help us sell more fizz!

The good thing about Champagne and sparkling wine is that it is a very likeable and agreeable topic and many of us love to enjoy a glass of bubbly or two and usually this sector of the wine industry is usually quoted as being aspirational to many – The thought of Champagne gets us thinking about success, celebrations, holidays, money, fast cars, jewellery and generally feeling good about ourselves. With this in mind it makes social media a little less tricky in trying to engage users as it would be if we were saying trying to sell guttering or accountancy software etc.

So, we are already feeling positive about social media and that we can hopefully start getting strong brand awareness and good sales for our Champagne / sparkling wine labels hey? Well, we must take great care in how we use social media as we are not entering things early on, it is well established now and even though there are billions of users for us to target, we also have immense competition to try and stand out from – Though the wine industry, in my opinion as I work in different industry sectors, is rather slow in its take up of social media, those using it already are really carving themselves out a name and grabbing the interested audiences firmly in their grasp. Just how do we start shaking things up and getting our voice heard then?

Assuming you have already created your social media accounts and confidently using them, let us look at some key tips that you may not yet have adopted in your marketing drive:

• Who is behind the label? Break down those barriers and use social media to not only showcase what you offer, ie your wines, but who your team is and especially if you have your own winemaker – People love to meet the faces behind great wine, share interview and photos and if you get time, even a video of what goes in to making wine at your winery.
• Hashtags? Some people that use social media will still not be too sure over what exactly the point of hashtags really is all about so here goes: A hashtag is obviously usually the key next to your ‘return’ key on your keyboard, but when it is placed in front of a word ofr phrase, ie #Champagne or #Prosecco then it becomes indexed by that said social media platform and becomes a searchable term and discoverable by other users.
• Images work better? On many platforms and especially Twitter, I see that social media updates work far better with images than without – Click through rates and engagement on a tweet that you have taken the time to choose an appropriate image for will attract likes, retweets and click-throughs better than one with just plain text. Spend as much time as you can on images and try and use your own rather than ones you find on Google which ultimately will be someone else copyright and could land you in legal problems and fines.
• Do not be shy! As we mentioned, billions use social media and that could include the very people who have the potential to make a big difference to your business. From celebrities to hotel chain wine buyers, these people use social media so start researching them and see if and which platforms they use. Once you have identified them you should look to lightly communicate with the such as commenting on their social media updates, liking / sharing their posts or using their Twitter name in conversations – Done correctly it is likely they will be interested in who you are and investigate you.
• Who is doing a good job? Sometimes we learn from the best so adopt this mindset for social media too. Who exactly is nailing it on the likes of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn – Check out their accounts, study what they do and try and adopt similar ideas to your business set-up. It does not necessarily have to be a rival company you investigate, check out wine writers, sommeliers, chefs and others who also work in this industry sector and grab ideas from them too.
• No time to post? Then schedule! Sometimes it is just not possible to keep on top of your social media accounts so rather than outsourcing the work to a marketing company, why not set yourself a weekly job of scheduling your updates throughout the coming week? There are many free to use software out there or paid for concepts with more options enabling you to simply put together social media updates for the week ahead that will release out when you tell them to. This is not only helpful for those of us who are busy, but as the wine industry is one of 24/7 then it really never sleeps so even though it say is bed time in the UK, people in Australia will be browsing social media so why not have posts to schedule out 27/7 on your own accounts so your content gets a better global reach?
• What does your wine taste like? Try to think ‘what is in it for my customer‘ and cater to their needs – Think about releasing tasting notes on your wines via social media and also food pairing suggestions and if you can also, share photos of this wine alongside the food pairing to further bring to life your social media updates. The likes of the wine rating app Vivino is another great concept to use, a social media network in itself, it will also auto post your wine reviews out to social media for you (make sure each of your wines are listed on Vivino and other relevant wine reviewing website such as Glass of Bubbly for Champagne & sparkling wines).
• Competitions! We all love competitions and it attracts plenty of interest when one goes live on social media. Yes, we can see lots of ‘ordinary entries‘ from folk that just spend their time entering awards, no matter what the subject or prize, but we will also generate entries from those we would consider as potential leads. The best way to get more target entries to your awards is to set the competition as a question which requires entries to have looked at your website, let us say they have to read through one of your blogs in order to find the answer – This will generate web traffic, consumer details (entries need to give name and emails) and usually you do not have to budget too much for the prize, ie it can be a case of two sparkling wines, one rosé and one brut.
• Check keywords. A good exercise is to see who else is talking on social media about the wines you stock. You can either set up alerts when your winery is mentioned or simply go on to the likes of Facebook / Twitter and search your keywords. This will tell you who is talking about your wines and allow you to get involved in the conversations. Do not rely purely on seeing your name mentioned when they tag you in! Another good idea from checking keywords is that you may find someone has written about one of your wines on their blog – Here is the opportunity for you to ask them to include a live link back (if they have not already done so) to your website so future readers can easily find where to buy these wines – You may need to tempt the author by saying something like ‘we’d love you to review another of our wines, may we send it to you, we just ask that you are kind enough to link back to us‘…