No doubt it’s extremely difficult for any business to maintain a constant stream of engaging content on Facebook, Twitter, and all the rest of it; but it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of posting the saaaaaaame old stuff.
It’s often suggested that if you can’t post daily, or at least every-other-day, you have no place having a social media presence, at least when it comes to business. I would like to counter by saying that having a daily presence, but posting regurgitated and uninspired content is far worse.
These are my top most overused winery social media posts (in order of mis-use). It’s not to say that this is always bad content, more just its over-use.
“Look at this beautiful sunrise / sunset over X Vineyards…isn’t it amazing….!?!?!”
Yes, it is both beautiful and amazing. I’m glad you posted a photo of it (again) as my set is now complete! Thanks to the wonders of social media, and every winery running out of creative content, I can view the same sunset from EVERY SINGLE AVA IN CALIFORNIA from the comfort of my laptop. It’s like the license plate game that’s played on long car rides, only this involves photos of sunsets taken by wineries! See you again at sunrise!
“Our Merlot just got 92 points in the Idaho Wine Drinkers Monthly magazine!”
Wine scores never seem to matter to wineries……..until they get a good one. Pick a side! Either you’re for or against! I think wineries posting their most recent accolades is a great free marketing tool, but try to make sure the source is at least marginally credible….not that I have anything against the Idaho Wine Drinkers Monthly magazine…
Think of how people would react if you walked around all day screaming “The results are in, and I’m AWEZSOME!!! You need to know I’m AWESOME because some dude living in Idaho said so!!!! I’m AWESOME!!!”
It may sound exaggerated, but that’s EXACTLY what overuse of this type of post is saying to your followers.
“Our tasting room is open from 10am-4pm Mon-Fri! Stop by!”
I know it is. Your hours are on the front page of your website, and also on the info section of your Facebook Page, and you also posted this SAME copy-and-pasted update 3 times this week…
Too much push, not enough pull. Why not show a photo of the winery dog in the tasting room or a fascinating fact about the guy pouring at the tasting room that day? It doesn’t look as desperate as multiple posts showing your hours of operation.
“Happy Christmas (or) Valentines (or) Independence (or) April Fools (or) St. Swithin’s Day, which of our wines would you pair with this holiday?”
It’s just a dumb question. One way of turning around this type of post is to lookup today’s “food holiday”; for example today (January 10th) is National Bittersweet Chocolate Day. NB: I have no idea who comes up with these bloody holidays! So why not suggest which one of your wines would pair best. A cool resource I use to detail food holidays (should the urge come across me) is from TheNibble.com.
Andrea
Freakin’ brilliant–especially the first one. I can think of one winery in particular … but mum is the word. As for scores, studies show that consumers don’t care nearly as much about numbers as wineries think they do! It’s about tasting & referrals from trusted people (e.g., family, friends).
Kris Chislett
Cheers Andrea, glad you can relate. I certainly could have used “real world” examples, but we’re all still learning in this stuff…
Hilarie Larson
Love the idea of mentioning the TR staff. There are some talented, fascinating people pouring those wines!
Il Palazzone
Whoops…
George Rose
Jeez, if you can’t use Social Media for any of the above mentioned uses, then what good is Social Media. Not everyone is starting a revolution or running for President.
Kris Chislett
:) Try reading again, I said overuse.
P.S. Love your Brut Rose! :)
Kris Chislett
I think what everyone gets caught up on it strictly posting about the wine.
I want to know the name of the wine cat/dog! I want to know about the funny tattoo the guy in the tasting room got after a night drinking too many glasses of fermented grape juice!
Kris Chislett
:)
WineHarlots
I think everyone is guilty of the first one, whether it be nature shots or food porn. Every time I post an ocean shot (yeah, it’s winter everywhere else and I’m a SoCal douche — sue me) I get a tremendous positive response.
The other stuff? Spot on.
Kris Chislett
Oh, don’t get me wrong, every photo where I can somehow include a photo of my cat, I’m GUARANTEED to get more hits.
The sunset/sunrise point is what actually prompted me to write this article. I love a good sunset / sunrise photo as much as the next guy. I just got a little sick of seeing wineries post the same thing over and over again. Fair enough, it’s difficult to come up with constantly new content, but if everyone is posting the same thing how can a winery differentiate themselves?
Joe Becerra
If a photo moves you, it should be posted no matter how much the cliche.
Zoe Geddes-Soltess
While I too enjoy a good sunrise/sunset picture once in a while, your overlying message of thinking outside the box and avoiding repetition is a valid point. Thanks for another great post and a good dose of humour :)
Cheers!
Zoe Geddes-Soltess
Community Engagement, Radian6
@zodot:twitter
Idaho Travel Council
What! We have a monthly magazine? Where do I sign up ;-)
Kris Chislett
:) Happy you found that!
El Jefe
OK, so the message is to mix it up and not post the same thing over and over. But dammit if I get a good sunset photo or a good score, I’m posting it, because it gets a good response and I can’t help it if other wineries overuse them! ;)
Kris Chislett
Fads come and go. When I was posting this, winery sunset photos were EVERYWHERE. Now not so much. Wineries have moved on to Someecards instead. Like I said, new and interesting content is hard to find, but every winery posting the same type of content all the time just makes makes it that less memorable.