Introduction to Wine Blogging Spring 2010

Date and time:  Friday, Feb 12, 8:30am-12:30pm.

Location: Stevenson Hall room 2006

Register for the course through SSU’s School of Extended Education: http://www.ssuexed.com/course.php?id=1767&sem=Spring&year=2010

Course description: Dr. Horowitz and the Pinotblogger (Josh Hermsmeyer) will discuss how they have incorporated blogging into their professional work.  The two will cover a wide variety of topics that they feel are important to consider when blogging in the wine industry.  The discussion will include a review of the strategic and resource requirements of starting a blog, highlight the important parts of maintaining and managing a blog, and conclude by covering ethical considerations and the future of blogging in the wine industry.

I know this isn’t the only show in town, so thanks for coming!

• Wine blogging/social media/Internet talks are becoming more common: WBC, WITS, Unified, the one Josh spoke at last year, the one Steve Heimoff is going to, the one 1WineDude just wrote about…

How did we get here?

• 2008 – WLTV (parody)
• 2009 – A Really Goode Job (parody)
• 2010 – It’s crowded!  Wineries, wine bloggers, wine organizations are blogging.

The benefits of a wine blog

Even though it’s crowded your company should still probably have a blog (frequently updated news/entertainment/content) as part of its website.

• Good for Search Engine Optimization – Russian River Valley Pinot Noir
• Good for creating links/entertainment/content for people to chit-chat about in social networks
• Good for connecting/communicating with others who share similar interests through:
  • Links, pingbacks, trackbacks, tweets, likes, shares, tags…

• Having a blog is especially important for family wine brands with people who want to share their story with customers who want a special wine ~ Capozzi.  A blog is important for large organizations that want to provide current information to people ~ Wines of Chile, Movi Chile.  Wine brands that do not have a person behind them are going to find it more difficult to succeed with a blog.
• Having a blog is especially important if you are a wine writer, photographer, videographer, etc. who wants to get noticed.  It shows people proof of what you can do–experience.
• If you are a brand at Wal-Mart people people probably aren’t buying your wine brand because they want a special connection with a person.

Starting a wine blog

1. It’s taken me over a year of blogging to start to feel comfortable blogging.  The sooner you get started the sooner you will feel comfortable blogging.
2. Tom Wark’s 3 rules to determine whether or not a winery should start a wine blog: be authentic, post regularly, and respond to comments.
3. It’s a semester-long process.  I’m having my marketing research students start tumblr blogs and my promotion management students start WordPress(.org) blogs.
4. Know the community/competition/content that’s out there.  Know how you are going to position yourself.
5. Domain name/server space.
6. Design a good blog (Digging Into WordPress).
7. Create content that people want to consume.
8. Market your content.

Maintaining/optimizing a wine blog.  What do you do on a hourly/daily/weekly/monthly/yearly basis?

• Hourly
  • Twitter and facebook?
  • Respond to comments

• Daily
  • Read other blog posts through your RSS reader
  • Compliment others with comments, tweets, and facebook
  • Think about your next post

• Weekly
  • Backup your data automatically
  • Check to see where your blog traffic is coming from
  • Evaluate the success/failure of a previous post/project
  • Search to see what people are saying about you online

• Monthly
  • Meet people you communicate with online in real life
  • Try to learn a new skill

• Yearly
  • Redesign your blog
  • Attend a conference with people who you communicate with online
  • Take a break

The future of wine blogging

• American Wine Blog Awards
• Academy of Wine Communications: Will this group meet more frequently?
• GPS – foursquare, brightkite, loopt… or are twitter/facebook/gooogle going to win this?
• Interactive displays in tasting rooms – flat screens, computer terminals, iPads…
• Interactive wine labels – “Like this wine? Tell @xyz about it!”
• Links in books – “For more on Russian River pinot noir, visit http://RussianRiverWineGuide/pinotblogger”
• Who is going to be the Vaynermedia of wine country?  Vintank?  Balzac?  TwoFiveMedia?
• What’s going to be parodied at the 2010 North American Wine Bloggers’ Conference?

Books about blogging I recommend

• Blogging’s history: Say Everything by Scott Rosenberg.  Message boards–>email lists–>websites with links–>blogs–>content management systems.
• Blogging culture: The Peep Diaries by Hal Niedzviecki.  Yes, the Internet is weird–read about it.
• How to blog with WordPress: Digging Into WordPress by Chris Coyier and Jeff Starr.  These guys have put together 100’s of websites and tell you how to do it the right way in a book.
• Web Design: The Smashing Book.  Learn about how designers create web pages.
• Internet Marketing: The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web by Tamar Weinberg.  Good review of contemporary Internet Marketing.
• Motivation: Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk.  Gary was featured in both The Smashing Book and The New Community Rules…