Here are three questions to ask every day about your site:
If you aren't tracking these basic stats, how can you expect to improve the performance of your site?
I've always enjoyed J Vineyard's sparkling and still wines. Now J has a blog, which is pretty decent.
J seems to be using their blog as a "press release replacement", which is fine (and in fact, smart companies have RSS feeds for their press releases, allowing equally smart news organizations to effectively subscribe to their releases). It has that "look at us" quality of corporate press releases.
I hope that we'll get to see some writing from their winemakers, or perhaps Judy Jordan herself. J's winemaker, George Bursick, is new to the organization (joined in 2006), so it would be great to hear the authentic voice of the man behind the wines which are just being released.
For example, J made up some cool temporary tattoos, but didn't think to offer them to blog readers. You can bet that El Jefe would never miss that one. And J has such a cool and recognizable logo -- it's the Nike of wineries.
J is a classy organization, which is doing great things with food and wine (if you can, pay a visit to The Bubble Lounge at the winery). I'm glad to see them further legitimizing winery blogging by their participation, and I hope that their blog becomes the authentic voice of the people behind such great products.
Of course, the J blog has been added to The List (our comprehensive list of winery blogs).
(and yes, I've been adding to The List without posting here about the additions. Mea culpa, and my apologies. I've got a plan to rectify this shortly.)
For those of you who don't follow it, I wanted to call attention to the ACAN Media blog which regularly has intereesting posts. For example, What Wineries Can Learn from Gary Vaynerchuk (Vaynerchuk, of course, being the outspoken host of Wine Library TV).
ACAN Media was founded by Tim Elliott, of Winecast fame, in 2006 to help wineries understand and take advantage of social media. I really like his tag line for ACAN Media: Conversational Marketing for the Wine Industry.
Wondering what social media is all about? Take a look at Social Media in Plain English:
As a follow up to my post yesterday, here's an easy way to dip your toes in Twitter-land:
@winetweets chateau ducru beaucaillou 1978 has still got it. Not for much longer though
That's all there is to it. Thanks to Fred Wilson for thinking this up.
Confused about how to use Twitter to promote your winery? Here's a suggested plan of attack:
The whole point is to get people to follow you. You do that by shamelessly pandering to their self-interest (i.e. special offers only available to Twitter followers) and by making interesting tweets. Followers == fans.
Note that people you reach via Twitter are likely to be younger and more interested in the current cool technology. This is not a bad thing for the longevity of your winery, but it may require some adjustment on your part. Ideally, find a member of your winery who already uses Twitter to assist.
Want an easy introduction to the world of Twitter? Check out the free explanatory video Twitter in Plain English from CommonCraft:
I know, it's been a while since I've posted. Thanks to all my readers for their patience (and for the wonder of RSS subscriptions, which means they have't had check this blog everyday, only to be disappointed).
Seth Godin has great advice in his latest post, Not so grand:
...the best way to promote something is consistently and persistently and for a long time.
The hard thing is that "consistent and persistent" requires some thoughtful advance planning, something that is frequently in short supply for the small winery owner.
The best answer I have is to spend a quiet hour or two this week thinking about what you are going to do to promote your wines for each of the next 12 months. Then add the necessary reminders to your calendar, and execute. Plan on trying 2 new methods of promotion during those 12 months. And, of course, think about how you can measure the results of your efforts, to decide what works, and what doesn't. Rinse and repeat.
(Thanks to Paul Mabry, CEO of Inertia Beverages, for the nudge)
Owned by Robin and Valerie Coolidge, Wyandotte Winery is located in Columbus, OH. It has an interesting history, dating back to the construction of the original winery by Amish builders in 1977.
Less than two weeks old, the Wyandotte Winery blog has a great deal less history behind it. And one never knows how these brand-new winery blogs are going to work out, since many are started "because we oughta." As Robin wrote,
Well, Valerie recently attended a conference on wine marketing, and during the conference she learned that many of you enjoy reading blogs.
True enough, but a winery should never start a blog without a pretty strong committment to regularly writing interesting stuff. I think that's one reason that there are so few winery blogs to begin with, many of which are rarely updated. With all the things that a small winery has to do, blogging gets forgotten, unless the writer has a real passion for writing (and writes interesting stuff).
Still, I wish Robin and Valerie the best, as a good winery blog benefits both the winery and the wine industry in general.
My suggestions for the 63rd addition to The List? Spend an hour to plan a regular update schedule (at least once a week), and map out ideas for your next 10 posts. Take some (interesting, well-framed) pictures and build posts around them. Add a link back to your winery's home page. Link to your blog from your winery Web site. Most of all, give people a reason to read your blog (write interesting stuff)!
Update: They fixed it! The navigation link now reads "Press", which is totally accurate. Thanks, Don (and Tyson Caly, who made the change the very next day).
Go to www.donandsons.com and click on the navigation link at the top entitled "Blog".
It takes you here.
Sorry, Don, but that is *not* a blog
In fact, it's not even an RSS feed for your press releases, which is a good idea for any winery (neither Bloglines.com or IE 7 detects a feed on that page). And on top of that, the link marked "Subscribe to DS&S Press Releases" doesn't work (because it uses the not-widely-supported feed: protocol). Come on, guys!
(Note: the real feed for the DS&S Press Releases page is at http://www.donandsons.com/pressreleases/feed/, which IE 7 and bloglines both accept.)
For the record: I am not the Mike Duffy who owns Optima Wine Cellars (although that sounds like a pretty good life, too).
I'm not the Mike Duffy on Canadian television, either. Or the Mike Duffy who works for Time Magazine.
Just the Mike Duffy who writes The Winery Web Site Report.
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