The rants about wineries needing to get on the social media
bandwagon come fast & furious these days. Adding in the related rants about
the need for wineries to improve web sites, setup Facebook pages and respond to
contacts through all the online channels out there, and you could get the
impression that the state of the industry is poor and declining rapidly. By
only this measure that may not be a stretch.
I’ve picked one particular thread in the conversation
because my experience with at least one of the actors in the story proves the
point being made in clear and simple terms. But I wouldn’t be writing this post
if I didn’t have at least a little something to say to expand the argument a
bit.
Joe Roberts, aka 1WineDude, wrote a post on January 25
th
entitled
“Where Can Wineries Really Innovate? In Engaging The People WhoActually Drink The Stuff!” where he lays out his ideas on what wineries can and
should be doing to engage their customers. (Sorry Joe I’m going to pick on you
a bit, but in the end your position will be the winning proposition.) In that post the main point is that wineries
suck at innovation in customer engagement and are losing out on brand
positioning that is going on everyday using social media. The points were stated
well but there wasn’t example provided, and no consideration of the dollars and
cents based at stake.
That post got an opposing response Steve Heimoff in
“HeyJoe, lighten up on the social media thing”. Steve took the approach that winery
owners and winemakers are up to their eyeballs in the work to make the product
and run their businesses that the “free” time to curate their social media presence
and engage the customers waiting online is easier said than done. He also
states that he thinks the sharp edge of statements in Joe’s original post
ignore the realities of what the producers ARE doing to engage and run their
businesses. I personally ride the line between both voices. Any business, not
just wineries, needs to invest more time as they grow to manage their brand and
engage customers. That is nothing new. There is plenty of technology out there
to do this, but that is not the problem. Changing how businesses allocate time
and resources is, and that has everything to do with money and a return for
investments made. Even so, the adoption of such technologies is an evolution
that takes time.
Joe responded to Steve today in “
This Is Me Totally NOTLightening Up On Wine And Social Media” where he refines the argument to be
more about engagement than social media, and provides some engagement examples.
As one commenter (Richard Auffrey, aka The Passionate Foodie) has already pointed
out, the examples aren’t about social media and the article title and points
made seem to revolve around that. Maybe the premise of the post was titled a
bit off point, but Joe is human and is trying to be a thought leader for an
industry he loves and wants help be even more successful. I’ll let other people jump on that specific point
if they wish.
In the most recent post Joe says “I’m not lightening up. If anything, I think we all should be making
more of a fuss over this stuff, not less.” and “Ignoring
social media entirely makes you a Muppet” to get the reader’s attention.
Joe’s bottom line is this: “if you are producing wine, and in this day and age you are letting
someone like me (or any critic) dictate the majority of your brand message to
current and potential customers in online engagement channels (twitter, Facebook,
etc.), then you need to audition for a Jim Henson Company project, because
you’re acting like a Muppet…”
If you want to read all the opinions, comments and put your
own stamp on the conversation use the links above. I encourage anyone who loves
wine, works in the wine industry or is thinking about launching a winery to get
involved. Joe is out there ahead of the indsutry coalescing his experiences
into a set of guiding principles that in time will be the way things are done
in the wine business. It’s just going to take time.
As a technologist by trade I’ve seen this situation before,
it was called the Dot Com boom. During
that period every company in every industry was being told they had to get
online because everything was going that way. I ran an IT consulting firm from shortly
before the boom and was along for the ride during and after the crash. I saw
all manner of stupefying business plans and VC money flying fast and furious at
anything with an “e” or “dotcom” in the text of said plans. Most of it was
crap. I turned down jobs because the business had no real plan and most of
those evaporated before I would have gotten paid. That era was exciting but we
all lost because of stock market roller coaster that resulted from it. More
than 10 years later we have seen the shake out from that era come full circle
and many of the current darlings of the IT world are those companies that
either benefited from what followed the insanity or had the fine timing to come
later.
We are seeing a social media boom now. The drums beating
about companies needing to be on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, etc.,
etc. sounds the same to me. But it is different this time. Social media is
about innovation in marketing, customer engagement and brand communication.
Those aren’t new concepts and a little change will be good for all of us.
But how do we evaluate what is really going on in the wine
industry and figure out what to expect for technology adoption, and
specifically engagement technologies, from the industry at large? Because we are
looking at this from a technology slant we should dance with the Technology
Adoption Lifecycle for a few songs. The Technology Adoption Lifecycle (or Diffusion of Innovation) is a
model of technology adoption based on research done of farmers in the 1950’s.
Why should this matter today when so much has changed? Because it applies and
holds up to this day, that’s why!
The graphic below will show you what the progression of
technology adoption looks like in any community of actors whose primary
business isn’t technology (farming, retail, wine, etc). I am making the
distinction about adoption of technology in tech focused industries because
that is a whole other animal in itself. Trust me, I deal with that every
freaking day!
Clearly you can see that knowing where in progression of an
adoption we are will help anyone understand exactly where the business in their
focus industry might be in their own adoptions.
For the wine business and social media I don’t think we have
moved to the Early Majority phase yet. That means at most 16% of wineries have
adopted the technologies and have been able to successfully integrate them into
operations. How does this do for context for everyone? Anyone want to disagree?
I don’t have research to back up my assertion, I’m using a general perception
from my own experience and people like Joe who report on what they see from the
field. It fits for me, but take a shot at it if you wish. I’ll have that
conversation because it only helps refine the argument and make the case
stronger.
I stated above that I think this model holds up. A web
strategy post from 2010 entitled
“Matrix: Social Technology Adoption CurveBenefits –and Downsides“ explains this curve in terms of social technologies. The
benefits and downsides around adoption are discussed and that detail is an
essential read for anyone who takes up the position Joe asserts.
Wineries need to listen in here, but in the end what they
really need to do reflect on their day to day operations and figure out where
they are spending their time and money. Once they know how they currently spend
they need to be brutally honest and determine the return they are getting for
that spend. I know for a fact that they will find places to move money and time
from to where it can be better spent. That’s
when they can seriously entertain the suggestion that they can do a better job
of engaging customers by adopting social media. Clearly some companies might
need help with that, they aren’t technologists after all, and the loud voices
in this conversation should consider what role they might play there.
The wine business isn’t a new industry and is littered with
so many control and anti-competitive facets that in themselves add another
barrier to moving along the curve. Those areas must be attacked in parallel if
we want to speed the story along.
How did this whole experience prove the point Joe was making
for me? Joe’s engagement with me. His blazing turnaround to my comments and
handling of a technology issue I had in replying to a comment made it clear he wanted
to engage me as a consumer of his brand. And it made me feel good. There is no
better proof than that.
Cheers!
Jason
