The Personal Impact of Social Media from Industry Movers & Shakers...

Wine and Hospitality Ezine

Opt-in to receive our ezine | View this issue online

So much talk about social media; how to use it and how to apply it to your business. And no matter how much we talk about it, I still see that confused expression on so many faces. It seems like they are hearing about it, and that it having a powerful effect on business, but they can't quite make the leap to see exactly how it works, or how to use it themselves. So rather than talk in terms of general use of social media, I thought I'd bring you you some real stories, from real people, about the impact social media has had on their life and/or business.

The first is from James Marshall Berry from wineandtheweb.com, hit him on twitter @winotone

Jamesberry So I'm following my twitter feed and it's the middle of the Really Goode Job Hoopla. One of the people I'm following, Frank Gutierrez, @frankloveswine, is a contestant. He and his fiance are traveling up to Napa to prepare for the big day. He tweets 'Finally in wine country... Napa Valley.' Not knowing him at all, I tweet back, 'Frank, I hope you're coming to real wine country, Sonoma Valley..." He tweets back that he would if I would give him a personalized tour. I gladly oblige and we arrange to meet at Sebastiani Winery and start things up. I have my friend Marisa with me and Frank and Anita could not have been nicer. We taste at Sebastiani and take some pics, then it's off to Imagery and B. R. Cohn. We have great times at both, and then run down to Jacuzzi. Jacuzzi gives us the royal treatment as well, just based on the story we told of how we all hooked up. It happens to be a Tuesday and the farmers market in Sonoma Plaza is going on so we hit Highway 12 winery on the corner of the Plaza and grab a bottle, then hit the Sonoma Cheese Factory for some snacks. Of course Frank and Anita ask the customary first timer question... 'Do you all do this every Tuesday..?' Indeed we do...

We part ways planing to keep in touch and a few weeks later Frank is coming up to Napa to make a film for yet another Really Goode Job contestant, who had been hired by St. Supery before the contest ended, Rick Bakas. Frank and Anita are filmmakers located in Los Angeles; Rick needs some extras, so Marisa and I make the trek to Napa. Among the players in the video are Paul Mabary, CEO of Vintank, Evan Cover, CEO of Cruvee and Lesley Russell, VP of Marketing at St. Supery. We are treated to the grand tour of the facility and have a great time doing it.

Here is the video.

So because of one random tweet to a person I didn't know, I am now friends, and possible business associates, with some of the movers and shakers in Napa Valley and in the Social Media Information Technology world. Social Media is a fad? Hardly.. and I don't mean Hardy Wallace.. :-)

-James Marshall Berry

The next story come to us from VinTank:

Paul Mabray This is a classic fairy tale story of one professional meeting another professional across the Internet with ne’er a sight of face nor sound of voice, striking a successful business deal and living richly ever after. It happens all the time...

When Paul Mabray first started using Twitter, 2 years ago, it was simply to test out the newest social technology. Being the early adopter that he was, he read about it on Mashable, signed up and started talking… to the open air. But then, like everyone else’s his audience started to grow. And grow and grow it did, to where he was not only talking with friends and colleagues but forming relationships with people he’d never physically met before.

One such person was Josh Hermsmeyer, a fellow social media guru and local wine maker. Hermsmeyer, also an early adopter, had been using Twitter to connect with acquaintances and friends, while promoting his Pinotblogger site chronicling the life of his Capozzi winery. So in the traditional Twitter way, the two of them met through @replies, tweets and retweets, and realizing they shared a common interest, they became fast followers maintaining daily conversation. Again, it should be noted that the two of them had yet to meet face to face, save for one industry event where they may or may not have brushed shoulders. This could all remain quite tame from here, if it weren’t Mabray’s decision to change professional course.

Having been the founder and CEO of Inertia Beverage Group for nearly 6 years, in December of 2008 Mabray decided to leave the company for different professional pursuits. Being the prolific Tweeter that he was, his Twitter followers became part of his story as he chronicled the formation of his new company, VinTank. In this arena he maintained consistent updates on the new services that VinTank would be offering to the wine and tech world and engaging his followers in his decision making processes.

This is where it gets interesting, during this time, Hermsmeyer was facing a peculiar and particular issue with development of his wine business. Opportunity tweeted him. The very business development expertise and strategic consulting services that VinTank now offered were exactly what he needed. His new Twitter friend could now be his new agency. And without the need for introductions, cold calls, research or referrals Hermsmeyer’s Capozzi winery was pulled on board as the first winery client for Mabray’s VinTank.

All thanks to a virtual relationship started by a 140-character handshake.

- Follow Paul Mabray on Twitter @pmabray

Next up, we have Sebastien Gavillet from WineAromas.com:

Ninety five percent of our business comes through our website since and blog. It has been this way for the website since 2001 and since 2007 for my blog. I handle hundreds of emails a week compared to a dozen phone inquiries. Most of my customers find us online thru SE or our Blog, and of course referral. For that reason we just started investing heavily into SEO, SEM and SMM technology and should double our business within the next 24 month.

We are revamping our blog and creating new informational sites for the general public to enjoy. Today our operations span worldwide. We have now clients in Europe, Australia, Asia and Latin America thank to the world wide web. I have to mention that we are not in a traditional market and most of our products and services are much more specialized than that of others in this industry. As professional tasters (noses for hire) and wine educators we build a solid clientele not only teaching or developing training programs but providing our "noses and expertise" to evaluate wines in production and post production. We are involved from vineyard inspection, production and aging to post production distribution. Protecting our clients' interest in their investments and evaluating current production qualities as well.

A great job with little margin for error. I think that one my favorite things in this business is when someone asks me what do you exactly? My response always makes me grin "I taste wine for a living, and travel the world visiting vineyards and wineries."

You see you can't fully assess the effort that went into making a wine if you don't know where it comes from and how itis made.

- Sebastian Gavillet

I also heard from Carin Galletta from InkFoundry, who sent me a story that included me!

Ink Foundry, an on and off line word of mouth marketing agency, was ask by 'Let's Make a Deal' game show, which will air on CBS daytime this fall (Starting Oct 2nd) to help them fulfill on-air travel giveaway. The producer in charge was very interested in a wine country trip for the show’s first episode. At this point, we put our online connections to the test and reached out to many of our hospitality social networks, including a LinkedIn.com group and WineandHospitalityNetwork.com with the offer. Margie, from WineandHospitalityNetwork.com was quickly able to connect the information to Wendy Newman at StaySonoma.com. In less than 24 hours, Let's Make A Deal and StaySonoma.com were able to connect offline through Ink Foundry’s established digital relationships. StaySonoma.com will receive significant on-air television coverage to more than 4 million viewers on one of America’s most beloved television shows.

- Carin Galletta, follow @inkfoundry.com

www.InkFoundry.com

www.Facebook.com/SocialMediaGo

Just so you know it's not only wine people, here's how Chef Bear Ullman is using social media:

The iphone has changed the way I do business!

I can take pictures of the chef's table course by course and email them to the guests as we go, or post them to FB. I am also a woodturner and post current projects and pieces of art and often have them sold before they are complete, or I make a one off commission and talk it up and sell three more. I have AD/HD and so being able to do things immediately on the spur of the moment is huge!

Being able to have all my calendars on me and check email while I work or when I'm not even here definitely gives us extra bookings and keeps things flowing.

A couple weeks ago I had a travel writer at the chef's table and scanned her blog before she arrived. I saw that it had her
tweets on it... during the dinner I was able to check how we were doing by going to her blog.