You have the Facebook page, the Twitter account and the blog. You send out newsletters and special reminders to your opt-in list. With all of that content being pushed at your audiences, how many feedback loops are you actively monitoring to truly understand what your customers want and why?

According to some, small wineries are among the largest users of social media outlets like Twitter. While I find it encouraging to see wineries reaching beyond the club and mailing list, I have yet to hear anything other than anecdotal data around the success of these tactics or if the use of them has enlightened winemakers or winery management with any useful insight to their “fans” or “followers.” It may be that it is too new or it may be that there is no one really gathering good metrics.

Murphy-Goode’s contest was an interesting piece of work but I can honestly say that its impact wasn’t felt much outside of the world of wineries and the people dedicated to covering them. I hope that M-G’s new “lifestyle manager” pays more attention to what their customers are actually saying in social media than just spewing a bunch of fun facts at them through available outlets.

“Social media is about relationships.” Everyone pays lip service to this ideal but how many of you are truly engaging your audiences in a virtual conversation? The single largest complaint I hear from clients and prospects is that it is a real pain to find things to write about in their various outlets. This is what I tell them:

1. If you are listening to your audience, you will find a treasure trove of things to write about
2. Craft your postings to elicit responses that will drive further posting or re-posting by your audience – in other words, get provocative and you will go viral
3. Ask questions about or review things that are related to your business / product

For example, I have seen posts to FB pages and in tweets about how much it stinks that they can’t order wine from a winery’s website for home delivery because of the messed up distribution laws. This presents a small winery with a at least a couple of directions to take this conversation – a) they could talk about their direct-to-trade program, detailing where (if anywhere) in that state they are sold through a retailer or b) they could ask for a suggestion of which local retailer they should think about contacting or c) address the larger question of direct to consumer shipping laws or… you get my drift. It is a golden opportunity for content and conversation that could lead to the Holy Grail – increased sales.

Washington Winos – Shut up and listen already!