How Can Wine Bloggers Improve Engagement - Wine Media Conference 2021

 

How can wine bloggers improve engagement? 

Wine bloggers sometimes struggle to see engagement with the posts they've worked hard to create. Yet there are some simple tweaks they can make in their blogging and social posting that can help. At the 2021 Wine Media Conference in Eugene, Oregon, I was honored to be selected to present a lightning talk  that leveraged my career in digital marketing and my 15 years as a wine blogger. The presentation  was titled “How to Stand Out in an Overloaded Media World.” Here’s a re-cap of my talk.

Message overload

There are 6,000 tweets a second, 350 photos on Facebook per hour and 7.5 million blog posts a day. The digital landscape has definitely become crowded. And while Instagram adaption has been very successful (with the U.S. representing the biggest user base), so many users means more competition for your message.

MUTTS

The key to gaining attention and engagement is a fun acronym – MUTTS. Message, Uniqueness, Timing Testing and Socializing.

Message

It’s never been more important to be focused and not present a scattered message on your platforms. Being newsworthy and including photos and videos also help engagement.

Uniqueness

To have a chance at the first search engine results page (SERP), a narrowly focused topic helps. Don’t just blog about Pinot Noir – write about a rare grape, a specific region, etc.

Timing

The worst time to Tweet is after 8:30 p.m.  For Facebook and Instagram – weekends are a dead zone, while midweek midmorning to early afternoon are best times.

Testing

Marketers always test their message, send time, and more.  For Twitter, try testing the same content at 10 a.m. and then 3 p.m. – and repeat it for a couple weeks. Soon, you’ll have some data to base your audience engagement on.

Socializing

Once the hard part is done and you’ve created content – the fun part is socializing it to all your channels. And remember to adjust messaging to platform – your Instagram should look different than your Facebook than your LinkedIn.

I was honored to be a speaker at the 2021 Wine Media Conference and look forward to the next.

 

 

South Willamette’s Pfeiffer Winery - A love story in wine

Pfeiffer Winery in south Willamette is located in a prime location for Pinot Noir. Owner Robin Pfeiffer enjoys telling the story of how French investors eagerly tried to buy 70 hillside acres of his family’s farm - tipping him off that the farm should pivot to grape growing.  

The pivot worked in the best possible way. Robin and his wife Danuta now run a very successful vineyard and winery. Success to the couple means selling 90 percent of their grapes to King Estate.  That doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy making wine. In fact, their estate Pinot Noir is a labor of love - for the grape, the familial property, and each other. 

On a recent visit with the Wine Media Conference, we tasted the Blue Dot Pinot Noir - fresh raspberry and black cherry on the palate, good balance, a touch of acidity adding vivacity and long finish. I also enjoyed the estate Pinot Gris, which had lush tropical fruit on the nose & palate and a rich mouthfeel.  According to Robin, the Blue Dot Pinot Noir is the wine that he and Danuta share as they watch the sun set into the Pacific on romantic getaways to the coast.  

Pfeiffer winery is a local Friday night destination, and the garden was full of guests enjoying the wine and dancing to a live band.

Although Pfeiffer wines are not available beyond the tasting room, it was fun to get a look at the hillside vineyard that provides so many grapes to prestigious Pinot Noir.