Twitter Jumpstart Guide for Wineries

• It's personal. Twitter is a conversation and is personal. This is the accepted Twitter culture for the world-wide wine community network we are building. The most effective means of building brand on Twitter is to think of it as much like joining a local service club to make your business known, but on a vast scale. Blatant sales pitches can be done but they should be modest and infrequent. The most successful wineries on Twitter chat about whatever topics are in the current discussion and we get to know the person behind the brand.
• Organize your Twitter life. It is far more efficient to use a desktop application like TweetDeck or our preference Seesmic to monitor the traffic flow than the Twitter.com Web page. Smart phone apps such as Tweetie really help you stay current and you can make your tweets more interesting by posting from various locations.
• Build brand and sales with persistence. Building your brand on Twitter is most effective if you keep at it. Nothing new about that of course. We see the successful winery Tweeps selling wine to their network and arranging to meet members of their network at their winery. These winery Tweeps are working it every day and several times a day. They also rarely make direct sales pitches that after a while become annoying. They don't use Twitter as just another PR broadcast. They make it personal.
• Make your tweets interesting and informative. Not every tweet can win journalistic awards but do your best to make them worth reading. Tweeps who constantly broadcast their events and product pitches get old fast. It is very easy for your audience to "unfollow" you if they tire of your content.
• Build your network. One of the fastest ways to build a network is to "poach" followers from other wineries and wine Tweeps. Scan through your target's followers and follow the ones that look interesting. This eats lots of time but is interesting or could be delegated. There are some Tweeps using auto-follow applications to build their networks but this is often frowned on. It is probably best to build a business network the old-fashioned way and go for quality.
• Block 'em. Block followers that are not your target market or have useful information. You will find some Tweeps following you whose obvious interest is to sell you something and have no interest in your business. When you look at their profile and tweets you will see nothing but promoting their solar panels or whatever. You don't need this stuff in your network and their comments. Getting rid of them keeps your follower metrics more relevant to your business.
• Follow the leaders. Get started by following eljefetwisted (Jeff Stai of Twisted Oak is by far the most effective winery Tweep), winedivergirl, winequester, sonomawineguy (social wine media consultant and good at it), winebratsf, norcalwine, RickBakas, pmabray, joelvincent, ablegrape, garyvee (he is the Oprah of the wine industry), and anyone local you know. Also set up a search in TweetDeck for wine AND winery AND wineries and watch this traffic for key players.
• Follow outside your industry. Twitter is a huge education machine. Follow some of the more popular "social media gurus" and others outside your trade. This is an incredible opportunity to harvest new ideas. Over time they'll find you so you don't need to look for them.
• To follow or not to follow. As you get more familiar with the culture you can develop a strategy to decide who you want to follow and why. You will have both personal and business objectives.
• Get used to people unfollowing you. Don't take it personally. Some may be upset that you aren't following them but others need to control their traffic flow. Triage is part of this culture. If you have content that is interesting to read then the ones you care about will stay with you. They are smart enough to know that if you follow more than about 1,000 that you will get to know none anyway.
• Beware of third party Websites. There are a lot of third-party Web applications for Twitter. Be careful. Many of us got in trouble last year when one or more of them harvested our Twitter login info and then spammed everyone AND their networks. This destroyed many networks as followers unfollowed in mass to avoid the spam. Bloggers and others have lists of useful Twitter applications and sites so do a little search first.
• Get on Google Alerts. Of course all businesses should be on Google Alerts to see what is being said about them on the Internet: http://www.google.com/alerts

With a simple Web search you will find plenty of advice and discussions that are helpful with building your brand and revenue with social media. Good Luck!

Twitter summary

• Twitter is a conversation and is personal.
• Use a desktop application like TweetDeck or Twittie on an iPhone.
• Sustained effort builds brand.
• Make your tweet interesting and informative.
• Build your network by poaching.
• Block the spammers and oddballs.
• Follow Tweeps outside your industry.
• Decide who you should follow and why.
• Get used to people unfollowing you.
• Be careful about third-party Twitter sites.
• Monitor your brand with Google Alerts.
• Follow key leaders in the Twitter wine community.

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