Top 10 Mistakes Wineries (and Other Businesses) Make on Facebook–Part 2

Continuing on from my post yesterday, these are my top 5 mistakes wineries (and other businesses) make on Facebook.

5. Not Embracing the Human Element

As the Internet is evolving, it is becoming inherently more human. You can’t just setup a website, or in this case a Facebook Page and hope people love you and your content!
In order to embrace the human element, it is wise to show your audience what you look like. People have a hard time relating to a logo, so find some way to incorporate this into your Page profile picture, maybe even change it up every now and then.

Also be weary about automating any part of your Social Media. Going back to one of my previous points, people aren’t stupid, they will see through your thinly veiled attempt to try and appear human! I’ve started seeing automation a lot recently (on Facebook and Twitter), as more applications become available which let users schedule automatic or reoccurring updates. There are ways to link Facebook to your Twitter account, so every time your post on Twitter, your Facebook followers will see the same thing. This is a great tool, and will certainly save a good amount of time, but be careful! Make sure you are in turn checking your Facebook Page to ensure all comments are responded to.

So to my last point; you need to respond to EVERY. SINGLE. COMMENT. on your Facebook Page. If you post an article and someone comments, make sure you at least acknowledge their presence. This of course is impossible if you are a brand like Skittles (which has pushing 15 million fans), but I’m guessing you’re not (and you don’t)!

4. Closing Off Your Page Wall

A very basic element that is often overlooked on Facebook.
When a Page is first setup, the option is set so that when users click on your Page, it will only display posts by your business. Therefore if a user posts comments, photos or links etc. on your wall, it will not show to other users. For multiple reasons this is not a good thing. Your fans have a voice that needs to be heard! Who knows? On of your fans could have found a really good review on one of your wines, which you didn’t even know existed, and want to share it with your audience! If your Page is closed, the post will not be visible.

To open up your Page Wall, simply go to your Page —> Click edit Page —> Click manage permissions —> Under the option for Wall tab shows select All Posts, and save.

In the below screenshot, you can see the Page Wall for a winery which by default only displays posts by the winery.

3. Overselling

I’ve already talked about this briefly in point #7, but I think it requires further clarification.
As a rough guide, if more than 1 in every 10-15 of your updates is asking/telling your audience to buy your product, you are over-selling! The last thing you are trying to do is come across as a cheesy used car salesman! You want your audience to trust you.

So your question is “Why am I even on Facebook if I am not selling my product?”
I’m going to throw something out there, which may shock a lot people: Social Media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter are not designed as selling tools, and are as much about listening to your customers as they are about broadcasting.

Any way that you find to connect with your audience can only be a good thing! Ask them what they had for breakfast, wish them a happy Friday, throw in a random funny wine quote, whatever you can do to keep your content interesting. Of course try and keep it on topic, but listen to what they have to say, you can tailor your voice once you work out your audience.
If in doubt, follow the people on Facebook who are doing it right and mimic their updates, (by mimic I don’t mean copy and paste).

I would show you a screenshot as an example of over-selling by wineries specifically (I have lots of examples in my arsenal), but the blurring would be out of control so as not to embarrass anyone.

2. Expecting Immediate ROI

It blows my mind how many businesses are still weary about joining and interacting on Facebook, as they fail to recognize how it can generate any significant return on investment.

I like to ask, what is the ROI of a magazine article, billboard or radio ad? The ROI on traditional advertising is almost impossible to track without adding some kind of coupon or redemption code. Unfortunately (or fortunately as the case may be), they still haven’t figured out a way to get magazines, billboards and radio ads to talk back. At least with Social Media you are maintaining a dialogue with your customers, and know that you are further reinforcing your brand by engaging with them.

Rick Bakas uses this analogy, “When a vineyard is planted, the vines go into the ground, but they don’t produce useable fruit until the fourth or fifth year. The young fruit grows in year one, two and three, but doesn’t make good wine. This is how I look at building a brand in Social Media. If you nurture it, and let it grow organically, your Social Media presence will produce fruit year over year”

1. Thinking Facebook is the Be-All-and-End-All of Social Media

Contrary to popular belief, Facebook is not where Social Media, begins and ends. I personally engage with people a lot more on Twitter than I do on Facebook.

Twitter is often ignored by those who believe that every time you go to the bathroom, you need to get on Twitter and tell people about it! In my humble opinion, if you are a winery and not on Twitter you are making a HUGE mistake! I’m not going go into any further detail here, I might save that for another post.

If you need convincing of the importance and the potential capabilities of Twitter, check out the below screenshot.
There are a couple of things you should know about this example:
– I wasn’t following this particular user, and they weren’t following me. I therefore have no idea who this person is.
– I have no financial gain to make by recommending the wines I did.
-I don’t respond to everyone I see who is looking for a wine recommendation, this was just coincidence.
– I simply stumbled across her comment as she used #wine to categorize her tweet.
– I just potentially sold a bottle of wine in under 6 minutes and 40 words.

If you have any questions or need any help with your Social Media, hit me up! I’m here to help.

Kris Chislett
Kris@blogyourwine.com
Twitter: @krischislett