The Rules of Relationship Marketing
November 30, 2011 by drinknectar
Filed under Social Media
Last week, I had the opportunity and good fortune to share my Thanksgiving wine picks with Spokane area wine lovers on KXLY920 radio station and KXLY TV’s Good Morning Northwest show. While some may think of me as a media whore, I love these opportunities to showcase Spokane wine and of course Nectar Tasting Room. While these opportunities sometimes seem to come out of the blue, they are not by accident, they are by design. The great thing is that anyone can develop the relationships they need for success in their industry.
Over the last few months I’ve been doing quite a bit of thinking on “relationship marketing” and building strategic connections; so much so, that I’ve started a book about the subject (only on chapter 3 of 12 right now). While I may not “do” relationships and networking correctly all the time, I have seen the power of these strategic connections in action these last 12 months. Here are three tips for turning online relationships into offline success.
1. Be genuine
People can spot a phony. Be who you are regardless of your faults and failures. There are some people I don’t get along with. I can be impetuous and quick to speak without thinking through the consequences, but I am also quick to apologize and know my shortcomings. Many people can build a wide and shallow network but it will collapse like a house of cards if the roots are not deep and genuine.
2. Be purposeful
Build relationships that can be symbiotic. This isn’t done to meet selfish needs but it is done with thoughtful intention. As a Washington wine blogger, I knew that I needed the bigger community of established bloggers. I intentionally sought out and connected with people like Washington Wine Report, Seattle Wine Gal, Paul Gregutt, Wild Walla Walla Wine Woman and more. These relationships became mutually beneficial and even spawned some great friendships.
Knowing that social media marketing and developing a brand required a broader reach, I intentionally connected with local influencers like Pam Scott, Visit Spokane, Ally Shoshana, Monte Tareski, Barb Chamberlain (and so many others) along with the growing local traditional media population on Twitter (enter the radio and TV contacts). Be purposeful about the connections you make whether it is media, non-profits, industry alliances, or popular influencers.
I would speculate that at least 90% of my great “offline” relationships began through “online” purposeful connections.
3. Be giving
Some people are consumers and users. By their very nature their endeavors dry up because at their core they are taking more than they are giving and eventually there is nothing left to take. I love what I do. I love Spokane and the wine scene here. While I have been intentional about most everything I’ve done, I also love seeing the success of those around me and promoting our area. From day one when 5 people watched a video and 3 people read a blog post, it was about adding value to the community. A good friend recently reminded me that it was this “giving” that was so attractive at the beginning. As a business owner with bills, new stresses and responsibilities, I have to admit that I briefly lost sight of giving and became inwardly focused. People often ask if a wine bar around the corner is our competition. I always respond with, “No, I love that place. I often go there when I’m not working.” I love promoting them and their events. Regardless of whether there is a direct financial return, giving should be at the core of what you do. I’ve recently learned that there is a basic principle of the universe. Where your attention goes, your energy flows. Living life with open hands to give also allows you to receive back as well. Many of the most valuable relationships I have were birthed out of giving relationships with the Spokane Symphony, American Childhood Cancer Organization INW, Make a Wish foundation, Cancer Patient Care, Cystic Fibrosis and more.
Relationships are the key to success in any endeavor. Relationship marketing is the unique combination of building and nurturing relationships both online through social media and offline through traditional means. In my opinion, relationships grow through selfless effort and sacrificing your own needs for the greater good of others. Be genuine as you intentionally and purposefully build relationships with key people. Look for ways you can give back to each of those relationships and success will be yours.
For those of you who are interested, I’ve included both the TV and radio spots here for you 
RADIO SPOT http://kxly-am.tritondigitalmedia.com/upload/wineguy.MP3
No I Won’t Be Your Friend
June 9, 2011 by drinknectar
Filed under Social Media
Dear business owner, I don’t want to be your friend. I don’t want my personal information being in your feed. I’m sure you don’t need to know about my friend drama or how high my bedazzled score is. I want to like you. I want to be a fan of your business, but we don’t need to play Mob Wars together, or ‘poke’ each other, or even chat. Please, shut down the friend page for your business and open a Facebook business page. I’ll like you, I promise.
Now, I don’t mean to be harsh. Many businesses started Facebook “friend” pages because they were misinformed or because they were early adopters before Facebook had business pages. I would like to gently encourage any business with a “friend” page to start the process of moving those friends to “likes.” Growing friends is certainly easier, but as you’ll see below there are several benefits to an active and engaging business page.
Five Reasons Why I Like You, I Really Like You
1. The Danger of Being Closed Down
Facebook terms and conditions clearly state that you will not use your personal profile for commercial gain. Additionally, profiles are to be created with real names. Business names are not “real names.” I’ve known a few businesses that have had their profile pages shut down, without warning for violating these terms. Losing connection to several hundred to several thousand people is not something you want to risk.
2. The Power of an Opt In
When a person makes the conscious choice to ‘like’ your page, they are opting in to your message. You’ve proven to them that there is a connection and through the power of engaging content you can keep them coming back for more.
3. Limited Popularity
While it may seem like a stretch to have 5000 friends, you may be surprised to learn that over time your brand may easily generate this kind of organic growth. Facebook limits the amount of friends a person can have to 5000. Ask my friend, Rick Bakas about those limitations. Rick is a person, but he is also a brand. He’s now created a business page for his brand to accommodate his popularity. Locally, I see several businesses with friend pages that will soon be at that cap. Don’t limit your growth, start thinking strategically how to move people to the correct platform.
4. Stats and Analytics
Facebook analytics can be a pretty powerful tool. At a glance business pages can see who is interacting with their page, what type of media people are consuming, and how effective their campaigns are. The demographic information alone can help make significant business decisions. Facebook also tells businesses the impressions (or reach) of each status update. Watching this information over time can tell you when people are online and what type of content generates the most interaction.
5. Facebook Ads
Don’t underestimate the power of Facebook ads. Facebook is the single most used web site in the world and those trends don’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. With 50% of users logging in daily, and average time on site nearing an hour, Facebook is certainly giving ad spots greater visibility and power. The future of their revenue model is in ads. Business pages can utilize ads to gain more ‘likes’ or to promote a particular product or event. The beauty of ads is the ability to target who sees your advertisement. If you want wine lovers within 50 miles of Spokane, WA who are also interested in jazz to see your ad, Facebook gives you that kind of power. My personal preference is to pay per click, rather than pay per impression.
A Migration Plan
Now that you see the error of your ways and are scared to be shut down, you need a migration strategy. How are you going to move the hundreds (and potentially thousands) of people to a new location?
- Start: The journey always begins with the first step. Create your business page, add some content updates, upload the pictures you need, get the profile complete and then start reminding your “friends” to go “like” the page. Do this frequently with a stop date in mind (90 days).
- Create an event: From your “friend” page, create a Moving Day event to let all of your “friends” know that they should like your new page. Remind them that the “friend” page will eventually be shut down and if they want to continue to get your witty, humorous, and informative posts, then they better go like you.
- Encourage Migration: If you can afford to, offer a special small incentive to everyone who migrates by a certain date. Make the coupon only available on the business page and promote it through all your marketing channels.
Facebook recently added a feature to allow people to migrate their profile page to a business page. The process only transfers your profile picture and automatically turns all your friends into likes. No other data is transfered. Check out this article on Mashable for more information. http://mashable.com/2011/03/31/facebook-profile-to-page-migration/
Chances are you won’t win everyone over to your like page. Some people just don’t pay attention. You’ll most likely also gain some new “likes” as the organic growth of people liking your new page shows up on hundreds or thousands of people’s feeds. Start now. There will be some attrition along the way but the results will be worth it. You’ll “like” it, I promise.
About the Author
Josh Wade is the owner of Nectar Tasting Room, Spokane Wine Magazine and Nectar Media. Josh used the power of relationship marketing to build a following and a brand for a business before opening. Relationship marketing and social media has helped drive successful business revenue without the need to spend money on traditional marketing. Nectar Wine Blog receives 12,000-20,000 page views per month and ranks in the top wine blogs in the country for engagement, traffic, and readership. Learn more about Nectar Media here.
Get Listed – SEO for Better Conversion
February 22, 2011 by drinknectar
Filed under Featured News, Social Media
I’ve been on an SEO / SEM (search engine marketing) kick lately. As a new business owner, I’m starting to see the value of proper placement, key search term optimization, and Google (or Bing) ranking. In a previous post I wrote about how properly tagged blog posts can generate long term recurring traffic and how Google loves linkbacks (being referenced in other people’s blog posts). With Nectar Tasting Room opening, I’m more in tune with how people can find me online and being a part of the search terms people are using for wine tasting and wine events in Spokane.
If you have a business, you NEED to be thinking about where you rank in Google search. If you sell shoes in Sheboygan or parakeets in Poughkeepsie, Google search will improve your customer conversion. I will go as far as to say that focusing on search engine listing is the single best investment a business can make in their bottom line.
I recently had a conversation with a local search engine guru / god…okay, his name is Ed from Sixth Man Marketing about an upcoming search engine optimization seminar in Spokane. If you live here, I strongly encourage you to go (details below). If you don’t live here, well, your loss because Spokane is a really cool place. Regardless, Ed (a.k.a. SEO guru/god) was kind enough to provide FIVE SEO/SEM tips just for my readers. Shhhh…don’t share this post. It’s just for those that read this blog. P.S. Stay tuned at the end of the post for the amazing details on the upcoming Get Listed University seminar.
FIVE SEO TIPS
- Make sure your business information is consistent across the web. Do an audit of your brand and make sure the references you find are the same. Update any inaccuracies and make sure your business name and particular is consistent.
- Test categories in Google Places. Look to see if the categories you think will be a good choice for you produces a local search result (map). Test the categories that make sense for your business and track them to see which ones work best for you.
- Make sure your address and phone number are prominently listed on your site. This can be a sub-page but make sure they aren’t just in the footer. A page that calls our your address and phone number helps a lot. Also 800 numbers can really throw the search engines off. Use your local number if at all possible.
- Understand what citations mean to local search. The Get Listed Resources page has great information about them.
- Once you understand what they are, I recommend using the Whitespark Citation Finder to track them down.
GET LISTED UNIVERSITY
Spend a whole day with industry experts and search engine optimization pros at Northern Quest Resort and Casino on February 25 from 8AM – 5PM. Your fee includes…
- A full-day workshop to accommodate the amount of content & questions
- Classroom style seating for easier (and more comfortable) note taking
- A lab area for hands-on training! Get personalized advice from our experts.
- Updated presentations with the latest information about the Google & Bing search algorithms.
- More local success stories. Hear how last year’s attendees (and a few others) made HUGE gains.
- Lunch and snacks. After all, what’s a seminar without lunch and snacks.
- Free follow up class at LaunchPadINW Lounge for the first 40 people who register
Use the discount code “LAUNCHPADINW” and save $30 off the $149 price
VISIT http://www.sixthmanmarketing.com/get-listed-spokane for all the details! If you don’t go, you’re sorta silly!
Rankings, Linkbacks, and Google SEO
December 9, 2010 by drinknectar
Filed under Social Media
What is in a number? Do you pay attention to rankings, links, mentions, and search engine optimization? Lately I’ve been talking with Ed Reese, SEO guru of Sixth Man Marketing. Ed knows analytics, google, and conversion rates like nobody else I know. He happens to have an office at the LaunchPadINW space just above my future tasting room. When you type “SEO Spokane” in Google, he comes up first. When you Google “Social Media Spokane,” LaunchPadINW is first. These are two good resources to know.
SEO Rocks!
CASE #1:
While I am not an expert, let me give you two examples from my blog. One of the most consistently viewed posts on my blog is one called A Mojito Kind of Night. One hot summer evening, I was bored. Wine didn’t sound good so I decided to make mojitos. I got out my video camera, recorded the process and 45 minutes later I posted the “how to” post. The post is THE single most viewed post on my wine blog – go figure.
CASE #2
Yesterday I woke up at 5:45AM to get ready for a morning event. Like I do every morning, I grabbed some coffee and logged into Google Analytics (yes I’m addicted). I was blown away to see that 500+ referrals to the site had come from people Googling “Leavenworth Christmas Tree Lighting.” The day ended with over 1000 referrals and my highest traffic day ever. Why? Two months ago a post titled Leavenworth – Bavarian for Wine? In the post I mentioned the Leavenworth Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony which just happens to be going on this weekend.
What did I do right? Both of these posts had good SEO optimized key words. Both had images that referenced the same key words. Both had video that referenced the same key words. Both were referenced on other people’s sites with link backs. Google likes these things. When Google finds more things it likes about your site and your post…BOOM, SEO rocks!
I love the fact that when you Google Spokane Wine, Spokane Wine Events, or many Spokane wineries by name, you get a NectarWineBlog post. While I wish I could say that my maniacal plan has come together, in reality I’ve just stumbled into most of it. However, now that I’ve seen the power of proper search engine tagging, more time is going into optimizing each post before pushing the publish button.
Linkbacks, Trackbacks, Incoming Links, and References
As I mentioned before, Google loves link backs (incoming links). These incoming links act as a circular loop that plays to Google’s crawling algorithms. Having an incoming link (being referenced) by a high ranking site or trusted site (news, college, reference resource) scores you bonus points. This is another reason why content is king. Content drives consistent readership. Readership builds interest. Interest causes you to be referenced or quoted or used as a resource. These are all incoming links.
Search Engine Optimization leads to effective Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Where is the first place you go when you’re looking for information on something? Google. Who goes to the yellow pages anymore? With 21% (50% by December 2011) of Americans using smart phones like Android, iPhone and Blackberry, these devices become portable information mines. Out on the town looking for a restaurant that serves Thai food? Google it. Looking for a local store that stocks the latest Mark Oldman book? Google it. SEM means that people using Google drive sales. Investing in good placement is good marketing.
So, what is a number? If you blog for a hobby, the number might be useless to you. If you blog to be recognized as a leader in an industry (Ed Reese, SEO; LaunchPadINW, Social Media), then that number is critical to building business.
WIKIO.COM
Wikio ranks blogs by the number of link backs. More link backs equals higher rankings. More link backs by top rated blogs equals even higher rankings. Here is how they describe it on their site.
“The position of a blog in the Wikio ranking depends on the number and weight of the incoming links from other blogs. Our algorithm accords a greater value to links from blogs placed higher up in the ranking.
A blog linking another blog is only counted once a month i.e. if blog A links to blog B 10 times in a given month, it is only counted as having linked to that blog once that month. The weight of any link decreases over time. Also, if a blog always links to the same blog, the weight of these links is decreased.
Only links found in RSS feeds are counted. Blogrolls are not taken into account.
In December 2010, retweets were added as an additional factor to the ranking algorithm. For each twitter account, only one backlink per blog is taken into account each month.”
So, to put it more succinctly:
- Link backs are cool
- Link backs by top ranking sites are cooler
- Multiple link backs by the same blog don’t count
- Buddies who always link you are weighted lower
- Blog rolls don’t count
- Re-tweets were counted for December
So, get talked about (especially by top sites) and you’ll rank high. What excites me about the December ranking (besides the obvious number 2 position of my own site), is that FIVE Washington focused wine blogs are listed in the top 20. My friends at Wine Peeps, Vinotology, Washington Wine Report and Paul Gregutt all score high! I’m not exactly sure how the heck I’m ranked up there above Palate Press, 1 Wine Dude or Tom Wark (Fermentation). November was a big month for me (with the magazine and the tasting room). I’m sure there was just a lot of buzz that mentioned the blog. I certainly do appreciate it, but I have a long way to go. When you Google the words Wine Blog, you don’t find me until page 6. I’ll throw a party when you Google the words “Wine Blog” or “Wine” and I’m ranked at the top (spots currently held by Vinography and Wine.com.
Numbers, rankings and Google SEO matter. Proper SEO can drive SEM and revenue.
Take the time to tag your posts, key words and images before you push publish. That extra time could make the difference between 100 hits and 1000 hits, or better yet, one extra customer.
Ignite Spokane Sparks Renewed Passion
October 7, 2010 by drinknectar
Filed under Featured News, Social Media
If you had five minutes to share anything you wanted, what would you say? Ignite is a global phenomenon that sparks creativity and inspiration in each host city. Ignite was inspired by Pecha Kucha Nights, where speakers are given 20 slides, each shown for 15 seconds, giving each speaker 5 minutes of fame. The first Ignite took place in Seattle in 2006, and since then the event has become an international event with gatherings in Helsinki, Finland; Paris, France; New York, New York; and many other locations.
Produced by perketing.com, Ignite was brought to Spokane by local business woman Margaret Croom of Nosey Parker guide books. The first Ignite Spokane was September 30 and 15 speakers lit up the Bing Crosby Theater with a range of creative, inspirational and motivational presentations.
Some stand out messages were a humorous look from author Deanna Davis on why “Children should Rule the World,” and an inspirational message of overcoming lymphoma from fiction author Tony Hines. Barb Chamberlain shared how bikes will save the world and news talk radio host Angela Monson talked about the power of faceless communicators. The most unique and humorous messages of the night was presented by Ashley Paulus, “Feminism & the Jersey Shore.” This unique look at the cast members of Jersey Shore and how they are empowering a new generation of women was creatively and eloquently presented.
The next Ignite will be in February. What would you say in 5 minutes?
I was honored to be among the presenters and chose to speak on something that I think is often overlooked in social media and marketing campaigns, listening. We live in a world that loves to talk in 140 bite size chunks, status updates, blog posts, and videos but is anyone really listening? How do you get heard among all the noise? Five minutes, 20 slides…here is what I had to say!
Wineries on Twitter Castello di Borghese
September 8, 2010 by drinknectar
Filed under Wineries on Twitter
See how Long Island’s first winery is using social media to connect to customers and wine lovers. The goal of this series is to connect with wineries and wine business that use Social Media (Twitter and Facebook) effectively. These interviews can serve as a catalyst to help other wineries and wine businesses to see the benefits (and pitfalls) of joining the social revolution. See all sixteen interviews here.
On the Web – On Twitter @borghesewine – On Facebook
Interview completed by Jen Ramsay, Borghese Coordinator for Social Networking and Electronic Marketing
Interview Questions
How long have you been using Twitter?
We’re newbies! We’ve only been on Twitter a couple of months now. We’re very excited to be a part of a new community, though – we’ve been making some great connections rather quickly and look forward to continuing to build such connections with other wine professionals and wine lovers.
What prompted you to dive in?
We love finding new ways to connect and building relationships with our customers, wine lovers, and other professionals in the wine industry. Being on Twitter helps us do so in a very “now” manner – it’s helping us connect to a very savvy, very cutting edge, and very spontaneous group of people, and we’re loving that. It’s really helping us keep our finger on the pulse of wine conversations happening in the virtual world.
What type of strategy or approach do you use when posting content?
We strive for a few things with our content: 1.) To be consistent (we try to post several things every day!), 2.) To follow people who post good content so that we can RT that good content, 3.) To provide relevant content that also shows our personality. The Borghese Vineyard personality (or brand) is about being refined and classy while at the same time having fun with wine. We try to communicate that in all that we post. One practical strategy we use, too, is to subscribe to Google Alerts relevant to the wine world – if we see an interesting link or story there, we post it on Twitter. We try to balance posting about happenings at our vineyard with happenings in the wine world – we don’t want to limit our presence to only telling people about ourselves, because we are truly looking to build community and be a part of the bigger conversation on wine.
What have been the benefits of using Twitter/Facebook? (increased traffic, increased brand awareness, customer connection, etc)
We have seen some increase in our website traffic since delving into social media outlets. We are really hoping, though, that it will start to drive more foot traffic in to the vineyard. We LOVE our established customers and are so grateful that they return week after week, event after event, and season after season, but we also want to bring in new folks to the vineyard. We feel we have a lot to offer and want people to come get a taste of it.
Is there a single success story that you can point to with using Twitter/Facebook?
We really enjoyed being part of #Cabernet Day! Big thanks to Rick Bakas and the St. Supery team for sparking the flame and fanning the fire on that one, as well as to Lindsay Ronga at Cork’d and Kristen Murphy at Wine Library for coordinating details with us to have Borghese Wine at their tasting event in NYC. The people who tasted our Cabs both at the vineyard and at the NYC event had some great things to say about our wine, and everyone who participated that day got to see that. We definitely mark that as an initial success and we look forward to continuing to participate in other events / collaborations like this!
What do you think is the single biggest barrier to why we don’t see more wineries actively using Social Media tools?
It’s still unfamiliar territory to a lot of people – particularly to a lot of people who are used to doing “business as usual, the way it’s always been done.” There are whole different sets of rules and etiquette to learn and understand and play by in the virtual world and that can feel scary and daunting to people who haven’t yet jumped in. Social Media tools change so quickly – a lot of people probably think, “what’s the point” in learning a new tool, because they think it will be obsolete soon enough. A lot of people still see Social Media as a trend or a fad that will pass. Really, though, Social Media almost presents a sort of “changing of the guard” so to speak when it comes to correspondence. That said, people (like us!) are continuing to see the benefits and are taking the time to learn what the differences are all about and how to leverage the differences, and we’re beginning to see that the conversation will happen with or without us, so we are choosing to be a part of it. Also, a lot of people think that if you join Twitter or Facebook (or any Social Media outlet, for that matter) today, that you will see a revenue increase tomorrow. It’s just not the case. You need to be patient, you need to slowly build, and you need to realize it’s not a magic pill. You have to work just as hard in social media marketing as you did / do with “feet on the street” marketing. It’s not a replacement – it’s a supplement, and it’s not magic – it still takes hard work.
What advice would you give to wineries joining the stream or getting back into the stream?
Jump in. Don’t be afraid. You will stumble as you learn, but you WILL learn. Be genuine, be yourself. Communicate your brand authentically. Reach out to people in the Social Media stream – everyone who we’ve reached out to has been so helpful, so willing to help, and so generous – all of them have welcomed us with open arms. Social Media can seem like an endless sea (which it is!), but take it one stroke at a time – you’ll get there!
Briefly tell us about your winery, a new release, or something unique about you?
We were Long Island’s first established vineyard and winery in 1973 (under the name Hargrave), and we are currently owned and operated by Marco and Ann Marie Borghese – two hardworking and amazingly generous people. We’re located on Long Island’s North Fork, right in the heart of Wine Country, in a town called Cutchogue (which, research has shown, is the sunniest three miles in all of NY State!). We are situated on about 80 acres, only 25 of which are under vine, so we are a small producer of high quality wines. Our signature wines are Sauvignon Blanc (made from the very first vines planted on LI), Pinot Noir (one of only 3 producers of Pinot on LI), and Meritage (a beautiful Bordeaux-style blend). Our wines have won many medals – most recently, our 09 Chard, 09 Sauv Blanc, and 08 Fleurette Rose took home Silver Medals at the NY Wine and Food Classic, and our 06 Cab Franc and 05 Merlot took home Bronze Medals at the same competition.
Something exciting for us in terms of new things happening is that are in the process of officially launching a Wine Club for the first time in about 5 years! We hope that people will check it out: http://castellodiborghese.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/index.html. More details and the ability to purchase memberships will be coming soon on our website, too!
What is your favorite rock band and why?
Ok, for this one, I had to default to asking co-owner Ann Marie Borghese. Here was her answer: “Nirvana. God, I loved Kurt Cobain. And the Rolling Stones. Who doesn’t love the Rolling Stones?”
CASTELLO di BORGHESE VINEYARD
- 17150 County Road 48, Cutchogue, NY 11935
- 631-734-5111 / info@castellodiborghese.com
- www.borghesevineyard.com
- Owners: Marco and Ann Marie Borghese
- Established: 1973, as Hargrave Vineyard (Long Island’s first)
