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keting for the mobile payments company PressPay. According to Bakas, virtual wine tastings are one element of a social media campaign that can lead to sales, but they're first and foremost a brand-building activity that delivers "return on attention" (ROA). "Setting goals based on how many followers you can accumulate is misguided," he said. "The focus of any social media effort should be on quality interactions with your audience that will convert attention to intention." For wineries, virtual tastings seem particularly well-suited to achieving that objective. VIRTUAL TASTINGS EVOLVE The idea behind virtual tastings emerged in 2008 with TasteLive.com. As bandwidth and video streaming technology improved, the concept quickly evolved to include live video broadcasts with greater production values and video conferencing. "To conduct a virtual tasting, all you need is a hashtag and an idea," confirmed Bakas, who got his start in 2009 hosting tastings for Napa Valley's St. Supéry Vineyards & Winery on TasteLive.com, a website originally created by Craig Drollett that aggregated all of the tweets related to a virtual wine tasting and is now run by Creative Furnace. Bakas went on to develop #CabernetDay, a widely copied format devoted to a single varietal that Jordan conducts a virtual live tasting with winery president John Jordan (left) and winemaker Rob Davis. includes live video streaming of guided tastings. Fast forward to 2012, when high-definition video cameras with onboard audio cost $100 and wineries began regularly hosting "Tweetups" and videocasting their own live virtual tastings. For those who prefer to leave video production to the experts, companies including ToutSuite Social Club and TasteLive.com produce and videocast basic virtual tastings starting at between $1,000 and $1,599. "Most wineries haven't embraced live video streaming to their benefit," said Lisa Mattson, communications director for Jordan Winery in Sonoma County's Alexander Valley. "But once you've made the investment and gotten over the initial learning curve, there's not a lot of production effort that goes into producing a live virtual tasting. The biggest challenge is to keep doing it consistently." Mattson conducted her first virtual wine tasting for Jordan in 2010 and now videocasts live virtual tastings from the winery four times a year using platforms such as LiveStream. "Virtual tastings are the easiest point of entry into video marketing for a winery," she noted. MODEL OF SUCCESS At Ridge Vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Christopher Watkins, host/author of "4488: A Ridge Blog" and manager of hospitality and retail sales, streams live videocasts to a host of audiences. The winery is realizing considerable ROA from these virtual events, he said. Watkins takes a grassroots approach to social media – one he compares to digital word of mouth. "For a business whose primary interest is building and maintaining direct and unique relationships with people, social media makes for a wonderful set of tools," he said. Each month, Watkins hosts w w w. v w m media.com M a r - A p r 2 0 13 | V I N E YA R D & W I N E RY M A N A G E M E N T 65