Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/670021
w w w. v w m m e d i a . c o m M a y - J u n e 2 016 | V I N E YA R D & W I N E RY M A N A G E M E N T 2 1 ment." If you know that you get more play from posts at 8 p.m. on Wednesday nights, then you can target that timeframe. "We're crazy for analytics here, because we don't have time with a staff of four. We can't afford to post things that aren't driving traffic to our website," says Keefer. Social outlets are the biggest driver of traf- fic to the Produce for Kids website. Twitter is for quick scrolling and there are no algorithms determin- ing what followers see. "You can schedule to send the same Tweet four times a day and different peo- ple will see it," she notes. To capitalize on buzz with a mini- mal investment of time, Keefer rec- ommends monitoring hashtags of national events related to your indus- try, as well as top trending hashtags for the day or week, and get into conversations that are already hap- pening rather than always populat- ing your own discussions. P r o d u c e f o r K i d s h a s o n l y recently added Snapchat to its social media mix. Photos or videos are taken via Snapchat, and can be viewed for one to 10 seconds by a fellow snapchatter before self- destructing. Snapchat also has a story option that lets users broad- cast to followers, who can then view the "story" an unlimited amount of times in 24 hours. But some people wonder: "What is the point of that?" — especially those 40 and older. "We questioned using Snap- chat because it has such a young demographic; but a lot of food b l o g g e r s a r e u s i n g i t , a n d w e want to stay in conversation with them," says Keefer. "There's not a huge consumer following, but bloggers are there, big brands are there, and it's almost a business- to-business thing." Keefer, who spoke at a food blogger conference on social media time management last year, recom- mends devoting no more than one hour per day to social media at the outset. "And do take the time to research the demographics of the different social media platforms before jumping in," she adds. Jennifer Strailey has covered the food and wine industries as a writer and editor for 20 years. Her experi- ence also includes public relations work for wineries and vineyards in California, Argentina and Italy. She is a contributing editor for Progressive Grocer magazine and is V&WM's Spotlight/NewsFlash editor. Comments? Please e-mail us at feed- back@vwmmedia.com. Here's Nott's take on three major social media platforms: Facebook has a broad audience and algorithms in place that determine which posts are higher on its News Feed food chain. Busi- nesses can pay for Facebook advertising, which targets spe- cific demographics, or a Boost Post, which gets a post high- er on their audience's News Feeds. Facebook advertising lets you create a customer pro- file using demographics, house- hold income, interests and so forth. Say you're a green win- ery; you may want to target one of the Green Moms Facebook groups. Post to Facebook once per day. Twitter is about half male and half female. It has a younger audience (most- ly under 40), and it's very fast paced. To be effective, it has to be used a lot — at least a cou- ple of times per day. Twitter can be a great way to connect with journalists beyond wine industry publications. It's also a great way to leverage national attention. Instagram, owned by F a c e b o o k , i s a l s o a younger audience, but more female. This is the place to showcase inspirational and aspirational images of the winery and vineyards, events, lifestyle and people. Have someone at the winery manage your Insta- gram account, because you want that person on the spot taking regular pictures. Use Instagram once per day. FACEBOOK, TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM PATRICK MERVIN + ASSOCIATES Architects to the Wine Industry since 1980 Patrick Mervin, AIA and Alissa McNair, AIA (707) 942-6540 www.pmarchitect.com WINE WISE MARKETING JENNIFER STRAILEY