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Drinks industry is well placed to benefit from new Google and Twitter deal

Published:  02 April, 2015

Drinks retailers, wholesalers and producers who try to hush-up negative comments from customers online are putting their businesses at a major disadvantage, according to a leading social media expert.

 

 

Drinks retailers, wholesalers and producers who try to hush-up negative comments from customers online are putting their businesses at a major disadvantage, according to a leading social media expert. 

Equally companies that fail to exploit the power of recommendations and brand endorsements from consumers on social media risk being left behind by their more internet savvy competitors. That's according to social media expert, Joshua March, who runs the conversocial.com agency.

He cites the impending deal between Google and Twitter will have major knock-on effects across business. If the deal goes through one of the new feautures will be the ability for tweets to appear on the first page of an online search.

March predicted this will have a huge impact in the way customers make buying decisions. But, despite this and other innovations in social media many companies are still not adequately prepared for this major cultural change, he warn

Conversocial has developed cloud based technology to help companies manage their social media content and turn it into an effective customer service tool.

March believes this could be particularly good news for the drinks industry - especially for those in the wine trade. 

"The nature of the product and the way wine buyers make decisions means the wine business is perfectly placed to embrace and benefit from the growth in social media," he said.

"Wine fans - whether they are just buying a few bottles a year or buying by the case - rely on the opinion of their peers. The trust in customer reviews and comment is very strong when it comes to wine - and that level of reliance on peer-to-peer endorsement is growing," added March.

But it could have ramifications for the traditional wine expert. "From a wine writer's point of view the successful ones will be those who are able to combine their intimate knowledge of a product with an ability to listen to and work with the opinions of the ordinary consumer," explained March.

He claimed wine drinkers are currenlty influenced by three criteria: price; the tasting notes which accompany a bottle of wine; and the opinions of the well known critics. Whilst March believes these three influences will still be important, social media now offers a whole new channel of influence.

"Social media amplifies the nose which is made online about a product, a company or a service. Technology now aggregates this nice and filters it in the direction of people who want to her what other people are saying. Buying wine is the very often the result of listening and joining in a conversation. Social media is a global talking shop where like minded communities share opinions."

March believes the deal between Twitter and Google is a landmark event for retailers - especially those who rely on great customer feedback. "As soon as this deal goes live consumers will be able to put the name of any wine brand or wine retailer into Google and at the top of the page will be relevant tweets from people who have a made a comment about them. That comment could be positive or negative. Either way it will have a huge influencing effect on a consumer looking for information about a wine or a winer supplier," he added. 

March believes there will be a global swing amongst consumers towards using social media to make decisions. "Consumers are saying to companies 'We are not going to buy your stuff anymore just because you tell us to - we can now listen to people like us who can give an honest, personal opinion,"  he explained.

He claimed the wine trade is providing a fascinating 'snapshot' of the way consumption of non essential but highly desirable products will now be sold.

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