1. Home
2. Analysis & Insights

Social media’s powerful potential

Not any more. Twitter was already descending into the gutter long before Elon Musk’s X-rated agenda. Very few wine businesses now employ it in any meaningful way. “We came off it as soon as Musk took over,” says Luma Monteiro, marketing manager at merchant and wine bar chain Davy’s.

In its place, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok emerged as shinier, happier places for wine chat – not just in their feel-good, consumer-friendly vibe, but their more dynamic, far-reaching content. These channels too, though, are under the microscope for their political loyalties, while the rush to monetise sees commercial content and mastering the algorithm often take priority over originality of thought. So, for those in the business of selling wine, how is social media best harnessed? And does engagement actually translate to sales?

While most businesses feel they should have a social media feed of some kind, fewer seem clear on what to do with it. Some carefully curate content; others just throw stuff into the ether, with no discernible strategy or, worse still, monitoring of the results.

“The first thing to establish is what you’re trying to achieve,” says Richard Morley, co-founder of social media agency FirstPour. “Raise your profile or increase sales? Target existing or new customers?”

The latter question will dictate the nature and dissemination of content. And this will be very different, says Vinescapes marketing consultant Kerrie Lyons, “if you’re selling a wine’s particular attributes to a specialist audience, versus trying to convince a more casual consumer that it’s part of their lifestyle”.

Morley mentions the content his agency produces for Seña, showcasing the Chilean brand’s commitment to biodynamics. “Consumers love seeing the cow horns and all that geeky stuff. But that type of content wouldn’t work for [Rioja brand and fellow client] Faustino, which is more about entry-level knowledge for consumers who aren’t spending $200 on a bottle.”

The approach changes again with paid-for ads, filtered to a wider audience. FirstPour ran an ad campaign for Napa winery Frog’s Leap last year, with the sole aim of boosting sales (which it did, by 35%). Rather than drill down into the brand’s compelling back story, the ads focused on critics’ scores and a clear incentive – free shipping, or 20% off – if you registered on its website.

“Ads are different,” says Morley. “You have limited characters, and video doesn’t work either. Pictures, with a clear call to action, get better results.” With one proviso: “It still has to look great. You’ve got to have scroll-stopping photography.”

Lyons, too, stresses the importance of quality content: “Wine has been really slow at adopting a lifestyle position. Most content is bottle shot, vineyard, bottle shot, vineyard. Where’s your consumer? How do they fit in?”

One way to build that connection is to use an influencer – someone consumers can relate or aspire to. And while cynics might see parallels between Twitter’s echo chamber and Instagram’s incestuous love-in, influencers fill a gap in wine’s landscape by humanising brands, says industry commentator Joe Fattorini.

“Humans are hard-wired to engage and empathise with other people,” says Fattorini. “An awful lot of producer content is bottles and vineyards and curated ‘perfection’ – but that’s not engaging. Watching a person walking and talking in the vineyard is.”

People, it seems, are more likely to trust other people than faceless brands (or, worse still, AI-generated content).

Just as with wine writers, of course, there are good and bad influencers. Or, rather, communicators whose style is better suited to certain brands than others.

“If you’re handing creative control to a third party, you have to be sure they reflect your values,” says Monteiro. “Some are more lifestyle-oriented; others are more about wine expertise. So, while you’re diversifying your content and audience, get it wrong and you could end up cheapening your brand.”

↓

People power

Authenticity is key – to which end Fattorini advocates brands using their own people in posts, even if they’re not especially polished. “More important is that they are passionate about the product,” he says – be that California brand owner Jean-Charles Boisset dancing on a barrel in his Louboutins, or Brit abroad Katie Jones digging up soil in the Languedoc.

Ultimately, some brands are better suited to social media than others. “A wine like Mirabeau has an Instagram vibe,” says Fattorini. “It’s visual. People have watched the Cronk family grow up. Sure, it’s ‘curated’, but it leaves space for you to form your own take, rather than brands relying on soulless ‘magazine’ imagery and telling people how to feel.”

At the fine-wine end of the market, the jury’s out on whether to engage at all. You won’t find Château Latour, Alvaro Palacios or Screaming Eagle on Insta.

Richard Hayhoe, marketing director at Coterie Holdings, says of merchant arm Lay & Wheeler: “Our audience already knows a lot about wine and is looking for longer-form content. For us, it’s more about driving people online, where we can provide that.”

Several merchants report a better response from email newsletters, since they are dealing with a more engaged, invested audience. At Davy’s, Monteiro says its 40+ core customer responds best to Facebook and email marketing. To attract a younger generation she turns to Instagram, where “the content that gets the most engagement is video – but that takes time and resource, and you have to query the return on investment”.

Lyons argues otherwise: “In my experience, social media ads deliver eight to 16 times better ROI than traditional media. But you need to analyse them constantly and gauge the benefit.”

Meanwhile, Morley adds that while the industry is very focused on Instagram, TikTok is an untapped opportunity. “Brands seem scared of it, like it needs a big investment to produce regular videos. But with TikTok, no matter your number of followers, you can get a huge number of views – it’s a very different algorithm.”

The UK’s most popular social media channel – after WhatsApp – is YouTube, which was barely mentioned in all my discussions. Next comes Instagram, Facebook and iMessage, with TikTok down in sixth. And while we are constantly told that wine needs to do more to engage younger customers, as Wine Intelligence warned in a recent report: “Younger consumers see wine as a special-occasion drink and a source of experimentation, [whereas] older drinkers see it as a more everyday occurrence and remain loyal to brands.” I know which demographic I’d be targeting…

Ultimately, it is hard to move casual consumers directly from a social media post to a sale. Even FirstPour says just 29% of UK consumers trust social media for wine recommendations. More than anything, it needs to form part of a rounded approach.

“Social is that first touchpoint to transform a cold audience into a warm audience,” says Morley. “It’s a softer sell, part of a longer, 360-degree process. You also need to look at traditional media, SEO, email marketing, your website…”

Ah, yes, websites. Remember those? It’s there that most engaged consumers tend to end up – be it for newsletter sign-up, more dynamic content or, even, the holy grail – sales. “It’s still a brand’s most important marketing tool,” says Lyons. More important, even, than your Instagram likes…

• Social Media
• sales
• marketing
• Instagram