Why Your Winery Should be Using Foursquare

Some social media experts have declared that Foursquare, the geolocation application for mobile devices, to be “the next big thing” in social media. Others believe it to be a passing fancy that will disappear when people tire of the novelty of it.

I, for one, don’t care about the longevity of the product. It is my job to use these tools, trendy or not, to help people increase business. This week, it’s my job to help wineries. So, here we go with a list of why your winery tasting room should be making use of Foursquare, trend or not.

The Whys

1. Drinking Games are Fun – I know, it’s inappropriate and even crass to say to a high end winery, but, it’s a fact: Drinking games are fun. That doesn’t mean Joe Bob and his friends (they’ll be starring in the rest of the article) will use FourSquare to get tanked, but it does mean it adds that extra je ne sais quoi to the wine tasting experience. Foursquare is, at its core, an online game that incentivizes visitors to real world establishments with virtual points, badges, and titles.

I worked off and on in my family’s winery tasting room for over a decade. Some of our biggest days were those when we took part in various treasure hunts or stamp events. People got very excited about collecting stamps…probably a bit more so than they would have had wine not been involved. So, in summary, Foursquare and booze, in any form, are a good match.

2. People who don’t know about it, don’t know about it – Let’s be honest. People who don’t get social media, or even specific social media applications, tend to be hostile toward it. You don’t want to annoy those who want nothing to do with social media. Foursquare is kind of like a secret club. Joe Bob can check in via his own personal web device without Crotchety McGee having a clue.

3. FourSquare check-ins disseminate through various social media networks – When Joe Bob checks in to your establishment, this information is not only shared with other FourSquare users, but, if Joe Bob set up his account in a social way, that information will be shared with his Twitter followers and Facebook friends. Bonus: If Joe Bob happens to have 20,000 Twitter followers and 600 Facebook friends, you just got a lot of word of mouth advertising.

4. FourSquare is a user generated review site – While FourSquare isn’t necessarily billed as a geolocation tracking Citysearch or Yelp, that’s pretty much what it is. If you provide an excellent product and your staff provides excellent customer service, FourSquare users will let other FourSquare users know about it. Better yet, since the the “reviews” are billed as “tips” these reviews tend to be a bit more specific, thus more helpful, than those found elsewhere. For example, instead of saying something like, “Good wine, staff was nice”, Joe Bob may say something like, “Ask to try the Temperance Hill, it’s wonderful,” or “Katie works Saturday afternoons, and she knows her stuff!”.

5. Chances are your tasting room will be added, with or without your permission – Foursquare users can add businesses to the directory themselves. It’s always my opinion that your business should be listed in the way you want it to be listed. Take control early. Not only will you be able to name your business as you want to name it, but putting your business in the Foursquare directory will increase the likelihood of being visited by Foursquare users.

The Hows

1. Nothing required – As mentioned above, Foursquare is primarily a user driven game. You don’t have to do a thing for your business to be involved. Just trust that, some day, it will be. So, do nothing, or add your business yourself.

2. Incentivize the incentives – Foursquare, itself, provides great ideas of how to use Foursquare for your business. Specific to tasting rooms? Offer a 10% discount to anyone who checks into your tasting room. Again, think of it as word of mouth advertising. If you’re a Wine Bar, and have regular customers, offer a higher discount to the Mayor (the person who has checked into your establishment the most), thus creating a little discount competition. Get together with other wineries in your area and offer a small prize to anyone who checks into all of those wineries.

If you’re not ready, yet, to offer any discounts, a simple chalkboard with the Mayor’s name on it can be enough to create buzz for your company’s presence. Not to mention, there’s wine involved, so you’ll probably be taking pictures of many Mayors…which will, inevitably, be uploaded to various social media networks.

Best social media reads of the week (thus far)

It seems people were thinking hard about social media over the holiday break, as some FANTASTIC social media articles and blog posts have been published this week. Below you will find a list of the writings we considered to be the best of the best (thus far).

1. Pepsi Chooses Social Media Over Super Bowl (Media Bullseyse) – If you’re only going to read one article about social media this week, make it this one. Just as the title suggests, Pepsi is redirecting its Super Bowl fund to a Super Social Media campaign. In other words, “It’s been decided that they would rather be talked about in a positive light by millions than have their ad seen by millions of people, even it is the Super Bowl”. Cool move, Pepsi Co.

2. Why Social Media is Still a Red-headed Stepchild (Web Worker Daily) – So true, it’s almost painful to read. Highlights reasons why there is so much resistance from PR and marketing departments regarding social media.

3. How to Say Stupid Things About Social Media (The Guardian) – “Why do people care what I ate for breakfast?”, is a common comment we’ll hear from Twitter skeptics. This article explains why…and they don’t care what you ate for breakfast, so there.

4. 91% of Companies Used Social Media in 2009 (Simply Zesty) – Nice analysis of stats released by the Center of Marketing Research at UMass.

5. 3 Helpful Social Media Marketing Predictions for 2010 (Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide) – Jeremy liked this one so much, he wrote a full analysis of it here, that is equally important to read.

6. Breaking Up in a Digital Fish Bowl (NY Times) – This one doesn’t have anything to do with social media and business, but it is a fascinating read about dating (and breaking up) in the age of Facebook. So happy I’m married. So happy.

Three important and interesting social media trends for 2010

John Bell, managing director of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide has written a good article distilling many social media predictions for 2010 into three very important ones. Pay particular attention to the third prediction, “Blogs Will Resurface As The Popular Hub for Brand’s Social Media Effort.”

This year blogs will redefine themselves for brands. They will be the fast-publishing and ‘voice of the brand’ option for many brands who now have experience in social media via Twitter and Facebook and have a new confidence in expressing themselves socially. It is likely that many brand web sites will merge with their blog. Rather than the awkward examples of this to date where the blog no longer looks or behaves like a blog (more like just another page within the Web 1.0 Web site), we will see Web sites that bear many of the attributes of blogs and Web 2.0 (spontaneous, shareable, subscribable, etc…).

Blogs are not passe. Quite the opposite. They will become a valuable “get more” destination that corporate Twitter handles and Facebook “walls” can point people to.

A few thoughts…

1. We’re seeing, and have been seeing, the need for brands to merge their “web site” with their blog. I say “web site” in quotes because, truthfully, your web site these days should basically be a blog. That is, it needs to have social media and blogging built in with the attributes listed above, “spontaneous, shareable, subscribable.” I would add to that list a clean design with a low user learning curve (standardized navigation, buttons, etc.) and an editorial calendar to keep regular content flowing, which is then supplemented by the spontaneous postings.

2. There is a myth out there that making your web site a little more Web 2.0 (meaning a blog and social media features as a back bone) means that your site will be ugly, basic, square, and text-based. While it certainly can be and that would be perfectly fine as long as the content and messaging are good, it doesn’t have to be. In fact, many company sites can be redone with a CMS (content management system) and blogging built in, yet still look basically the same. In other words, just because your site is blog doesn’t mean it has to be stripped down, basic, or ugly.

3. I agree with the assertion that blogs can be valuable as a “get more info” tool via Facebook and Twitter. There is no harm in promoting your brand, product, etc. via the popular social media channels and then saying, “for more info, visit this page on my site.” With that being said, there are some philosophical and theoretical questions to be asked in regard to driving traffic to your FB page for more info, or to your site for more info, but that’s another discussion altogether.

4. One important use for company blogs, which is not directly mentioned in the article, is that blogs provide a central place for your info, promotions, communications, etc. It’s truly where you own your message and brand. Granted, once that message is out there in the social media ball pit, you will lose a bit of control, but your blog is a safe harbor in a violent sea.

The company blog is also important as a central place for postings because those postings, via an RSS feed, can be sent out to Facebook, Twitter, et al. without you having to do a thing, thus saving a good amount of time. This is particularly important for many of the small businesses with whom we work, who do not usually have dedicated social media and/or PR teams.

Source: 3 Helpful Social Media Marketing Predictions for 2010