Are you a Willamette Valley winery owner or employee? Then, you should know that Willamette Valley Wineries failed this weekend at social media. That’s right. We’re giving you guys an “F”, and not even two months after the big Social Media Conference held by the Tasting Room Managers Network. Oh, the shame .

Haven’t a clue how or why you failed? After all, you tweeted that you were open. You shared a few photos on Facebook of your event. You may have even made a video of the weekend. Let me break it down for you:

1. You are a winery that makes a fantastic product.
2. Wineries in the immediate area make an equally fantastic product.
3. You want your winery to be the one people choose.
4. When the quality is the same, people choose based on price point and/or great customer service.
5. Since price point isn’t really negotiable, you need to go with customer service.
6. Twitter, when used correctly by businesses, is a customer service tool.
7. Not a single Willamette Valley Winery used Twitter as a customer service tool over the Memorial Day Weekend Winery Open House.

How do I know this is true? Because I baited the Willamette Valley Wineries over the weekend with the following tweets:

Can you guess how many wineries reached out to me? Zero.

This leads me to believe that wineries still don’t understand the power of Twitter. Sure, many are hopping on the Twitter train and broadcasting, but few are actually engaging. And none seem to be engaging correctly, because, if they were, there is no way they would have allowed my tweets to have gone unanswered. No way.

So, without further ado, here is how wineries need to be using Twitter to bring in and (dare I say) steal customers from other wineries:

1. When your tasting room is open, search Twitter (search.twitter.com) for hashtags (#) people may be using while wine tasting in your area. For example, #WillametteValley #winetasting #pinotnoir #Oregonwine, #ORwine, etc.
2. Also search the names of nearby wineries, by both Twitter handle and full name (e.g. @sokolblosser and Sokol Blosser). Full name is important because Foursquare check-ins that are sent to Twitter are in full form. If you don’t have time to search a lot of wineries, go for the more popular ones with large ad budgets.
3. When you find someone in your area, send them a tweet. Sweeten it with a deal. Include a map link, so your new customer can find you. For example, “@AliSchubert Visit us today for free tastings. Ask for Brad. http://bit.ly/ms0XVq.” Note, deal making is a blast. Offer a taste of “something special”, or 20% off, 2-for-1 tastings, or a free tour of the winery.
4. When your tasters arrive and ask for Brad, the introductions have already been made. Show them a great time. Make them feel special. Make them customers for life. Better yet, make them brand ambassadors.
5. Follow up with the customer on Twitter, AND occasionally check in with him via non-wine related tweets. Make sure that when he returns and/or when his friends ask for recommendations of wineries, yours is on the tip of his brain.

Now, a demonstration of how this works as the customer.

1. Hey, look at me. I’m in the Willamette Valley tasting wine. I want people to know about it, so I shall tweet my adventures.
2. Hey, look at that! Because I receive tweets via text message, I was just instantly notified that a nearby winery is offering me free tastings if I ask for Brad. That sounds like a deal. Awesome, there’s a link to a map. Thank you!
3. Arrived at the winery. Announced my arrival via Twitter so all of my followers know where I am. I also checked in via Foursquare and Facebook, just for kicks.
4. That Brad is really a great guy. And, wow, what fantastic wine. I’m definitely buying. Perhaps I’ll even join the wine club.
5. I will tweet (and, perhaps, even blog) about my awesome winery experience when I get home. When people ask for a recommendation, I’m definitely telling them to go to Brad. I can’t wait to return.

Now, will every experience be a resounding success? No. But it does happen. It happens quite a bit.

We know wineries are incredibly busy over the Memorial Day Weekend. But, why not bring in that extra body whose job it is to totally focus on social media. When they aren’t scooping up and meeting tweeters, they can be snapping photos, providing virtual tasting notes, and sharing experiences as they happen. Yes, it’s one extra body to pay, but, if that person brought in one lifetime customer, they would more than pay for their time.

Here are some real tweets (found after searching a handful of terms) from the weekend. Consider them missed opportunities.

Social media isn’t going anywhere. It may come in different forms in the years ahead, but this new way of reaching out to customers over the internet is here to stay. And, while all Willamette Valley wineries failed the Twitter test this past weekend, I guarantee it will not happen again.

So, if you are a winery owner, or if you work in a winery, it’s time to get involved in the world of Twitter. If you don’t, then don’t be surprised when your tasting room is getting fewer and fewer visitors while your tweeting neighbors have full parking lots.

Update: We’ve received a number of calls from WV wineries regarding this post. Many are asking about our Twitter services. Here’s the deal. We can train wineries on Twitter. We can even tweet for them for a period of time to help their establish their tone and following. However, the goal is that the winery does its own tweeting. This is for two reasons.

1. Wineries know their own product better than anyone, and are, therefore, more passionate about it than anyone. People can sense passion on Twitter, which is a good thing.
2. Wineries need to be tweeting from their own tasting rooms when they attempt to snag people from surrounding businesses, as they know when they’ll have the time to give customers personal attention.

Of course, we’re happy to talk to anyone who calls about any of our services. 503.941.0660.