For years now the most prominent demographic for the wine industry has been older adults between the ages of 50 and 64. This age group purchases the most wine, but has proven to be difficult to market to because, more often than not, they have already established brand loyalty and there are limited ways to reach them from a marketing standpoint.

On the other hand, a younger demographic (young to early middle-aged adults between the ages of 21-49) is on the rise for total wine sales.  The majority of these sales are coming from married couples, generally with young children, who, for the most part, are active internet users. However, the other half of this growing demographic is the 21-30 year old/college crowd. This is a versatile demographic that yes, watches T.V., but doesn’t watch commercials.  They are still buying magazines, but also use the Internet regularly and prefer the Internet as a means to gather information.  
This is the future of most wineries sales and at this age, this demographic holds no brand loyalties, they are willing to try new brands, and have an eagerness to become sophisticated and be part of the working/independent adult world. In other words, target markets are changing.  Wineries and winemakers alike have to know how to reach this demographic and generate buzz surrounding their brand by utilizing online marketing tactics i.e. social media.  

In today’s day and age, traditional advertising and marketing outlets are generating less buzz and brand exposure. This younger generation is now becoming both the decision makers and targeted consumers for businesses. The era of print and T.V. advertising is coming to an end. Now, the most technically savvy, resourceful, and multi-tasking generation is ready for change.

Social Media has become second nature for most young adults and is rubbing off on the older adults as well.  What this blog will focus on is the social media marketing strategies that can be utilized to increase brand exposure and generate revenue geared towards the wine industry.

Youtube:
Youtube is a great source for viral videos.  Viral videos are hot! More importantly, videos are much easier for people online to watch something than it is to read about it.  For wineries, creating good optimized weekly videos to be posted on their website creates exposure, increases Google rankings and in some cases, can be referenced by other sites which would enhance all of the above.

Flickr:
Flickr is a web site owned by Yahoo! that offers photo sharing and a host of related services for users of any level. As one of the top 10 websites in the world, Flickr provides the ability to join communities and groups and share photos with others worldwide or local.  For wineries, this is a great opportunity to share with the public pictures of your winery, tasting rooms, or production during the wine making process.  Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words and if used properly Flickr can generate interest for your winery.

Foursquare:
Foursquare is a location based social networking website and software that allows users to share tips, comments etc. about businesses using the website, text messaging or the mobile application.  By having a users “check-in” and get involved, businesses can exploit the user-generated comments to increase their publicity and advertising.

Yelp:
Yelp is a user generated review website that allows people to comment, rank, and find businesses.  This is an already established website that gets a ton of traffic.  By getting involved with such a robust and popular site like Yelp, Wineries can interact with consumers and probe tasting room visiters to “yelp” or review their winery.

Social bookmarking:
Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to share, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web resources. Unlike file sharing, the resources themselves aren't shared, merely bookmarks that reference them.

Facebook & Twitter:
Facebook and Twitter are the social media juggernauts.  They are the main social media marketing outlets for most businesses, but it is important not to “put all your eggs in one basket”. It is important to spread your marketing efforts across as many social media outlets as possible.

Wineries have a unique opportunity to make use of all of these social media outlets to help their online presence grow.  Having the ability to reach specific demographics and at the same time having enough content to make each update, visit, video or picture different and interesting, is a marketing goldmine that any winery should not pass up.