OUR SOCIAL AMERICAN VITICULTURAL AREA

DIGITAL MEDIA AND YAKIMA VALLEY WINE

IT’S A WILD WILD WORLDWAVE OF THE FUTURE

OUR CRAZY MIXED UP DIGITAL WORLD

SMARTPHONES, SELFIES, BLOGGERS AND

BLOWHARDS

What Is Your Brand?Before you can communicate, you must know who you are (a basic principle of life, really).

More importantly, to communicate as a brand you must have a brand identity.

Market research (even if done in the most informal ways, is very important).

What is your elevator pitch? Translate that to a tweet (140 characters). That’s your digital marketing go-to (for bios, websites, etc.).

Strategy: square one

Know your your audience.

Create a calendar.

Pick your platforms.

Start posting.

See what people respond to.

Duplicate.

DON’T WAIT,CREATE

SNAP A PHOTOWRITE A BLOG POST MAKE A VIDEOSHARE CONTENT

THEN SEE WHAT WORKS AND DO THAT AGAIN. AND AGAIN. AND AGAIN.

Don’t Hate, ParticipateDigital/social media can be overwhelming

Don’t worry: you don’t have to do everything, all the time

The internet is a digital ecosystem of information

Find like-minded organizations and businesses

Then share their content and create some of your own

Monkey see, monkey do (a recipe for success)

Quality, consistency and engagement – three keysPart of the internet’s charm is low quality content

(YouTube, Facebook, etc.). But it can’t be too low…

A brand’s social media presence must maintain consistency, like a shark must keep swimming or it dies.

This is not a top-down broadcast medium, this is a two-way communication between you and your audience. That is scary and empowering.

Authenticity is key (why is Duck Dynasty the most watched show on TV? Because there is an perception of authenticity in their lifestyles, Americans are hungry for it).

Content Creation

It’s the most important, and resource intensive part, of digital marketing.

But it’s worth it.

It promotes engagement and makes you a better hype-man for your business.

The key is limitless curiosity, childlike curiosity.

Become A CuratorA big part of digital marketing, and engagement in general, is listening (it’s also a big part of life).

If you listen, you come across all sorts of interesting information you can then take and share with your networks.

This limits your time commitment and re-enforces your brand as being in the know.

Your ToolboxYour smartphone is your best friend. If you want to step up your game you could:

Invest in a DSLR camera, like a Canon or Nikkon, which can be found at Costco, Wal-Mart, etc.

Invest in a decent handheld video recorder, something that shoots in HD.

Think about using the Adobe Creative Cloud, it’s a great new service not more than 6 months old.

BloggingTumblr (my preference). See Northwest Public Radio’s Tumblr.

wordpress.com (Wenatchee Museum, my site).

blogger.com.

The most important thing is to have a strategy…

Regular series, giveaways and guest bloggers are a good way to change things up.

Multimedia is the name of the game.

#HashtagsEven the founder of Twitter, Biz Stone, has said he considered hashtags “too nerdy” to ever catch on.

But that have, and you need one.

It’s the easiest way to consolidate communications around a certain topic (namely, your brand).

If you’re clever, you can create a viral conversation. #winegeek #vino #upperleftusa

Contests

It’s important to come up with content and contests that are organic to your business, but here are some ideas to mull over:

Traveling wine contests, selfie contests, topical contests (like NCAA brakets, etc.)

Social movements (the marriage equality movement, etc.)

Slacktivism: a powder keg.

There’s An App For That

Use your smartphone, Luke

Standard apps (Pages, FB, Twitter, Yelp!, etc.)

Photo apps (VSCO, Procam, etc.)

Filmmaking apps (Cameo, etc.)

Tumblr, take it to the next level

Delectable

Epicurious, jelly, survey monkey, evernote, perch, etc.

Newsletters

Constant Contact (my preference).

Mail Chimp (also fine).

Squarespace (what we use).

The point is not the service, but the content.

Create one strategic message and then disseminate via multiple channels.

Here’s an example: http://voortexproductions.com/article-v/

REVIEWSANDYOUR BUSINESS

“TRIPADVISOR IS THE LIFEBLOOD OF THE AGRO-TOURISM INDUSTRY.”

– DWIGHT K. SCHRUTE

Tripadvisor, underused in Yakima

A travel site providing directory info and reviews of travel related content. They also have interactive travel forums.

Free to users, their business model relies on advertising.

That means an opportunity to advertise to people planning trips to the Yakima Valley, a pretty good group to target.

Ranked #10 with no direction

#2 of 24, but what’s better?

Yelp! It’s not just for dogs anymore…

A self-styled “online urban guide”

A rising star, Google has offered to buy it (which means it’s probably got legs…)

Don’t be afraid to ask for reviews and point people toward your Yelp! page and website.

Great digital culture resources

Seth Godin

Gary Vaynerchuck

TED Talks

Social Media Examiner

Mashable

Guy Kawasaki