twitter – the post-millennium ‘soapbox’

7/29/2019 Twitter the post-millennium SoapBox

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October 2010 Issue 561 www.winebiz.com.au

australian wine business

111

using the R word - Revival.

I think Chardonnay is going to have

a revival, says Grant Ramage, general

manager of merchandise for Coles Liquor.

If you look at Chardonnay over $15, I think

it can grow faster and it will.

This new style of Chardonnay is both

exciting and worrying.

A tasting of some of these new

generation Chardonnays at the Treasury

Wine Estates seminar revealed a clutch

of wines which might best be called

knee jerk reaction Chardies, early picked

and desperately low in alcohol with

some reaching just 10 per cent alcohol.

Stylistically, it was said such wines ticked

all the boxes for crisp, lean fresh wine.

Wines such as Rosemount Diamond, Ninth

Island, Goundrey and Rosemount Show

Reserve were noticeably herbal and withapple-like tones, while some had fierce

acidity. Chardonnays defining texture

and body were missing. However, others

like Wolf Blass Red Label and Yalumba Y

Series managed to maintain a Chardonnay

personality albeit dressed with more

modern appeal.

Some of these new generation wines

will be labelled differently too with terms

like crisp Chardonnay or cool climate

Chardonnay finding their way onto the front

label.

Now there is no specific meaning or

legal interpretation for the term crisp or,

more importantly, cool climate. In the

words of Chris Hatcher, Treasury Wine

Estates chief winemaker, the wording cool

climate on a bottle of wine gives the right

message but what message? What does

it mean?

Producers and wine writers tend to

classify cool climate vineyards or regions

based on either heat degree days during

the growing period or mean Januarytemperature figures.

But how do wine drinkers classify cool

climate? The term, especially if it takes off

on labels, is in danger of being interpreted

and possibly abused as simply marketing

babble.

One wine marketing manager has

said that she believes the term should

be interpreted the same as the varietal

make-up of a wine, namely 85 per cent

of a wine labelled as cool climate should

be made up of fruit from recognised cool

climate vineyards or regions. It defeats the

message.

If Chardonnay is going to be reinvented

with an emphasis on the crispness and

elegance of cool climate fruit, it should at

least be made of cool climate fruit.

But we have these examples out

there already in classic styles with strong

regional stamps, including Devils Lair, Cape

Mentelle, Vasse Felix, Shaw and Smith,

Yering Station, De Bortoli, Stefano Lubiana,

and Springvale.Let these be the mentors for the new

generation Chardonnays coming through

and lets see if Chardonnay can give

Sauvignon Blanc a run for its money.

In the August issue we introduced you

to Facebook and how you might use it to

promote your winery, brands and cellar

door. We argued that having a Facebook

profile was like having a sign in the Piazza

its free and it keeps you in front of the

customers. Its true.

Now the bad news.

The adults seem to be moving towards

a thing called Twitter its where many

people get their serious news and make

their grown up connections. The upside

for you is that you can get there early and

be comfortable there. What we see in the

marketplace is that Twitter seems to be

for those about 30-year-olds and higher

people looking for specific information fromspecific sources about specific topics. Will it

be the driving force that Facebook appears

to be? Were not sure, but it has changed

the way a growing group in the marketplace

disseminate and gather communication.

That being the case, it is something the

winery needs to investigate as what is

does represent is a shift in how things are

being done. Understanding Twitter, the

whole idea and philosophy of it is key in

recognising and understanding what could

be described as the new world.

What is it?

Using lay-technical language it is a

micro-blogging website that enables social

networking. It enables users to tweet

through the service in much the same way

as you would send an SMS. It is limited in

characters (140) like an SMS, so the type

of communication is short and sharp

easy enough to understand why they arecalled tweets. So we have SMS and we

have blogging sites what is so special

about Twitter that has led to so many

people joining in and it changing the way

information is shared and its impact?

SMS are sent to phone numbers,

typically one at a time (although there are

ways to send bulk using PC software or

using the services of a direct mail agency).

Your own personal news source

The web-based service sees people

joining Twitter as a whole, and then

choosing who they want to receive tweets

from. In Twitterspeak, this is who they are

going to follow, rather than subscribe to.

It is like choosing who you are going to

listen to and you can change it whenever

you want.

For example (figure 1), Mal Chia, Melissa

Westbrook, Nicola Chandler and Laurie

Oakes are on our list of people we follow,as well as a business called Leading

Learning. Weve decided that we want

these people to be part of our twitter

stream, for now at least.

Twitter the post-millennium SoapBoxSteve Goodman*

[email protected]

Cullen Habel*

*The University of Adelaide Business School

Adelaide, South Australia

[email protected]


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www.winebiz.com.au October 2010 Issue 561


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You may then get your own list of

followers as well. Everything that you

Tweet is visible on your profile page, but

it is also sent directly to those who are

following you.From there, there are a range of ways

a person can interact. You may simply

reply to a persons tweet a sort of public

conversation. If you like somebodys

message you might Retweet it to your

own followers (RT). Or you might privately

contact them with a direct message (DM).

Why people use it

Twitter is used in an outward and an

inward manner.

Inward communication: viewing your

Twitterstream

In an inward sense it is a way for

the user to select a personalised news

stream, to follow people and topics they

find interesting, or might find interesting

or are attached to. If you like wines from

Winery XYZ then you might subscribe to

their tweets so you get a bit of an inside

track to their operations, a closer feel to

their viticulture, winemaking and cellar

door functions. If it is of interest to you,

not just marketing spin (drivel) then it

means something because it is part of your

self-defined newsfeed a personalised,

automated tracker that keeps a vigilant eye

on the little bits of information that are of

interest to you.

If you are following 10 people, then those

10 peoples Tweets appear on your page.

Simple, pointless maybe, until you begin

to see the opportunities it presents and

certainly until you begin to see why and

how people use it.

Outward communication - a vehicle

for self-expression

Hence the soapbox analogy: rather

than dragging your soapbox down to Hyde

Park, climbing on it and talking for those

who want to hear your view, you can now

activate a Twitter account and communicate

(or rant) to your hearts content. There are

more than a few users who do but there

are more than a few users who see this

as the opportunity to outwardly express

information that others might be interested

in. Have a look at some recent tweets:

t i*MJLFUIFTJNQMFXJOFMBCFMEFTJHOCZ!

fullondesign for La Linea :)

t i(SFBUUPTFFPVSMPDBMXJOFIPTUT

in Delicious magazine! Nice work @

darenberg @chapelhillwine @coriole and

@wirrawirra!

t i#VTZEBZJO$FMMBS%PPSUPEBZ1FPQMF

out and about enjoying a glass of wine

and the glorious sunshine - even got

sunburnt..

The winemaker might express to followers

what the juice they just pumped over looks

like, some quick (short) remarks about the

next release barrel tasting the winemaking

team has just finished. This is interesting, for

those who have subscribed to you for this

type of information. You have bonded with

your followers and built your brand.


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October 2010 Issue 561 www.winebiz.com.au


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How you can use itFirst: sign in and get an account

Its easy. You can then upload a photo

and customise your Twitter page (or get

your young staff to).

Second: follow some people

Most news organisations and TV shows,

plus many wineries and individuals have a

twitter, including The Gruen transfer, Yes we

Canberra, Kevin Rudd MP, Turnbull Malcolm

and your local radio station.

Third: write some interesting stuff

You only have 140 characters each

time and they dont all need to be genius.

Remember, youre just letting people know

youre around. If youre doing a promotion

trip in Singapore you might just say Warmhere in Singapore. Im doing tastings at

Denise the Wine Shop all weekend. If

you just had a great wine with dinner tell

people. If you are launching a new release

tasted barrel samples seen budburst

there is a lot that the marketplace for

your wine might be interested in.

Fourth: engage and hang on

Getting the account and writing some

text can be just the beginning. Its a

case of learning as you go. There are

ways to upload photographs and link to

websites. When people are writing about

a particular trending topic they will

hashtag it. For example, election tweets

were tagged with #ausvotes. This allows

a user to filter all of their tweets so they

can look at all of the election posts at the

one time. If you want to watch the stream

of consciousness of the twitterverse as

they watch the Australian Broadcasting

Commissions Q and A then filter on

#qanda.

Although you might start with the Twitter

website, the internet world is full of tools

that can make this work better for you. If

you have an iPhone or some other web

phone, you can send your tweets through a

mobile app and you can get your tweets toupdate to Facebook. The opportunities are

endless.

What it means for your business

As a premium wine brand, one of your

biggest challenges is to not be forgotten.

Consumers are busy too. They generally

dont lapse in buying you because they

dont like you; they just dont remember

they like you.

Twitter is a low cost way to keep in

touch with a whole heap of people. A

random check shows that at time of writing,

Elderton Wines had 900+ followers, Bird

in Hand and DArenberg 1100+, Chain of

Ponds 400+. These are people who have

already said Im interested in your winery.Why not keep in touch with them?

You are doing your followers a favour

by telling them of a latest release or event,

linking to your recent log post or website

entry or passing on (re-tweeting) an

interesting tweet you got from your own

inwards twitter-stream.

In a world where companies pay

thousands of dollars in advertising trying to

make contact with interested customers,

surely you can take a few minutes a day to

engage with your people? And you mightenjoy it.

Steve Goodman is a senior lecturer

in marketing and program director for

Higher Degrees by Research. Cullen

Habel is a lecturer in marketing. Both

are situated at the University of Adelaide

Business School. Their research involves

wine choice, virtual communities and

market modelling in both domestic and

international wine markets.

Industry-focusedtraining and education

Looking to build your skills and knowledge of those within your business?GOTAFE offers nationally accredited qualifications either as structured orshort courses with a range of delivery options distance, workplace-based,on-campus or on-line.

For more information visit www.gotafe.vic.edu.au or

contact Cameron Atkins on 1300 GOTAFE (1300 468233)

Structured Courses:

2)+!0cate II in FoodProcessing (Wine)

2)+!0cate III in FoodProcessing (Wine)

2!'#&$&)&,+!&%

Horticulture (Viticulture)2!'#&$&!%%&/

Short Courses Scheduled for2011:

2!%/)%!%)/!%%!#%$%+

2-%!%/))+!*

2##)&&),*+&$))-!%)"+!%

2+)+!)"+!%#%%!%

2)'%!%/&,)!%$"!%"!##*

2*!and Advanced Wine Assessment...and more to follow

Winemaker joins GOTAFECameron Atkins has joined the wine industry team at

GOTAFE to support the Diploma of Wine Technology, Diploma of

Production Horticulture (specialising in Viticulture) and Certificate II

and III in Food Processing (Wine) programs.

GOTAFE identifies the wine industry as an important part of

the economy of greater north-eastern Victoria and Camerons

recruitment is part of a plan to further develop a stronger

relationship with wineries and vineyard operators.

Cameron has a Bachelor of Applied Science (Wine Science)

and is presently completing his Bachelor of Viticulture both from

Charles Sturt University in addition to significant winery and

vineyard experience in McLaren Vale, Mudgee, Oregon (USA),

Yarra Valley, Strathbogie Ranges and the Alpine and Murray

Valleys.

He will be drawing upon industry experts, his own experience

as well as a Bachelor of Business (Marketing) qualification from

Monash University to develop an ongoing program of wine

industry-focused sales, marketing and customer service courses

and workshops to be delivered through GOTAFE.

In keeping with GOTAFEs focus on vocational training,

Cameron will be continually liaising with the wine industry to

ensure that the delivered courses are relevant and focused to the

participants.

Cameron will be based at the new Rural Industries Campus in

Tone Road in Wangaratta. Cameron can be contacted on 1300

GOTAFE on 1300 468 233.

twitter – the post-millennium ‘soapbox’

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