Most of you are beyond the days of trying to determine whether you need social media and are instead working on what, when and HOW to implement a solid winery social strategy that's effective.
While you know you need a social strategy and you know you can't just "wing it," I bet you're still struggling with finding the time to do it, right?
Today I'm going to share with you how to implement a winery social strategy in 2 hours a week. That's right, Just. 2. Hours.
Follow these steps and you'll be well on your way to a more comprehensive social plan in less time:
- Determine your objectives. This seems like an obvious one right? But it's not. Why do you want to use social media for your winery? How can you use social media for your winery? These questions are SO important to ask yourself. Because if you're not motivated for the end result, you're not going to make the time to do it. If you're looking at the sales funnel for wineries, having a concrete social strategy is important for retention of current customers and referrals for new customers.
- Create a strategy. It's hard to create a social strategy for your winery especially when you're so close to it. But it's important! Do you want to be doing your social media by yourself forever? Do you have the time and dedication to do so? After you establish your objectives, determine how you're going to reach your target audience and what social media platforms you're going to reach them on. Create a basic overview document of your strategy. It doesn't have to be fancy, but it'll come in handy, especially if you decide to outsource your social media. Your strategy document should outline what platforms you will engage on, how frequently, what types of content you'll post, and brand guidelines.
- Discuss your strategy with like-minded individuals. Discuss your winery social strategy with your employees, your close customers, those that use social media frequently, etc. You never know where you'll get your best ideas from and you want to make sure your strategy is, a, accurate to who you are as a winery and, b, going to produce content your audience will engage with. Adapt your strategy document as necessary. You can and will continuously refine you social strategy.
- Get your content organized. Now that you have a solid strategy in place, you have to implement your winery social strategy in 2 hours a week. I'll break down the time in just a second but first you need to get creative with your content. What types of content have you outlined in your strategy? Where are you going to get that content?
Here are some ideas:- Google Alerts
- Newsletters or Emails relevant to the wine industry
- Canva (A free tool to create graphics)
- Funny Images on Pinterest
- Your own photo/video library (Remember iPhone quality is good enough!)
- Photos tasting room visitors have shared on social media
- Blog posts/website content
- Go through your content. Schedule an hour one day a week and go through all of the content you have gathered and schedule it out evenly throughout the next week or two.
- Engage daily. Take a few minutes every day to find a conversation or a contact to engage with in real time. Make sure you are following up with people who engage with you as well. This is an essential step. The point of social media is to engage with one another. Reach out to those who have an interest in wine or in your region. Don't sell- start conversations.
- Analyze. You're never done improving your strategy. There is no push play and let it run model with successful social media. Look back over the past week or two. What posts got a lot of engagement? Why? Was it the time, the type of content, a call-to-action you used? Take note of these things and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Here's my suggested weekly breakdown:
Monday: 10 minutes to do daily engagement.
Tuesday: 10 minutes to do daily engagement
Wednesday: 10 minutes to do daily engagement
Thursday: 1 hour to go through and schedule out content
Friday: 10 minutes to do daily engagement, 10 minutes to look at your analytics
Saturday: 10 minutes to do daily engagement
Sunday: Take a day off. Go out and connect with people in the real world. ;)
Still think this is too much? Think about when you can do your engagement, for example, during the quiet hours of the tasting room.
Then you only have to take ONE HOUR out of your work week to implement a social media strategy.