5 Instagram Hacks for Your Wine Business
Low and behold, that rooty-tooty snobbery of the old school wine industry has been shaken yet again. Not into social media? Well, then you aren’t into sales. If your business isn’t growing; it’s dying. If you are relying on older wine club members to hold up your business, it’s kind of like relying on the same roof for 50 years… every 15-20 you’re going to need an update to protect your house! Even if you consider your wine to be classy, boujee, (k, maybe we won’t finish that phrase).. well, the fact of the matter is, the younger you can get eager wine drinkers to fall in love with your brand, the longer they will be trusted, valued consumers.
It is encouraged that you would embrace the changing waves of wine sales, not abhor it.
Running ads on Facebook, generating meaningful content for your website, and tweeting your heart out are all great things—but there is one beast that we cannot look past;
I N S T A G R A M
So, let’s dissect this big one straight away. Here we go!
Instagram has a few things going for it. One, it’s a visual platform—so people are drawn in by pretty things. Going along with that (and maybe because of this), people aren’t mean on Instagram as they are on Twitter. They also aren’t annoying like they are on Facebook. (People have too many feelings!). Instagram is a happy place to exchange stories, inspire growth, and cultivate joy. It’s the place where you want to reach people the right way.
So, how do you do this effectively?
Here are 5 Instagram Tips:
O N E // Be Intentional About Images
The thing about blogs like this is that typically, the content is telling you things you already know—just in a new and interesting way. You’ve seen the creative feeds with lovely quotes every other photo. You’ve clicked on cute graphics. You’ve scrolled through breathtaking drone footage of a stellar winery. BUT, it is hard to know where to focus your efforts.
Here are a few things to keep in mind:
Post quality images.
Pixelated images are fine for the Instagram story. In a dark tasting room? Put it on the story. The Insta game is a photo game and poor quality photos won’t make the cut.
Post interesting images.
We have all seen the line up of your wines on a table at your winery. Snooze. Snooze. Snooze. Take your bottles and do something different with them. Bottles themselves are sleek, reflective, and sensual… so maybe pair them with something dynamic; juxtaposed with a little clash.
Post 4-5 times per week.
This is hard. This is a lot. But, the only way you stay in the game is to play the game. It does take an annoying amount of time to generate a good post. It will be worth it when you have a cult following; trust the system!
T W O // Tell a Story With Your Feed
Your feed should express your values as an organization. If you want people to come to wine country and that is where you want them to enjoy their wine… post lots of photos from your venue balcony. However, if you want people to enjoy your wine at a nice dinner—you need to post a photo of your bottle sitting on the table at El Goucho. If you want to be a backyard wine, you need to get photos from a BBQ. It seems simple, but you need to think about exactly who is drinking your wine and where you intend for them to drink it.
Viewers want your story, but they also need to be shown what to expect when they open the bottle.
T H R E E // Add Value With Your Captions
This one is hard. It takes time and it takes skill. If you have a 16 year old intern creating your Social Media posts, make sure they know how to spell! If your wine is on the higher end, your clientele wants to see that you care about details; everywhere.
There are so many great resources online. You can talk about where the variety is grown across the planet, the latitude and how it is similar to Bordeaux, the color of the skin and how it affects the color of the wine, the family of the winemaker, how the weather affected the vintage that year—the list truly goes on and on and on.
It just takes a concentrated effort and you can build a following of people who want to learn about wine and love your wine for more reasons than just its excellent taste.
F O U R // Engage With the Community
If you want followers, you need to go comment and like on 50 posts a day. That’s a lot. It seems like all of these tips are “a lot,” but it is indeed worth the work. People following your account will help you build wine club memberships, generate sales, and keep your wine front of mind. Use hashtags in the comments (looks cleaner!) and tag wine/local magazines in your posts!
F I V E // Use Video and IGTV
You can do a super expensive video of your winery, yes, or you can get the owner to sit down with the spouse and blind taste the wines with an iPhone video. How hilarious would it be if they couldn’t identify which wine they were tasting! That is something all of us would watch. Video content does really well on Instagram (and all other social media channels), so invest your time here every once in a while.
In the end, wineries need people. They need the right people. They need more people. People love Instagram and investing in it will bring bounties.
