Social Networking Wine
Posted by Michael Brown on June 19th, 2007It never ceases to amaze me as to how deep technology has permeated our lives. It wasn’t that long ago that we did not have the Internet and now we can’t live with out it. In fact the Internet is no longer good enough. We now have evolved to Web 2.0.
When the Internet was in its infancy there was content but no way to search and catalog the content. Web search engines were born and now we have millions of pieces of information at our finger tips. There is good and bad to this. The good is, I have access to the information, the bad is I have to wade through it all. Part of the promise of Web 2.0 is the notion of social networks. With social networks I can use my friends and acquaintances as a filter for the raw data of the Internet. The network is in essence a My Google where instead of having to wade through all of the raw information of the Internet I can leverage research performed by members in my social network.
This is particularly useful when it comes to wine. To the less informed, purchasing wine can be a bit intimidating. Just standing in the grocery store looking at the wine section where there is shelf after shelf with hundreds of bottles to choose from and no clue as to where to start. The majority of times that I have purchased wine is when a friend has recommended something to me or I have tried a particular bottle at a social occasion. It is this exact scenario that social networks address.
I would like to get input from my friends and acquaintances on the wines they are drinking and like. Since inherently members in my social network share common interests and tastes it is natural to use this mechanism to help wade through the endless varieties of wine in order to find ones that are of my liking. As social networks grow in popularity it is natural to expect them to permeate into the wine industry. I Googled for “wine and social network” and sure enough I found two such sites. These sites are BottleTalk and OpenBottles. Both of these sites allow you to enter wine reviews and ratings as well as create a friends network for sharing your reviews with.
Adding a social network to a socially driven industry is a glove fit and just another example of how technology permeates our lives.
June 19th, 2007 at 10:01 am
You’ve just hit the tip of the iceberg with the sites you mentioned, Michael. Wine sites that incorporate social networking are popping up all over the web, offering shared reviews, ratings, tag and notes. Other sites I have found include WineLog.net, Snooth and corkd.
June 19th, 2007 at 10:04 pm
Shoot they’re everywhere! Another biggy is the Wine Library TV forums - lots of wine opinions being shared there and not just WL products…
Here’s an interesting one for you: should a winery start its own social networking site? If so, how?
June 26th, 2007 at 9:10 am
Totally agree with you Michael on “I would like to get input from my friends and acquaintances on the wines they are drinking and like”. We’ve picked up on this idea a while ago and have evolved that into www.adegga.com our social wine discovery project.
We’ve on private beta but if you want to try it out let me know.
June 26th, 2007 at 10:58 am
eljefe - I think you would need an idea/image surrounding your wines to beable to host a network. Almost like the “cult of bonnydoon” Not sure you could get enough of one wine to a wide enough group to run the network. On the other hand, a winery could start one based on a philosophy? Maybe the “Rubber Chcken Social Network”? We love all chickens, especially the rubber ones? Not sure
As to the article, I still don’t think the ones listed in the article or comments are true social networks yet. I look forward to seeing one that really incorperates social”ness” to the point of not relying on tasting notes at it’s core. A social wine network would be people who want to talk about wine and one way among many would be with TN’s.
July 4th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
eljefe ,
Your winery’s personality could certainly support a small social network (1000 members or so) that could actually explode into a large “movement”. But going it alone and providing enough regular content, creativity and engaging on with your members could be daunting. I agree with ryan that a social network based on a philosophy would work but I still feel “going it alone” isn’t the best plan.
Take for instance the Rhone Rangers (a movement)t is a social network of sorts, mainly offline with a web presence but still made up of only about 1200 members total, which is still very, very respectable. If Rhone Rangers opened up the door to an online social network I would expect them to easily amass 10,000 members or more or so very quickly, same with P.S. I Love You.
In your case the “Rubber Chicken Social Network” could work but personally, as a wine consumer,be active in such a one dimensional wine group, Nor would I want to join one that is all things wine to all people. I would however be interested in the “Rubber Chicken Social Network” if it was comprised of several fun, irrepressible, humorous, educational, event oriented, creative, party monster, quality minded wineries such as yours at it’s core.
I know groups can be hard to work with but on the otherhand there is power and synergy in groups. There is the ability to have network events almost every week or weekend, hard to do alone. There is the ability to have several like minded moderators online at various times, hard to do alone. There is the ability to have a wine club with a large focused selection, but not too overwhelming, assisted by the likes of WineQ.com . I could go on and on.
Find yourself 10 like minded winery partners, anywhere in the world, create a clear vision together of your social network and everyone’s role and lite the fuse. I will be the first in line to join.
Cheers!
January 14th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
When lovers of wine, food, travel and meeting other like-minded individuals REALLY want to connect to share experiences and a glass or two they should sign up for FREE membership at www.WomenWine.com. The site creates community around content and has offline events to connect members in their local area with others who share their passion. The events are amazing as women (and men too!) come together and feel like they all know each other because of their common connection to the site. They don’t want to write about wine on the web - they want to drink it and compare notes, stories, etc.
The company has done events for over 6,000 people in the past 15 months all across the U.S.
January 21st, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Does anyone have a suggestion as to the best way to market upscale wine vacation packages in Tuscany?
Thanks