Food and wine are social.
Sure you can drink or eat solo, but they’re best shared with friends over laughter and conversation.
People who love food and wine know this. They’re passionate, vocal and they share. And, it’s not just food and wine they share either!
They share information.
Information about their favourite bottle of wine, their latest restaurant experience, photos taken of meals and they talk with other passionate people on the subject; and they’re doing it via social media.
So why do so many wineries, restaurants, food producers (businesses that are inherently producing ‘social’ consumables) still shy away from social media?
Consumers are already talking about your winery, restaurant or food brand via social media whether you have a presence there or not.
Wouldn’t it be more sensible joining in the conversation and steering them towards a positive understanding of your brand?
Social media benefits include:
1. Build brand awareness
This is simply about getting your food or wine brand out in front of current or prospective customers in the hope that you will be top of mind; meaning the next time they’re in need of the product you sell, they’ll think of you..
You can spend a huge amount on advertising and have no idea of the return on your investment.
Social media is relatively inexpensive, it’s scalable and measurable.
2. Create new relationships with potential customers
To create new relationships you first need to understand the stages of customer loyalty.
- Suspect
- Prospect
- First-time customer
- Repeat customer
- Client
- Advocate
Once you recognise these stages, it’s easier to bring people from the Suspect Stage all the way to the Advocate Stage.
To achieve that transition, brands should understand how to entice new prospects and convert them into customers while nurturing the relationship.
Social media is the perfect platform to do this, but it needs to go beyond simply posting content ~ crafting a successful content strategy plays an important role. Alas, a topic for another time.
3. Strengthen relationships with current customers
The beauty of social media is that it enables a two way dialogue.
By reaching out and engaging current customers, you’re building stronger brand advocacy.
This ties in nicely with Point 1 since the more engagement your brand has with your own followers, the more awareness you can receive from their social networks.
4. Provide social proof before purchase
Food and wine have a passionate following and prospective consumers are looking for social proof : recommendations and what others think about your restaurant, winery or food brand and its’ products.
This often includes the evaluation of a brands’ social connectivity.
Potential customers will be influenced by both friend and non-friend’s social acceptance of or interaction with a food and wine brand.
So, question is ~ are you tapping to the benefits of social media for your food or wine brand?
And if no, why not!
Until next time…..
