I just came back from my local wine store, 9th Avenue Vintner. Great place, friendly people, lots of tastings and a fantastic newsletter. They had a tasting this evening with a gentlemen from a winery up near the Finger Lakes. We got to talking and I asked him what kind of social presence his winery had.
Sheesh. It was like I just pissed on his leg. The guy immediately got cold and distanced, his eyes glazed over a bit and he told me in no uncertain terms that he didn’t see how “that kind of thing” worked at all with his family winery.
Now, I was actually hurt by this. I was hurt that the guy actually seemed to find my question offensive, sure. But I was more hurt by the fact that as much as I live in a social world, there is still a huge segment of the population, and in particular, small business owners, who simply haven’t had the time to begin engaging.
Is It Too Late To Catch Up On Social Media?
Seth Godin asked this question the other day on his blog.
What if your organization or your client has done nothing?
What if they’ve just watched the last fourteen years go by? No real website, no social media, no permission assets. What if now they’re ready and they ask your advice? And, by the way, they have no real cash to spend…
Seth has a helpful list of suggestions to get people caught up, my favorites of which are these:
Have the president post her (real) email address in every invoice and other communication the company sends out, asking people to write to her with comments or questions.
Don’t have any meetings about your web strategy. Just do stuff. First you have to fail, then you can improve.
Start a book group for your top executives and every person who answers the phone, designs a product or interacts with customers. Read a great online media book a week and discuss. It’ll take you about a year to catch up.
Hit his blog for the rest of the list.
Personally, I don’t think its ever too late to catch up on social media. But that ignorance that I encountered, that is what has to change. Because what that small winemaker was telling me was not that social media had no application for his business. What he was telling me was he simply didn’t know where to start, was frustrated by this fact, and had unfortunately decided, rather conveniently, that social media wasn’t for him.
He couldn’t have been more wrong. And he knew it.
Image Source: US Army on Flickr
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Isn’t there an old restaurant trick of throwing the Spaghetti at the wall and if it sticks its ready?
Well, marketing’s kinda like that too -even before all this new Social media stuff, it was always “throw stuff at the wall and see if it sticks” – still is! And the best part of using Social media is, if you’re a small business and something doesn’t stick, well hey, it’s not like you wasted 1’000′s of bucks in the process. try different networks, see what works best for you – and more importantly what works best for your customers!
All the market research in the world is worthless unless there’s some “fail-factor” in there too. Nobody, and nothings perfect, everything evolves and improves (heh -kinda like Chaos huh?)
.-= Kilted-Alex´s last blog ..How to add your business to Google Local Business Search =-.
Alex
What I have been telling people in NYC is that you get ONE chance to do this right. Not because you can’t fail and try again. But because businesses won’t keep trying. If they do decide to try social media, they get to do it once. If it is not done properly, they won’t see any results and will decide its not worth it.
Z
I am always surprised at the mixed reactions of wineries from different regions when it comes to social media. For instance, CA tends to be the hippest.. they get it. Other places like Oregon and even some of the Finger Lakes have the same reaction that you experienced. Oh well, one day when they turn around and realize that they can’t compete, they’ll be sorry!
Cheers!
.-= Randy Watson´s last blog ..Today’s Wise Words: When Do You Drink? =-.
I just realized you have the same name as the guy from Coming to America. “Washington Heights; OWN. MISTER RANDEEEE WATSON!!”"
Haha. anyway, i would rather people not be sorry at a later date once they realize they have missed the boat. I would rather they come on board now and open their minds a little bit. The guy’s intransigence was shocking to me
.-= Zachary Adam Cohen´s last blog ..The Long Climb of Social Media =-.
You should show that guy Shinn’s social media presence. A really personal newsletter, great website w/ all the articles/youtube videos centrally located, a facebook presence, etc…They don’t even really need it, but it’s obviously working for them.
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