You have exactly five minutes to tell a table of influential wine writers why your brand is the hottest thing to hit the market since Instagram. Your message must be clear, concise and captivating because you know it will end up online, representing you and your winery to the world, within minutes.
How did you do? Great! Now get ready, because you’re about to move to a new table of writers and do the whole thing all over again.
This exercise is actually a featured activity called “Live Wine Blogging” that will take place at the 9th annual Wine Bloggers Conference in Lodi, CA on August 11-14.
Similar to “speed dating” for wineries and writers, it’s a rare opportunity to connect wine industry professionals with wine bloggers who populate social media channels and their blogs with influential commentary about the wine industry.
“Wine bloggers are passionate about wine,” explains conference organizer Allan Wright. “They blog, they post online, and they are also the people who are at parties talking about wine or at restaurants ordering for the table. They are true influencers who have an impact on other consumers.”
“Bloggers are much, much more sophisticated than your average person using social media,” he adds, “because they are communicating with and growing their own community all with a strategy related to their wine blog.”
Wright is owner of Zephyr Adventures, a worldwide tour company that created the annual Wine Bloggers Conference in 2008 as a way to pull the wine blogging community together in one place.
“The WBC is a chance for wine bloggers to get together in person with people with whom they communicate online,” Wright explains. “For the wine industry, it is an opportunity to meet wine bloggers, establish relationships, and get your brand and product in front of these influencers. You might actually learn something about social media marketing as well.”
The four-day conference showcases an agenda chock full of activities and breakout sessions for industry professionals and bloggers alike. For example, this year the conference features a social media workshop called “Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, & Periscope” where participants will learn best practice tips on incorporating contemporary photo and video platforms into their media outreach programs to build a bigger audience and more effective social media community.
The 2016 Wine Bloggers Conference keynote speaker is Andrea Robinson, one of only 23 female Master Sommeliers in the world.
For a look at the full conference details as well as registration information, go to: winebloggersconference.org. Zephyr also runs the annual Wine Marketing & Tourism Conference: winetourismconference.org. For sponsorship inquiries at either conference, please contact Reno Walsh at 888-758-8687 or reno@ZephyrConferences.com.
