TWEETUPS & MEETUPS: What's the point?

TWEETUPS & MEETUPS: What's the point?

It seems that either industry businesses "get it" or don't when it comes to social media. Many jump right aboard when a new opportunity comes along, other are going to late adopters, and are still hanging back and saying "but why???" And even more so for "Tweetups" I think, than something that's easier to grasp like having a facebook fan page.

What is a Tweetup exactly, and why should your business care? A Tweetup is simply a group of people who are connected through Twitter, usually around a common interest (such as wine & food!) who get together in person to connect, usually over (not surprisingly) wine & food.

Why is it important? Because these people are online influencers, the people who can generate buzz around your brand. Try it - go to Twitter and search #Cabernet, #Foodie, #Wine - or any other term, and see what people are talking about right now. Its bacially the new form of marketing. Now, rather than running an ad and hoping people see it and give your place/product a try, you instead host a meetup or tweetup and let the buzz go viral. People listen to others that they trust far more than they do an advertisement, which they know is simply a come-on aimed at selling them something.

The wine industry in the Northern California Wine Country has really embraced social media in gerenal, and there are many opportunities for food & wine lovers to connect in real life. Wine Blogger William Allen has a Sonoma Facebook Meetup group that is so popular, now a Napa group has started up! In our area the opportunity to go to a wine focused meetup is fairly regular, and they are a good place to network, meet new people with a common interest, and to try new wines, or see or re-visit a venue.

I recently spoke with Rick Bakas, Director of Social Media for St Supery Winery about their social media efforts. Rick told me "What we're trying to do is bring together a collective audience of qualified wine drinkers. Any wine brand, food brand, any kind of brand really, if they have a facebook page, twitter handle, yelp listing, they have consumers online. They want to be able to find them, so they should fish where the fish are - this is a way to connect with and find the people who are possible consumers. The second part of this is that once you bring together this audience, its like getting 100s of thousands of people together in one place at one time - online. You can go out and connect with them, but then its up to each brand to figure out how to creatively market to them. Its not a one size fits all type of thing. We've got the people paying attention now, we've got the eyeballs, now it's time to do something with it. That's the reason that we're doing this type of thing."

Rick's next undertaking? Cabernet Day! The upcoming event on Sept 2nd is a fairly ambitious virtual and real life Tweetup, or more correctly, Social Meetup, as it is happening on all social media platforms, and in real life locations, not just on Twitter. There are wineries literally from around the world that are participting - some virtually, some you can drop by and participate in person. I'll be participating from the new Plaza Wine Bar here in Sonoma, where will you be? Maybe I'll see you on Twitter!

More info:

Ryan O' Connell of O’Vineyards wrote an article on "Cabernet Day and Why Does it Matter."
Video by Suburban Wino on "Cabernet: The Bono of Grapes."
Who, What, Where, When Why by Rick Bakas.
7 Ways Wineries Can Rock #Cabernet Day