wine sooth

Blogging is being touted as the next medium of mass communication. A grassroots voice that will change the world. But why blog? Why change the world? What do we want out of blogging?

The North American Wine Bloggers Conference (this weekend) will attempt to answer those questions - at least in the context of wine writing. The conference will include four key seminars (actually, moderated discussions) which will explore the most burning issues on wine bloggers’ minds.

Tom Wark of Fermentation and Alder Yarrow of Vinography will lead a discussion entitled: “Increasing Visitors to Your Blog”. Philip James from Snooth and Joel Vincent from the OWC will lead: “Making Money from Your Blog”. Tracy Rickman and Steve Heimoff will co-moderate the “Wine Blogger Credibility” discussion. Jason Korman from Stormhoek, Evan Cover from Cruvee, Joel Vincent and Paul Mabray from Inertia will lead the “Beyond Blogging” discussion. “Blogging for Your Wine Business” will be led by Jason Korman from Stormhoek and Steve Bachmann from Vinfolio. “Wine Industry & Blogger Interaction” will be moderated by Tim Elliot of Winecast as well as representatives from Schlumberger Winery and Robert Larsen from Rodney Strong.

“Increasing one’s blog readership isn’t brain surgery. It just requires time, dedication and consistency” says Tom Wark. The key is consistent, quality, accurate and reliable content, I always say. Still, many bloggers are hungry for increased traffic and visibility. A panel of successful bloggers will (hopefully) tip their hand a bit, revealing how they got to where they are now. I would hope that what comes out of this discussion is a realization that the best way to get attention and readership is by writing like what you say has real consequences and always writing with the benefit of your country’s wine culture in mind.

I suspect that few wine bloggers developed a business plan, expecting to create a revenue stream. Nonetheless, the idea of getting money for writing one’s thoughts, musings and opinions is quite alluring. This topic is one of the three 800-pound gorillas who will be sitting among us at the conference. Whenever one exchanges a service, good or opinion for compensation, they are running a business. When you have a large number of businesses doing the same thing, you have established an industry. But industries and businesses ultimately end up being regulated and have to adopt sets of standards. Bloggers’ general resistance to adopting standards (or certification, see below) is incongruent with the creation of a viable and respected industry. Some will say that blogging is journalism and, as such, it cannot be regulated. I argue that anytime you become a purveyor of opinion and advice to those that listen, you take on a responsibility to do right by your audience.

That brings us to the issue of Wine Blogger Credibility. The seminar focusing on this topic will address the following questions: “What impact and what credibility do wine bloggers currently have? Can this be measured in readers, advertising dollars, or affect on wine sales?” PhD student Tracy Rickman, will discuss her current thesis on wine blogging credibility and impact on consumer decision making. Steve Heimoff will co-moderate from the perspective of “someone from the “old” media who also blogs” - as Steve puts it. It is my ardent hope, that people will recognize the other 800-pound gorilla of the conference in this topic: if you are going to be an opinion influencer, you must bear a personal responsibility for what you say and write. That means you have to be accurate, impartial and fair.

“Beyond Blogging – New Technologies and Social Media” and “Blogging for Your Wine Business” are very techy topics, in my opinion, but the subjects are key. Using “blogging and use other technologies and social media to provide value, increase visitors to your site, or grow sales” as well as blogging “to grow your winery or other wine business” are “Marketing in the 21st century, 101″. There are numerous avenues for any enterprise to promote itself. The fine line is between doing it tastefully and respectfully or barraging your potential customer base with annoying and unwanted emails and messages. We should be mindful that in the pursuit of more traffic, exposure and revenue, our ancillary communications do not become like those Scientology fliers and magazines that keep coming even though you have asked that they not be sent and you have moved four times.

“Wine Industry & Blogger Interaction” is the third 800-pound gorilla - given the recent Rockaway Cabernet controversy. “How can wine bloggers and wine industry best work together to meet all parties’ needs?” is the byline of this seminar (moderated by Judd Wallenbrock of Schlumberger Winery, Robert Larsen from Rodney Strong and by Tim Elliot). Bloggers get offers and solicitations all the time. We get press releases in the hopes that we will find them interesting enough to post. We get offers to review wines, gadgets, books etc. All this is seemingly inocuous and sounds like a great symbiosis. Bloggers need content and these press releases and samples are a great solution. However, as the Rockaway issue illustrated, it is important that we do not become mouthpieces for marketers, that we do not regurgitate press releases and that we absolutely maintain editorial control over what appears on our sites.

For some time, bloggers have been throwing rocks through the windows of established, traditional media. But revolutionaries become the new establishemnt when their cause prevails. The cynic in me cannot ignore the fact that sometimes the change charismatic leaders promise is all about who is at the top of he food chain. So what do we, wine bloggers really want? How do we plan to change the wine world and on which side of the window will we find ourselves when it is all said and done? If you believe in the butterfly effect, the time to decide the answers to those questions is now.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 at 10:59 am and is filed under The business of wine, Wine Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.