Talking About Social Media for Small Wineries with Megan Steffen Camero

The owner of Untapped Media Co. tells us everything we need to know to navigate social media as a small winery.

I’m excited to kick off a two-part series with Megan Steffen Camero this week! Megan has been working in winery photography, social media, and marketing for over a decade, first in-house for Trinchero Estates, and then for over a decade as one of the North Coast’s most sought-after winery photographers. In her first interview she’ll unlock the mysteries of social media for us, and in her second interview she’ll be talking winery photography, asset library building, and how to approach professional photo shoots vs. what you can and should do on your own.

Today, Megan will answer all of our social media questions, such as:

• Do we actually sell wine on social media?

• How should a small winery choose which platforms to be on?

• How to grow your following.

• How often you should be posting.

• How to measure results.

• How much time should you be spending on social media, and how to maximize that time.

• Who on your team should be running the platforms.

• Her biggest piece of advice for small wineries on social media.

Keep reading to get all of this valuable information, and more.

“Think about it like you're sitting down at a dinner party. If you just sit there and hope that people talk to you, are they even going to remember you were there? Probably not. Now, if you went and asked them questions, like, “Oh, I love that sweater - where'd you get it?” suddenly you’re a part of the party. Those are all little things that are exactly the same on social. Be interested in your community, ask questions, share interesting tidbits or behind-the-scenes details about your company, listen to your community and stay engaged. Just like you would at a dinner party.

You have to be present, and you have to be willing to have the conversation with everybody – you have to be, well, social. That's the only way to grow organically.” - Megan Steffen Camero

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In case you missed it -

A round up of links from the last few weeks that are relevant to small wineries.

10 Women in Wine and Spirits Who Are Breaking the Mold - many of whom are also small business owners, including my pals Caitlin and Jennifer at BoozeBiz. Congratulations to you both, and to all of the fabulous ladies mentioned in this article!

An Insider’s Look at 7 Potential New AVA’s - small wineries are often the champion and lifeblood of newer AVA’s, so let’s all root for these 7 new ones to become official.

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Megan Steffen Camero - Owner of Untapped Media Co.

As a visual storyteller with 15+ years of experience in photography, marketing and communications, Megan started her career working in-house as a marketer for a Fortune 500 company then moved into the wine industry in 2007. She held marketing manager positions in-house and led social media for Trinchero Family Estates when social media for business was in its infancy. She took a position with Jackson Family Wines managing the social media for many flagship brands before starting Untapped Media Inc. in 2014. Specializing in food and beverage photography, her work has been published in various industry publications and is used by her clients across their many marketing channels.

I'll start with a big one that I think a lot of people ask – do we actually sell wine on social media?

There’s probably not a direct linear connection unless there is a clickable link and you've tracked them from when they come into your website and all the way through the path to purchase on Google Analytics.

Brand awareness is really what we're after on social media. You’re looking to get your name out there and build a loyal community of people that love who you are and are willing to share your brand with their friends and their networks.

One thing to keep in mind is that even if you're doing social well and you're getting people to click on your links because they feel like they've been given a really enticing call to action, if once they land on your site it's hard to buy, or when they come to your tasting room they don’t like the wine or don’t have a good experience, social can't fix that.

Social can get them into the funnel, and then once they’re in the sales conversion is up to you.

Is there any kind of basic formula that people can use to think about how much time it takes to do social media at a decent level?

Doing social media well is very time consuming, and that amount of time is easy to underestimate or forget. So when planning how much time you want to allocate to it, there are a few things to think about…