Social Media Best Practices for Wineries in 2023

Social media can be intimidating, but we have some best practices in store for you that will turn the seemingly impossible into approachable. Unfortunately, there isn’t a cut and dry guidebook for social media since social changes everyday. You must stay on top of the ever changing algorithm updates, new customer trends, and foundational changes to social media best practices. 

Now you may be thinking, how is this blog going to help me if the social media space changes at the blink of an eye? The goal is to take it one step at a time. There is no right or wrong way to do social media, so try a few of these tips out and see what works best for you. Let’s take a look at some of the best social media best practices that will help maximize your social channels in 2023. 

• Stay organized

• Utilize “social days” 

• Be original 

• Know who your ideal customer is 

• Engagement is king 

• Start small 

• Video is important 

Stay organized 

Organization is the key to making social media marketing approachable and successful. Whether you’re running one or multiple social accounts, we recommend making a monthly calendar at the beginning of each month similar to one’s you’d make for winery events. If you are running multiple accounts, it’s best to designate a color for each social channel so they are easy to differentiate. We’ll dive into this later, but it’s best to stay away from duplicating posts across channels as every channel has a different style. 

When making the calendar, pull up your other marketing and event calendars so that you can promote your events and promotions on your social channels. This will help you reach a wider audience and potentially grab the attention of new customers. 

Utilize “social days”

“Social days” are designed to keep your posts consistent and fill the needs of your audiences. This will be dependent on the social channel you are using so this is where you will utilize those social listening skills. For example, if you are using instagram this platform will be more graphic, aesthetic and interest based. Whereas LinkedIn will be more educational, wordy, and business based. See the chart below for a few “social day” ideas for Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Twitter. 

Be original 

The best (and worst) part of social media is constant striving for authenticity. Post’s have proven to perform the best when they are original and not found on any other platform (even if it’s your own). To find new ideas, we suggest looking at national and wine-focused calendars to stay relevant with seasonal events. Fun, shareable graphics and interactive polls can also be great ways to interact with your audiences and gain feedback. 

Now, let’s say you have an upcoming winery event and you want to promote it on your LinkedIn and Instagram. Keep the chart above in mind so we aren’t using the same exact post across both channels. For LinkedIn, try creating a LinkedIn event and share the link to your followers in a post. On Instagram, create a graphic promoting your event and to post it on your feed and in stories encouraging people to re-share with their followers. Remember, make sure that all your promotions are compliant with the platform’s guidelines and always link out for additional resources. 

Know who your ideal customer is 

When it comes to picking the right platform for you, use analytics and a bit of intuition to find where a majority of your audience lives. Social media allows the opportunity to reach an infinite amount of people, but it’s all about reaching the right people. To find your target audience, ask yourself: who are my ideal customers? What are their shared interests? What is their shared demographic (age, gender, location, language, hobbies, etc.)? Then compare those findings with how your product marketing and sales teams define your winery’s ideal customer. An email list can be a great starting place. 

Once you analyze the similarities and differences, use those findings to reevaluate your social strategy to better align with your business goals. **You should be doing this on a monthly basis. 

Engagement is king 

Engagement is the fastest and most efficient way to see physical results for your social media efforts. Like we said before, content and social trends are always changing but engagement is the one element that is consistent. 

The key to engagement is interaction with your audience. If someone comments on your post, like (or react) it in a timely manner and reply to their comment. It can be something as simple as a couple of emojis so don’t think too hard about it. 

Pro tip: When crafting your captions, always include a call-to-action. Using open-ended questions that relate to your post is always a good practice and will encourage your audience to engage. For example: if you make a post about Valentine’s Day wine pairings, end your caption with something like, “let us know in the comments below what your favorite Valentine’s Day wine pairing is”. 

If you’re looking to build loyalty or expand your audience reach, set aside some time everyday to interact with other posts. This can include liking and commenting on posts in your social feeds and liking and commenting on posts that have bigger followings and use popular hashtags. We also recommend re-sharing interesting posts to stories (if on Instagram or Facebook) or to your feed (if on LinkedIn or Twitter). This will create a sense of loyalty and may create a partnership in the future. 

Start small 

Social media is like getting a new puppy. We always want a lot of them, but once you get one, you learn it’s best to get a handle on it before getting another. From experience, we know wineries don’t typically have a big marketing teams and members are usually wearing a lot of hats. We suggest starting small with one to two social media accounts instead of trying to take them all on at once. There are a lot of platforms to choose from, so use your target audience evaluation to determine which platforms are best to focus on. You can always add more later, but social channels require a lot of planning, love, and attention to be successful so don’t bite off more than you can chew. 

Video is important 

A lot of people sleep on video but it’s actually a great tool if you’re trying to reach a greater audience. Short form video skyrocketed in 2020, so why not follow suit and utilize it in your own business. This would practice staying on top of new social trends! 

Crafting short videos is a full-time effort so take some time to plan out your content with your team before making your videos. We recommend researching what’s trending at the time so that your efforts satiate your customers’ increasing appetites for original content. 

Pro tip: save trending sounds during your research to later use them in your own videos. If someone interacts with a specific sound, videos using the same sound (and hashtag) will reoccur on their feeds.