Oregon Wineries Social Media: Informal Survey

On Thursday, February 3, I spoke about social media to 70+ Oregon wineries at Stoel Rives LLP’s 4th Annual Wine Law Summit at the Allison Inn & Spa in Newberg, OR.

At the beginning, as I do with every speaking engagement on social media, I asked the conference some social media assessment questions. Here are the questions and responses:

Q: How many of you (wineries) have a Facebook Fanpage? A: 40% +/-

Q: How many of you are tweeting? A: 25-30% +/-

Q: How many of you are on LinkedIn? A: < 5%

Q: How many of you have a branded YouTube channel? A: <2%

Very intriguing results. In a conversation with Rick Bakas, @RickBakas, (the very first winery social media director – ever) prior to my speaking engagement, we talked about what some of the challenges for wineries are in adopting social media.

One topic that I find especially intriguing is – how can wineries use social media optimization to help restaurants and wine shops sell more wine – and to sell their (the winery’s) wines?

I believe that the answer lies in compelling and diverse messages. I’d be very curious to hear your thoughts on this – how can wineries leverage social media to their benefit? Also, please go over to Rick Bakas’ site and show him some lovin’!

The slides from my presentation at the Wine Law Summit can be found here: Winery SMO.

Jeffrey J Kingman

Wine Law Summit – Stoel Rives LLP

I’ve been dying to share this upcoming event with everyone.

Back about Thanksgiving I received an inquiry from Stoel Rives law firm, as to availability to speak on social media for wineries, at their 4th annual Wine Law Summit in February. The Summit is being held at the gorgeous Allison Inn and Spa in Newberg, Oregon – heart of Oregon Wine Country. I just got the release today to announce this.

From their website:

Stoel Rives LLP is a business law firm providing corporate and litigation services to a wide range of clients throughout the United States. Established in 1907, the firm has nearly 400 attorneys operating out of 11 offices in seven states. Representative clients include financial institutions, public and private utilities, energy and renewable energy companies, developers, manufacturers, retailers, hospitals, universities, agribusinesses, software companies, food and beverage companies, charitable foundations, telecommunications and forestry companies, among others. We represent businesses at all stages of growth, from start-ups to internationally known public concerns.

Stoel Rives is a leader in corporate, energy, environmental, intellectual property, labor and employment, land use and construction, litigation, natural resources, real estate, renewable energy and technology law. We rank among the top 30 U.S. law firms for the number of national first-tier practice areas listed in the U.S. News & World Report “Best Law Firms in America” survey. We have also forged a national reputation for client service, as evidenced by the annual BTI Consulting Group in-house counsel client satisfaction survey that rated Stoel Rives among the nation’s 30 best law firms for “exceptional” client service in 2010 and 2011. Our lawyers have distinguished themselves individually, with 90 of our lawyers rated among the best in their practice areas by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business®. The firm also ranks in the top 20 nationwide for the total number of lawyers listed in Best Lawyers in America®.

Stoel Rives has offices in Anchorage, Boise, Lake Tahoe, Minneapolis, Portland, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco and Vancouver. They’ve represented 250+ Northwest wineries for thirty years and are widely considered the experts on beverage law in the Pacific Northwest.

I’m excited to sit through all these seminars:

• Distillery operations at a winery
• Scope of permissible commercial activities – panel discussion
• Trademarks and your brand
• Siting a winery – A conditional use application case study
• Employment issues, including use of volunteers

My hour long presentation on social media best practices/risks for wineries is the last seminar of the day, during lunch. I think I’ll hold off on consuming wine until afterwards.

Jeffrey J Kingman