The Buzz at Lyman PR
Prominent Napa and Sonoma Wineries Innovating With TastingRoom Inc’s Wine Product Sampling Kits
Trefethen Family Vineyards, Grgich Hills Estate, Patz & Hall, Chateau Montelena Winery and DeLoach Vineyards All Innovating With TastingRoom Inc.’s Wine Product Sampling Kits
Prominent Napa and Sonoma Wineries are Bringing Their Premium Wine Tasting Experience in Small Bottles Directly to Trade and Consumers
SANTA ROSA, California (April 1, 2010) – TastingRoom™ Inc., creators of innovative sample-sized (50ml) wines packaged in mini bottles and tasting kits, today announced additional premium wineries incorporating TastingRoom Inc.’s wine sampling kits into their trade and consumer marketing plans this Spring. Top branded, award-winning Napa and Sonoma wineries including Trefethen Family Vineyards, Grgich Hills Estate, Patz & Hall, Chateau Montelena Winery and DeLoach Vineyards announced plans to use TastingRoom Inc.’s distinctive product sampling solution to market and sell their premium wines.
TastingRoom, Inc.’s kits are an easy, low cost way to expose customers and channels to new wine vintages and varietals before they purchase bottles or cases. The winery sampling kits boast brand labeling, high-quality display packaging and wine tasting menus written by the wineries and winemakers.
TastingRoom, Inc.’s patent-pending decanting process creates a perfect pour of wine in a mini glass wine bottle, replicating both the taste and look of the larger format bottle that the wine was originally transferred from.
Designed from the ground up to be a high-volume, commercial solution for premium wines, the company creates the wine tasting samples via its inventive T.A.S.T.E. Technology™ (Total Anaerobic Sample Transfer Environment). The “clean room”-styled decanting process is unprecedented and distinguishable from any other wine sampling offering on the market today. Using this method, wineries have the ability to recreate replicas of their wine in smaller sizes, packaging them into kits for both trade and consumers, and ultimately providing a range of uses to expand reach and sales potential.
“TastingRoom Inc.’s sample size formats provide an opportunity to introduce our wines to the trade and customers in locales that have been unattainable thus far,” said Janet Trefethen, CEO of Trefethen Family Vineyards. “Now we can bring a wine tasting experience to their front door, broadening exposure to our wines and opening us to new markets. It’s a win-win.”
“We’re excited to introduce our wines to new customers using this amazing new technology,” said Violet Grgich, Proprietor, Vice President, Grgich Hills Estate. “It can accurately bring to your home the taste and aroma of a 750ml bottle of wine in 50ml sample sizes, at a fraction of the cost. We’re also using individual bottles so our sales staff can taste more accounts on more of our wines—including our expensive Special Selections wines—at their convenience. They don’t have to open a 750ml bottle for just one or two accounts.”
Wineries have the flexibility to choose the wines they put into the sampler kits allowing each to creatively market and showcase their wines in whatever manner they choose. These premium Napa and Sonoma wineries are creating a wide variety of kits for use, including tasting flights of new releases, exclusive side-by-side tastings of single vineyard varietals, library wine samplers, tastes of the top sellers and more.
“We are honored to have these top wineries use our T.A.S.T.E. wine tasting kits to expand their businesses,” says Tim Bucher, CEO of TastingRoom, Inc. “We continue to be manically focused on helping premium wineries bring their tasting room experiences and cost efficient sample-to-purchase business formula out to the trade and consumers.”
Leading-edge Napa and Sonoma wineries like Trefethen Family Vineyards, Grgich Hills Estate, Patz & Hall, Chateau Montelena Winery and DeLoach Vineyards join Domaine Carneros, Seghesio Family Vineyards and others in using TastingRoom Inc.’s wine tasting samplers and kits for marketing to trade contacts, as well as to consumers through their wine clubs, in tasting rooms and at events.
About TastingRoom Inc.
TastingRoom Inc. provides wineries and consumers with innovative sample-sized wine tasting packages and new direct channels for product sampling, marketing and selling wines. TastingRoom Inc. uses its unique T.A.S.T.E. Technology to transfer wine directly from larger wine bottles (750ml and up) into smaller 50ml formats in a sealed, zero-oxygen chamber. A focus on wine quality drives every step of the transfer and testing process, so that wineries can be assured that the samples are a true representation of their wine.
TastingRoom Inc. is based in Sonoma County, with offices in Silicon Valley, Napa Valley and Paso Robles. For more information on Tasting Room Inc. or T.A.S.T.E. Technology, email TRInfo@TastingRoom.com or visit TastingRoom.com. Find us here on Facebook.
Contact: Carm Lyman, Lyman Public Relations
Phone: 707-256-3834
Email: carm@lymanpr.com
Video Interview: Wrapsol Wrap-Up at CTIA, from Butterscotch.com
Antique iPhone Accessories
What’s an “antique iPhone accessory” you ask? Have a look at some of the most popular:
Why are these antiques, you ask? Because of Wrapsol’s new Ultra protective film, which replaces those with this:
Learn more about the Ultra for iPhone, Blackberry, Droid, Nexus and other handsets, plus how to protect gadgets at Wrapsol.com
An evolution in PR technique or ‘one more thing’ to worry about?
Pitching media is a lost (or in some cases, never found) art for PR practitioners. The very best have a style all their own but always with a common thread: knowing what a particular journalist wants/needs and via what means to communicate. However, journalists today are more susceptible to information overload than ever before, with social media added to the barrage of phone calls and email.
As such, PitchEngine has announced an interesting new platform that injects social media squarely into the realm of PR professionals. Is this an evolution in how we’ll do business or just one more thing to think about?
Below is the article on MediaBistro by Joe Ciarallo. Find it online here
PitchEngine Partners With Technorati and MyMediaInfo; Announces Media Relations Platform
By Joe Ciarallo
First on PRNewser: PitchEngine, the multi-media content distribution company, is readying a new media relations platform called Pitch! Mainly, the platform will enable one-to-one private conversations between media and PR pros, among other features.
The service seeks to make things more manageable for PR pros by allowing them to create “pitches” and interact and respond to media requests on a private platform. From the media side, journalists can post questions to the Pitch! page and opt-in to receive updates by company, category, or contact. Journalists can also pitch brands or organizations when they’re looking for sources for a story.
“We want to re-shape the way companies look at PR distribution,” said PitchEngine founder and CEO Jason Kintlzer in an interview with PRNewser.
“Instead of sending press releases to email addresses, we’ll be creating conversations and sharing content with real people, network style. We’re aiming to cutout PR spam and cut-down on emails, voice-mails and other traditional PR outreach methods,” he said.
The partnerships with Technorati and MyMediaInfo give Pitch! massive media databases in which they can ramp up the service.
The service will be priced similar to PitchEngine’s other offerings, with a 30-day free trial, $49 per month at the base level and a professional level at $250 per month. The company plans to begin rolling out beta invites shortly.
It will be interesting to see if the service catches on and replaces tried and true PR practices of email and phone relations. PitchEngine’s social media releases have certainly caught on, as the company counts thousands of clients, including IBM, Zappos, CNN, Xerox and Chrysler.
How to Move Facebook Fans to Action – Social Media Examiner
Step 1 with social media is setting up your presence. If steps 2 and 3 (or perhaps, steps 2a and 2b) are developing and engaging your audience, the next frontier is getting them to act.
In this Social Media Examiner post Mari Smith provides 13 tips about how to move Facebook Fans to action.
Perhaps you have a Facebook Fan Page and even some fans. But now what? How can you encourage your fans to act and interact?
In my prior post I covered the various sources and types of content you can post on your Facebook fan page. I also talked about the importance of consistent updates.
However, just like the “Field of Dreams” – if you build a fantastic fan page with plenty of quality content, will they come and will they stay?
They will come and they will stay if you give your fans good reason to engage.
Given that over half of Facebook’s 400 million active users log in daily and spend an average of 55 minutes per day on the site, you can get your target audience to spend some of that time getting to know you, your brand, your products and services.
The secret is to create a fan page with the right blend of ingredients that resonates most with your ideal fans. And to ensure they’re made to feel a strong part of your online community.
As mentioned in Part 1, I’ve found there are essentially two components to Facebook fan page engagement: 1) Sharing quality, relevant content and 2) inciting comments. So, here in Part 2, we’ll talk about just how vital comments (and likes, wall posts and @ tags) are to the success of your fan page.
Now that you have a wide variety of regular, quality, relevant content posting on your fan page, here are some ways to get your fans to interact:
1. Ask questions
For status updates, try ending with a question.
2. Use the words “you” or “your”
Use the word “you” often – “What are your thoughts?” “What do you think about xyz?”
3. Keep it short
The easier it is for your fans to read, the more likely they are to respond. Keep your status updates short and simple with one topic. You have up to 420 characters per update, but I recommend about half that for an ideal size. For longer updates, use the Notes app – or write a blog post and update.
4. Post in high-traffic windows
Get to know when your fans are most responsive. Depending on in which part of the world the majority of your fans are, you might want to post between 9:00am and 2:00pm in your timezone.
5. Respond promptly
Do your best to respond to fan questions (as wall posts) as promptly as possible. If you find you can’t keep up with the volume of questions, offer a free teleseminar or webinar where you answer the top questions for your fans. You can do this in the traditional way of having people opt-in to get the phone number so you’ll build your email list at the same time.
6. Address fans by name
Come back and reply often to your fans’ comments – Facebook currently doesn’t have threaded commenting, so I suggest addressing specific fans in your comments as @name. See my comment at the bottom of the screenshot below:
7. Comment yourself
Add your own comment as needed to get the ball rolling. However, don’t step in too soon. I often find that the comments come more freely when you allow your fans to run by themselves initially.
8. Thank your fans
Acknowledge your fans often with simple thanks. Genuine recognition goes a *long* way!
9. Surprise your fans
Don’t be afraid to stray “off topic” from time to time and surprise your fans. In other words, your content doesn’t always have to be directly related to your product or service. You might share an inspirational quote and add your own thoughts, for example.
If you happen to know a fan’s Twitter ID, send a tweet thanking her/him for the comment on your fan page. With a link of course.
10. Use @ tagging
You can tag other fan pages that you’re a fan of and your own friends (along with Groups you belong to and Events you’ve RSVPed for). When appropriate, and used sparingly, @ tags can be a very powerful way to have your post show up on others’ walls, which gives you more exposure and brings more fans or potential fans back to engage.
11. Use the Discussion Board
Give your fans a place to network with one another. Plus, often fans want to do self-promotion. You can encourage these types of activities on a specific discussion thread. Also, when you first launch your fan page, be sure to start 3 to 5 discussion topics so it’s not a blank tab.
12. Send updates to fans
Each tab on your fan page and each discussion thread topic has its own unique URL. To bring fans back to your page to contribute to a discussion and get them more engaged, send out an update with a call to action and specific link. (To find the Update feature, click Edit Page under your image then look for Send Update to Fans on the right of your Admin page.)
13. Monitor insights
If you’re a perfectionist, the goal is to get 5 stars and a perfect 10 score! Facebook uses algorithms to calculate your Post Quality as determined by the percentage of your fans who engage when you post content, calculated on a rolling seven-day basis. The number of stars depends on how your Post Quality compares to similar pages (for example, pages that have a similar number of fans).
The more activity your fan page posts generate, the longer you’ll show up in the News Feed of your fans!
As you build up your fan base, consistently add quality, relevant content and engage your fans. You’ll start to see results that translate into an increase in brand awareness and positive brand sentiment, email and blog subscribers, and of course, sales and paying customers.
The Social Media Experiment has Concluded
Social media is here to stay as an integral component of communication programs; the days of experimental one-offs on Facebook and Twitter are well past. In 2010, companies that have already embraced social media programs will capitalize on the power of online word-of-mouth, and ensure social marketing syncs with broader marketing initiatives.
Is your company still new in the game and not sure which direction to go? This article from eMarketer looks at how to use social media as a marketing and communications tool and the need to define a clear strategy –even if it’s a beginner plan. The sooner you ramp up a cost efficient and effective social media program, the sooner you’ll measure and demonstrate return or growth, and have your execs talking about it in the board room.
eMarketer: Why You Need a Strategy for Social Media
Planning and organization no longer optional
Social media has matured to the point where marketers are no longer asking whether it should be part of their marketing mix but how and where they should participate. A clear strategy for the channel is now necessary.
“The low cost of social media can lull marketers into improvising solutions,” said Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the Insight Brief “Five Reasons Why Marketers Need to Have a Social Media Strategy.”
See the rest of the article here.
How to be Social with Social Media
Twitter, Facebook, a phone, call??? This Mashable article looks at 5 ways to effectively communicate when we have more options for being social than ever before.
Original article here by Sorem Gordhamer
5 Levels of Effective Communication in the Social Media Age
In the era of social media, our networks are much larger than they have ever been, and we have more ways to communicate with those in them. Even if you are not very active on Facebook () or Twitter (), my guess is that your sphere of communication has expanded significantly in recent years. Who you communicate with and how you communicate has changed radically. This new connected era brings both opportunities and challenges.
In the past we had a set of contacts, all of whom generally knew how to reach us — via phone, e-mail, or regular mail. Today, thanks in large part to social media, we have many different levels of communication, each with a specific purpose and etiquette. When we do not understand the role of these levels, they can become huge time wasters. When we do understand them however, they can help us more effectively engage and navigate these new waters.
Level 1: The Public Reply
Just about everyone, including Bill Gates (who if you have not heard, recently joined Twitter), has learned the importance of having both a means to communicate with people, and a channel where people can respond. Though you can do this on Facebook through comments on Fan pages and in groups, this seems most applicable to Twitter, where people use @replies to send and receive short, publicly viewable messages.
The public reply provides an open and transparent channel for people to interact with public figures, brands, and each other, without the pressure of response that comes with e-mail. Public interactions are a great starting point for engagement that never existed before social media, and if done correctly, can often lead to more fruitful direct communication.
Level 2: The Direct Message
Once a relationship is established through public communication, the next step is often a direct message within a social network. A direct message creates a private connection without opening the floodgates of e-mail. In fact, in may even be preferable to e-mail in the long term.
Why? Especially with Twitter, a DM has a character limit, and can only come from people you follow. If you have ten e-mails (of unlimited length and possibly unknown sources) and ten Twitter DMs, which are you likely to open first? For an increasing number of people, the answer is DM.
Once you make a connection through DM and get permission to follow-up via e-mail, the e-mail is often better received. Facebook, where most people allow private messages, can also be a means to take communication to the next level.
Level 3: Email
E-mail still has its place in this new era. It allows for more in-depth communication, can be easily forwarded, and sent to numerous people at once. When e-mail is used skillfully, it enables deeper communication. When not used effectively, it can become a huge time drain, as people write lengthy messages without much thought of the time and attention they are asking of recipients.
This fine line makes e-mail tough to master in the social media age. If you’re looking to advance to the next communication level with someone, respect this direct and private channel, and be sure to keep your e-mails succinct and meaningful.
Level 4: Phone
Hearing someone’s voice allows people to get a better sense of one another. While communicating via text, a person can take time to carefully craft his or her words, potentially presenting an image that may not be true or is harder to trust. A phone call allows for more immediate back-and-forth, and can be particularly helpful if a subject matter is delicate or people are considering a more in-depth relationship.
Some time back I was communicating with an editor about an issue that we had bounced back and forth several times. Finally she said, “Let’s chat about it on the phone.” This furthered the dialogue significantly and bypassed what may have taken weeks to sort out via e-mail.
Level 5: In-Person (or Video Chat):
I have met numerous people in person that I first communicated with via social networks. All of these meetings were enhanced by the natural progression of our first digital communication. While at one time face-to-face interactions were the entry point, today, in-person meetings often come at later stages.
Particularly if people are considering working on a project together, an in-person meeting allows for the most in-depth connection. For some people Skype () or other video chat may be enough to experience this.
Too often people think communication is only through words, but our bodies communicate as well. They communicate how comfortable or uncomfortable we are discussing a matter, our level of passion for a subject, and our hopes and fears. Meeting with someone in person allows for communication to occur on multiple levels, and people often come away with a much better sense of each other.
Conclusion:
In this era of social media when we are reaching out and engaging more and more people, the question is not just “Should I communicate with someone?” but “How should I communicate with someone? How can I build engagement one step at a time?” The more we allow for and understand the importance of all the various levels of communication, the more we can skillfully and effectively use each one.
What’s in a Name? With Social Media, More than You Might Think
Names are important because let’s face it, who wants to go through life with a moniker that mom & dad thought would be cute and results in getting you beat up at school every day? And as Entrepreneur dramatically wrote, for your business “the right name can make your company the talk of the town; the wrong one can doom it to obscurity and failure.” Gasp.
Now social media enters the name fray and casts another light on the choice of a handle for businesses, with the potential for ‘social media stardom’ or alternatively, circling the Internet drainpipe.
To illustrate the importance of naming, I was doing Twitter keyword searches and came across @TheNapaValley, which has 488 followers, follows nobody, is on 20 List, and hasn’t Tweeted once. Not one time. Still gearing up for Tweet numero uno, which the Twitterverse appears to be eagerly awaiting.
While the wrong name isn’t likely to topple your company’s social media efforts, the right one will be easier to find and simpler to share with others. A few suggestions:
> People tend to intuitively search so try to have social media names match or be similar to your company’s real name. For example, Lyman Public Relations - Website: LymanPR.com; Twitter: @LymanPR; Facebook.com/LymanPR
> Last year Facebook introduced vanity URLs, which enable you to select any (available) name for your company at Facebook.com/username
> If your company has a geographic orientation that’s relevant to customers, consider including a locator, such as The Westin Verasa, Napa – Twitter: @WestinNapa; Facebook.com/WestinNapa
> Search engines now crawl social media pages and return keyword hits in results and news feeds. This makes it increasingly important to have name consistency to enhance search engine optimization
Study by Social Media Examiner looks at social media usage, strategies and 2010 predictions
Social Media Examiner recently studied MarketingProf’s The State of Social Media Usage and published a distilled version of findings. Specifically the authors looked at: 1) What’s Normal in Social Media Usage 2) Social Media Strategies and 3) 2010 Predictions.
It’s a very worthwhile read with insights on how companies are using social media — both to their benefit and detriment. While the article is titled New Study Reveals Facebook Better Than Twitter the authors uncover much more.
Five Wine Tweeters to Follow, and Why
One of the beauties of Twitter is being able to keep an eye on topics, dialogues and people of interest. Wine is no exception and thankfully some of the best vino minds are Tweeting, many posting excerpts from their blog.
Here are five users to check out, and why they’re worthy of a Follow:
@CrushPad – A little bit about everything on wine & wine topics worldwide
@TopWineNews – You guessed it, news about wine: top picks, market trends, serving tips & even notifications about the next “advanced wine-grape grower workshop”
@RickBakas – Director of Social Media for St. Supery = wine + food + social media guru
@ NatalieMacLean – aka NatDecants, and winner of the “World’s Best Drink Writer” award. Focus is on great values under $20. Also check out the wine & food pairing widget
@BackRoomWines – aka Daniel Dawson, former sommelier of The French Laundry turned wine merchant. Not the Twitter star of others on this list but when it comes to selecting a great bottle, Dan’s the man
