Acan Media

As the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto asserted almost a decade ago, “…all markets are conversations.” The idea of conversational marketing is not something that new particularly for those of us who worked in business-to-business where the personal relationship with the customer is so important to success.

But in today’s networked world the term “conversational marketing” has come to mean the use of social media to engage directly with customers online. At it’s most basic it is responding to comments on blogs, forums and social networks such as Facebook. But it can also be used as a customer support tool and a new way to collect market research information.

Although this is an evolving area, there are several examples of wineries using conversational marketing techniques to build their brand, connect directly with customers and sell wine:

• Retailer Gary Vaynerchuk’s Wine Library TV podcast
• Stormhoek’s social marketing story
• Twisted Oak’s blog and Twitter presence
• Capozzi Winery’s Pinotblogger and Twitter presence