Businesses, nonprofits and even municipalities are all hopping onto the social-networking bandwagon. In Napa, Louisa Hufstader takes a look at how Facebook and Twitter are changing the way companies communicate with—instead of to—consumers.
It’s 6 p.m. on a winter Saturday in downtown Napa, and a group of wine aficionados has gathered at Back Room Wines on First Street for a tasting. Nothing unusual there: Back Room’s Daniel Dawkins is one of the North Bay’s most respected wine experts, and his tastings are always well attended.
What’s different about tonight is that nearly everyone in the room is either messaging on an iPhone or typing on a notebook computer. Lisa Mattson, director of communications for Wilson Daniels Ltd., a wine sales and marketing firm based in Napa Valley, has two laptops running at once, one of which is transmitting live video over the Internet as she alternately speaks to the camera and types messages on the keyboard of the other machine. “I just exchanged a comment with somebody from Venezuela, in Caracas,” says Mattson, glancing up from the screens as her video image glances away. “She’s just put up a picture, so I can link up and look at the wine she’s opening.”
Mattson is leading the live Internet tasting using the Twitter social networking platform through a site called TwitterTasteLive.com (TTL), which she describes as “an online forum for tasting wines together for people all over the world.” The occasion for the event is the decade-long tradition of Open That Bottle Night, created in 2000 by Wall Street Journal writers Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher as a way of encouraging wine-loving readers to pull out something they’d been saving and give it a taste [see “All in Good Time,” Special Wine Issue 2008]. Celebrated on the last Saturday in February, OTBN—as it’s come to be called—has become an annual institution for wine lovers around the world.
“We thought it would be really cool, for the 10th anniversary of Open That Bottle Night, to have the first online forum for it,” Mattson says. “We also have a group on Facebook with about 150 members.” Back Room Wines also has a Facebook presence, with more than 250 members signed up to receive updates about events like tonight’s. The importer and the wine shop have teamed up for the evening, working both networks and inviting customers to bring their special bottles to share after sampling four of the importer’s wines—while posting their comments online.
With three computers between them, Mattson and fellow Wilson Daniels employee Lori Narlock are busily responding to comments and questions from oenophiles around the country who’ve lined up the same four wines for tasting at home. Mattson prepared for the event by storing files of backup information about the wines, their vintners, regions and viticultural practices so they could quickly answer any question from pruning techniques to barrel types. She’s also stored a raft of website information, replacing the original, lengthy URL addresses with URLs that have been condensed to a handful of characters using one of the popular, free redirection programs on the Internet, TinyURL.com. (Also in on the planning was Craig Dorlett, creator of TTL and owner of Bin Ends Wine, a wine retailer in Massachusetts.)
Meanwhile, Back Room patrons are also posting their comments—called “tweets” in Twitter parlance, which are limited to 140 characters each—using their handheld and laptop devices. Twice during the evening, Mattson herself is locked out of the Twitter system for tweeting too many times in an hour—an anti-spam measure, she says—because the volume of questions and answers has become so heavy. It’s hard to tell how many individuals have joined the online tasting, because many Twitterers are with friends, spouses or casual groups like the one at Back Room. But 55 unique users RSVP’d in advance (though RSVPs were not required to participate), and tweets are coming in fast from as far away as the woman in Venezuela. Mattson estimates at least 150 people are taking part; by the end of the night, the event will have ranked second of all Twitter topics for more than two hours.
With all that typing and reading going on, you might expect Back Room Wines to be quieter than during an average tasting. But in fact, the mood is surprisingly chummy, with people chatting and laughing in twos and threes as they sip, some with one eye on a monitor displaying Mattson’s running commentary on the wines, others typing or commenting on tweets as they pop up onscreen. It seems that instead of isolating people from each other, as some critics have claimed, the Internet has actually helped to create a sense of community—not to mention sell quite a bit of wine.
On good terms
Did I say “sell”? On Twitter, it’s not a bad word; but Facebook, where companies are increasingly joining individuals in looking for “friends,” is a more delicate matter. Founded by a Harvard student and named for the getting-to-know-you freshman photo album, the fast-growing network is geared for social interaction, not business development. On Facebook, moms post family photos, old folks reconnect and share memories and pals of all ages exchange their thoughts. But that doesn’t mean smart companies and foundations can’t use the network to communicate with the public—in a friendly way, of course.
“I’m not selling anything,” maintains Amelia Ceja, president and owner of Napa’s Ceja Vineyards, who has hundreds of Facebook friends. She’s just being herself: “My life revolves around my family, my friends and my business,” she says. “My entire focus on Facebook is all about Ceja Vineyards and what I love to do,” from cooking to promoting her family’s winery, she says. Ceja has posted photos of the White House kitchen from her trip to the Obama inauguration, as well as shots of her family’s downtown Napa tasting salon. Her typical Facebook status report might read “Amelia is having an excellent glass of Ceja Vineyards—sexy and seductive—Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s delicious!”
If a copywriter had created that sentence, it would be a shameless sales pitch. But coming from the woman whose family made the wine, it’s just another update for her Facebook friends, describing her life. Ceja has also joined Twitter—“not to be a follower, but to be one of the leaders,” she says. “I want people to follow what I’m doing. I think it’s groundbreaking: A Mexican-American woman, a Latina being president of a highly regarded wine company isn’t common.” So far, she’s only had time to tweet in the evenings, but Ceja has bigger plans: “I think all of these social sites are going to be very helpful in the growth and success of our online cooking show,” called “Salud Napa,” which she’s producing with her sons, Ariel and Navek, and her daughter Dalia for a 2009 debut.
The use of social networking sites is growing exponentially. According to a recent Nielsen Online report, it’s happening three times faster than overall Internet growth. And people of all ages are jumping on board. In 2008, Facebook’s greatest growth was among users ages 35-49 (more than 24 million new users), followed by those in the 18-34 age group (about 23 million) and those ages 50-64 (13.6 million). In the United States alone, the number of people who access social networks using mobile devices increased by 156 percent last year.
Foodies are all over Facebook
Napa’s native-foods entrepreneur and cookbook author Steve Sando, whose Rancho Gordo line of heirloom beans has a devoted following across the country, already has a lively website and a blog; he initially joined Facebook to make contact and share pictures with old friends from high school in Marin County. But as Rancho Gordo fans flocked to befriend him, Sando found his circle widening until he was essentially forced to include some company information among his updates, links and family photos. And when, in February, he signed the lease for Rancho Gordo’s first retail store, Sando had an announcement on his Facebook page within minutes. Minutes later, the congratulations began to pop up as friends and fans alike celebrated the news.
“Everybody should be hopping onto Facebook to help promote what they do,” says Lisa Batto, the Internet-savvy executive vice president of the Napa Chamber of Commerce. “Look at the Internet, embrace it and see what good it can do.”
Batto convinced Chamber President/CEO Kate King to let her establish a Facebook identity for the group late last year and says she’s already seeing the benefits of online social networking. “Event participation has increased,” says Batto, who invites both Chamber members and non-members to attend mixers and other activities, and has seen more non-members turning out as a result of the Facebook connection. “It’s almost a no-brainer; it costs us a few minutes of office time,” and nothing more. Batto’s “NapaChamber OfCommerce” Facebook page now has more than 450 friends in the North Bay and around the world and Batto says, “I don’t deny anyone friendship: It’s not membership-based. If we’re going to network, we’re going to network globally.”
Mind your manners
However, some Facebook users have crossed the line from networking—defined by interaction—to blatant one-way marketing, which disappoints some users who had hoped for more from the service. “What I find particularly interesting is the number of individuals, businesses and nonprofits who believe it’s a conduit for mindlessly spewing messages and yet never use it as the interactive and world-expanding tool it was intended to be,” says Pamela Hunter, a respected Napa public relations expert whose Studio-707 represents high-end clients such as the Bardessono Inn and Spa, Stagecoach Vineyards, Bounty Hunter and Seven Stones.
“In my view, their time on Facebook is wasted,” she continues. “But, worse, they’re devaluing this otherwise meaningful tool and, if their numbers are sufficient, they’ll ultimately drive the authentic Facebook community away.”
Ashley Teplin, also with Studio-707, believes that, in this era of reality-based television, consumers crave authenticity and won’t settle for sales messages disguised as communication. “People want an interpersonal connection with the actual person,” says Teplin, who joined Friendster in her early 20s and is also a veteran of MySpace, which, she says, “was a little more intrusive” than Facebook. MySpace continues to be the top network for musicians and bands to distribute their music and publicity, but Teplin feels Facebook, which offers more options for user privacy, “does a better job” of connecting individuals. “Facebook is a place for friends and a place to keep people informed,” she says.
Teplin is also an active user of Twitter, “following” (receiving tweets from) more than 130 other Twitterers including online-video wine educator Gary Vaynerchuk—a tireless tweeter—and assorted wine, food and arts blogs. “I use it as an information tool, for me to learn,” she says. “I wish I had the ability to read the newspaper every morning, but I just don’t do it. This is just a little bit more my speed.” Indeed: Using Twitter, Teplin can keep up with the wine and food sections of both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times at a glance. And when it comes to her own tweets and Facebook updates, she says, “I’m informing my friends and followers on both of these platforms.”
Spread the word
That’s what Barry Martin intends to do, too: deliver information. Already an active user in his personal life, “I haven’t yet created a Facebook presence for the City of Napa, but I have it on my agenda,” says Martin, the city’s community outreach coordinator. “Since Facebook broke into the mainstream among people over 30, it’s become a viable delivery method for all kinds of messaging—personal, business, institutional—and at this point, if I didn’t use it to reach people with the city’s messages, I wouldn’t be doing my job correctly.” Martin says he’s noted a growing trend of municipalities using social networking. “Up until recently, MySpace has been the most used social networking vehicle, and typically the local government users have been police departments reaching out to youth that way.” And, with a growing number of people using their handheld devices to access the networks, Facebook and Twitter are becoming valuable tools for getting information to the public during floods, fires and other crises, as well as a method for sending easy reminders about meetings and events.
Nonprofits can also take advantage of the networks to get the word out about their causes. “I’m serving as community pride chair for Auction Napa Valley this year, and I’ve been recommending to Napa Valley Vintners staff that Facebook be used for our outreach there as well,” Martin continues. “I’d say the same to other nonprofits and all types of organizations right now.”
Rick Deragon is listening. The executive director of the Napa Valley Museum in Yountville took over the ailing institution last summer and has been working hard to enliven its exhibitions and broaden its community outreach, called the Trunk Program. “We are the museum for the Napa Valley, featuring its geology, history and art in our exhibitions and programs,” he writes in an email. “We consider our museum the place where people can learn about the region in all its permutations, be enriched and entertained at the same time.
“We’re in the process of becoming robustly e-savvy,” he continues. “Our website, which is moribund, will be flashy and a must-see; Facebook, YouTube, artists’ links and blogs galore are coming.” Other arts institutions, including the di Rosa Preserve art ranch in Carneros and the Napa Valley Opera House, have already taken the plunge and begun collecting Facebook friends.
Even individual artists, like painter Caetlynn Booth, find Facebook a useful way to stay connected with peers and patrons. “It’s just a really handy networking tool,” she says. “Even though I just met this person once, I’m always connected to them; I don’t have to worry about keeping their email up-to-date. It’s really handy for art and community building,” both of which are more important to her than ever, since her development job was downsized last year. Booth and her boyfriend even watched the presidential inauguration on Facebook (which partnered with CNN for the feed) along with countless other users who posted their comments during the event. On a regular basis, she says, she checks the network up to 10 times a day—“I glance and see if there’s anything new.” Booth also has a MySpace account, but “I never use it anymore,” she adds. Of LinkedIn, an earlier platform geared for professional networking, Booth says both, “I think it’s good because a lot of people use it,” and, “It’s kind of cumbersome and I never really use it, but when people ask to be a connection I’ll add them.”
Batto, of the Napa Chamber, is active with her own personal Facebook page as well as the Chamber identity, and cautions that public figures like herself and local elected officials who use the platform do need to exercise some caution when expressing themselves online. For instance, Batto doesn’t sign up the Chamber for any Facebook “causes” it’s invited to join, no matter how worthy, because of Chamber policy requiring Board approval. “Be careful about respecting the boundaries you have in place based upon your policies and procedures and your general operating guidelines,” she advises. “You do have to be a bit more careful, I think, about what you share.”
But with that in mind, Batto says online social networking has the potential to build strong relationships: “When you actually go out into the community and you run into someone you’re on Facebook with, it’s kind of a warm connection. It just adds to the whole dynamic,” she says.
