Discliamer - I got this rubber chicken as a gift from @eljefetwisted from Twisted Oak Winery.
social media, tech, food and wine in a world that takes itself too seriously.
Discliamer - I got this rubber chicken as a gift from @eljefetwisted from Twisted Oak Winery.
I woke up this morning to a DM saying to take a look at Steve Heimoff's latest blog post titled When blogs go bad. Little did I know that this post was on a comment I wrote on one of his other posts Holier than thou? When it comes to pay to play, blogging is looking a lot like print.
Startled and humbled as I was to read my name in his blog, I was also a bit confused at the correlation of my comment and the meat of his blog post. I talked about how this is a new world where everyone has a voice and he choice to write about one specific instance about a blog reciting a press release, a very good point yes. But they seem to be two different thoughts, at least IMHO.
While I am still new to the wine world and corporate America, I have worked with wineries for a few years and loved the marketing industry and diving into consumers psyches for even longer. I have only been a part of the social media aspect of marketing for a little over a year, but so much has changed within that year and brands are just now figuring out that they have to be online. By no means would I ever call myself an expert on anything and my wine blog itself is just me writing about my life in Sonoma County and since wine was/is a huge part of my life, Shana the wine blogger was born. For some reason (I do like to think it is my sense of humor and that I know about all the cool events) people read and even enjoy my blog. I am not a wine critic, though I definitely do have an opinion about everything. My response to Steve's post on my comment is below and I think it is just as valid as my original comment, both points being that there is room for all of us in this crazy online world. This post really got me thinking about the changing environment and the idea that social media (blogging, Twitter, Facebook, ect.) is still in its infancy.
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As both a PR “flack” and a “wine blogger” who writes simply because I love wine, I agree that there is a difference between rewriting a press release and doing your homework, but press releases has been regurgitated for years. This is not a new phenomenon to the wine blogging world, nor is free gifts to the mommy bloggers.
The news (speaking generally) has always had a bias and used scare tactics or fluff stories for the sake of entertainment. I learned at a young age to take the news with a grain of salt… Same goes with anything I read online through a blog, a tweet, a review on Yelp, or even an article in a magazine.
Granted, I am much younger than you and many of your readers, but the youth are the wine buyers and drinkers of the future and the Internet has allowed us to personalize the way we get information and given us more choices of what we read. And that is the way we like it.
You stated that you were going to explain the difference of good and bad blogs “for some of us.” My case was that for the rest of us, we read what we like. I personally do not like reading a rewritten press release just as much as I dislike reading them as is, but with the adaptation of the social media press release, consumers now have easy access to press releases anyways.
If someone reads a blog post/press release written by a “useful idiot” on Lodi wines and decides to try it based on the blog post, so be it. That is their problem. Hell, people still drink Franzia and swear by it. This does not discredit true wine critics like you, but I think people should be allowed to write their opinions and make up their own minds about what makes a good blog or a bad blog.
I am not sure why you have complex, confused emotions about where the Internet is taking us, but to not think you have to adapt to this new way of communication is absurd (in a later comment I stated I wasn't just talking about him, but talking about the industry as a whole). In your previous post, the wine magazines are not going anywhere and they still can be relevant. I simply think there is room for both.
As you stated in Tom Wark’s post -- "Can't we all just get along?"
twibbon.com is a site where anyone can create a cause worthy Twitter image overlay. A great idea for people to show their support for an organization, or an awesome wine conference coming up. So, Wine Blogger Conference attendees, please add this image to your Twitter profile by clicking on the widget (okay widget failed, please click on the link) below and adding your Twitter info!
http://twibbon.com/join/WBC09
My only problem with it is that it makes the image smaller, but even so, I see potential in organizing the masses behind one cause (i.e., LIVESTRONG)
I never realized how many stupid puns one could use with the word "good" but I am sure we will hear all of them by the time this is all over.
I just left the Murphy-Goode tasting room after an hour of wine tasting and talking to most of the top ten finalists. Below are some pictures I took with the iphone, but if you really want to see some amazing shots take a look at http://www.areallygoodetrip.com/index.php/photos/ where Adam has posted his images of his "Really Goode Trip" to Healdsburg. It is great to see my little town through his eyes, and through the eyes of all the other tweets and Facebook updates from almost all of the candidates. It is funny, when I posted a Facebook status update today mentioning the free tasting, I had a few comments asking if I had won the "contest."
Shana Ray will be visiting the Murphy Goode tasting room this afternoon to drink some wine and hang out with the top 10 finalists.... You should come too!! FREE TASTING and entertainment from 3-5.
Well, first off everyone and their mother would have already known if I had 'won." I would be screaming all over town about my goode fortune. Second, I would have had to enter to win.... Damn pesky rules. The reasoning I never entered the job search was because I already live here in Healdsburg. My guess is that the Murphy Goode team was looking for someone who could come into the area and into the wine world and see it all from a fresh perspective and tell the world about how amazing it is here. I already do that everyday. The tweets and images from yesterday reaffirmed my guess. All ten candidates were so excited to see vineyards, their hotel rooms and the Healdsburg square.... I don't have the same "new" excitement about all of it as I did when I first moved here, but I do get excited to see others reaction to my home town. I am sure there will be more tweets and pictures to come because I hope to be able to see these awesome individuals again before they leave (as Adam told my mom in the tasting room, "we have been friends for about two weeks now"). For now, here are some images I took from today's goode tasting.Cheers.*shana.
(p.s. that blond lady with me is my mom, she came to harrass the candiates too).
I just got done watching Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht's latest Diggnation video on the Murphy Goode Dream Job and the fact that the MG team decided to NOT place the top vote getter, Martin Sargent, into the top 50 finalists.
As a wine snob, yes, I was totally insulted by the white zinfandel drinking in his video (update - the Boone's Farm Watermelon), but that was kinda the point. He used his social media skills and humorous non-stuffy wino approach to get his friends and followers to vote for his video, thus proving his popularity and obvious need to learn more about wine. Alex had a great point that even if MG didn't think that he was right for the job that they should have looked at what the "people" wanted and put him into the top 50 anyways. "It is all about the power of people when you want to do anything."Okay, so Martin didn't make it into the top 50.... Instead a seemingly wine-knowledgeable selection of people made it into the semi-finals and then an even further selection of social media "gurus" and people who already know about wine made it into the finals. I am not here to debate their choices or what I think about the top 10 (yes, I do have some reservations about some of them, but thankfully I will get to meet all of them this weekend to really form my opinion on who I personally think would be best suited for the job -- because we all judge... Don't pretend you won't be either).The thing is that it just shows that MG doesn't really "get" social media, thus, as Alex pointed out, they really need this correspondent to help them into the Web 2.0 world. But not even acknowledging the top vote getter until the black-lash started, and then to almost insult people who really felt their votes mattered, is just so "anti" social media, that it almost bothers me. Though, I am happy that in the beginning, MG stated that they didn't know anything about social media and that is why they started this job search in the first place. Now, what I think MG needs to do to smooth over all of this is to apologize. By simply saying that they messed up, (IMHO) everything will go away and everyone can go back to concentrating on what really matters --- The top 10 candidates and how this job search has helped bring wine social media marketing to the minds of the "everyday" consumer and not just to the wine bloggers.These are just some of my thoughts. This will be a subject of debate during the next few weeks (especially during the Wine Blogging Conference), so I am curious to hear your thoughts....
But I am finding that I have less and less time to post my attempts at insightful humor which I like to call blog posts. Why is this? Well, I work on my own now and I am in seemingly never ending phone meetings, which are great because I am doing something to build up my brand and my social media consulting business, but I also lack the time to write anything else....
Joel Vincent recently posted a link of an image of his desk on Twitter. The link was to a new site called Posterous (I honestly do not have any idea how new it is) but I thought to my self that I have wanted another blog (aka just trying to be like David Horowitz). So here I am... Writing this "blog post" on my iphone. Just testing out another social media tool, seeing what I think of it.If anyone is reading this, let me know what you think as well!Thks! *shana.