jamie goode's wine blog: Social media: thinking about the consumer

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Social media: thinking about the consumer

[thinking out loud]

I love the way that internet has opened up the media.

Now, all can play.

Before, considerable power resided in the hands of a range of gatekeepers. Editors were sure of what their readers or viewers wanted, and, with an eye to the demands of their advertisers, delivered it. As an author, if you wanted your work to be published, the major major hurdle facing you was the editor of the magazine or the commissioning editor at the book publisher.

Now we can all be content providers, whether we are journalists, winemakers, retailers, PR professionals or just hobbyists. We are entering a happy age where everyone gets a chance to find their own audience. Some will do good work, some bad. It's up to the readers to decide who to listen to.

But so far these consumers of media have been almost totally absent from this discussion. Resembling the production-led wine industry which focuses on making wine and only then thinks about selling it, we produce our content without much thought for who will consume it all.

The attention span of our information consumers is already stretched. The sort of readers the wine media would like to attract are usually busy people with limited media-consuming capacity.

If the amount of information published grows rapidly, yet the capacity for consumption of this information is static or falling, then the conclusion is that readers or viewers are going to be spread more thinly, and new media entrants will have difficulty in building a sizeable readership.

People who are time-poor may also have difficulty in locating the best information and content, which is now more thinly spread across a broader range of websites and blogs. This could actually work in favour of the old style gatekeepers: we still have a need for media outlets capable of filtering through lots of material and bringing us the best.

Print media are struggling but not dead. Existing print media players have a small window to grow into cross-media brands. Having a magazine may not make much money, but it may be possible to cross-subsidize the print production (which brings credibility and brand recognition) by events, for example.

We also assume that because few people buy print wine magazines that there is a limited market for wine media. It could be that there is actually a limited market for wine media as it is published today. What if the reason for poor readership of wine magazines was because the content failed to engage? If new media is better written and more engaging, then this could grow the market for this sort of information.

Whatever happens with wine media, it will be the consumers who are critical in shaping the future. We need to remember them in our discussions.

17 Comments:

At 3:30 PM, Anonymous Ben Smith said...

Very well put Jamie. These are the issues which all of us who (one way or another) are involved in wine marketing are facing. You may well be right that it will be existing known gatekeepers - be they in print or some other medium - who continue to have influence over consumers if they learn to cross over...

 
At 10:17 PM, Anonymous Alex Lake said...

Oh, I don't know.... The more things change, the more they stay the same. Much as I'd love to think that the consumer has a say in shaping the future, it just isn't true.

 
At 4:02 AM, Anonymous Ron McFarland said...

You are right on the with your quote

"it will be the consumers who are critical in shaping the future".

Until they want to do something different with their money and time nothing happens.

Good thoughts

 
At 8:13 AM, Anonymous Guillaume Deliancourt said...

Someone was at the Wine Futur 2009 conference in Spain...or read the last publication of Harpers.

While I completely agree with your post, yet I do not think that the UK wine trade has completely grasp the whole social media effect....without being arrogant...

All I can see in the wine trade in UK, is people who knows each other tweeting all around but without interaction with the customers.....and that is wrong hence my first comment.

I believe the social media were built so people can interact not only between them as they know each other but with everyone else.

When you tweet Gary waynerchuk, you do get a reply even though you know it is someone else been employed to reply. But at least there is an interaction there. Which is what social networking is all about

Customers/readers feel like they are someone and will pray far more attention to what you are saying than if they are being ignored. If you ignore them, they will ignore you...

To finish, I feel that the media in UK are closed and not opening up to the real people, the customers/readers

Just my 2c thought as a customer/reader. What do you think?

 
At 1:36 PM, Anonymous ryan said...

Guillaume Deliancourt - One point when you tweet Gary Vee, he responds, no one else. That is why he is successful.

Otherwise Jamie your right the consumer is fundamental in shaping wine communications future. I disagree though with the idea of spreading communication thin.

In the end at the birth of a new technology there is a ton of experimentation. We are currently in that area...as time goes on we will see the best ideas and tools rise to the top. People with good voices and interesting ideas will succeed, and those without will maintain the "friends and family" demographic in their attempt to communicate about whatever they choose to talk about.

We are a ways from knowing what the future will be , but we are playing with some new ideas and with time the good ones will win the day!

 
At 1:36 PM, Anonymous ryan said...

Guillaume Deliancourt - One point when you tweet Gary Vee, he responds, no one else. That is why he is successful.

Otherwise Jamie your right the consumer is fundamental in shaping wine communications future. I disagree though with the idea of spreading communication thin.

In the end at the birth of a new technology there is a ton of experimentation. We are currently in that area...as time goes on we will see the best ideas and tools rise to the top. People with good voices and interesting ideas will succeed, and those without will maintain the "friends and family" demographic in their attempt to communicate about whatever they choose to talk about.

We are a ways from knowing what the future will be , but we are playing with some new ideas and with time the good ones will win the day!

 
At 1:36 PM, Anonymous ryan said...

Guillaume Deliancourt - One point when you tweet Gary Vee, he responds, no one else. That is why he is successful.

Otherwise Jamie your right the consumer is fundamental in shaping wine communications future. I disagree though with the idea of spreading communication thin.

In the end at the birth of a new technology there is a ton of experimentation. We are currently in that area...as time goes on we will see the best ideas and tools rise to the top. People with good voices and interesting ideas will succeed, and those without will maintain the "friends and family" demographic in their attempt to communicate about whatever they choose to talk about.

We are a ways from knowing what the future will be , but we are playing with some new ideas and with time the good ones will win the day!

 
At 3:06 AM, Anonymous Steve said...

There's something really interesting to be written about the romance of wine, and how it intersects with agriculture and science and commerce and memory and taste and smell and wasps. I await it.

 
At 8:24 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Steve - you really are a strange fellow aren't you?

 
At 8:25 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Steve - you really are a strange fellow aren't you?

 
At 12:59 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"People with good voices and interesting ideas will succeed"

That seems to show a somewhat quaint faith. It rather reminds me of the free market Taliban preaching that the market is always right.

 
At 1:26 PM, Blogger Colin said...

"People who are time-poor may also have difficulty in locating the best information and content".

I absolutely agree.

I have given Twitter a try over the last few weeks and have felt swamped with lots of wine related twitter, some of it good, some of it irrelevant.

Now - I know the names of people who I thought would be worth following but I've got a problem with the sheer volume so imagine those "new" to wine loving who don't even know where to start.

There is definitely a role (or roles) for someone to guide and steer - a gatekeeper or whatever we want to call them.

 
At 5:27 PM, Anonymous sarah said...

Where have all the comments about you accepting corporate hospitality gone Jamie????

 
At 5:49 PM, Blogger Jamie said...

sarah, nowhere at all - you're just looking for them in the wrong place

They're after the Douwegate post

Did you suspect some Soviet-style rewriting of history? You should know that's not my style.

 
At 6:30 PM, Anonymous Ian S said...

Sarah
Indeed Jamie is right.

However he's not answered those criticisms, which IMO reflects poorly on someone who'd set out to criticise the ethics of others.

regards

Ian

 
At 10:18 PM, Anonymous Ian S said...

Jamie
All I ask is that you follow the standards you set out for yourself in the links I provided on the other topic. It's not me you need to satisfy, but your own clearly worded standards.

If it's not clear, please re-read the comments on the Douwe Egberts topic where I quoted your own words from this site.

As I said, you've set out a very sensible set of standards (and please accept the compliment that they're good), but standards are no use unless you follow them - and that means making the declaration as part of the blog entry. As you stipulated.

regards

Ian

 
At 10:26 PM, Anonymous Ian S said...

Jamie
ta for the commitment on the Douwe-gate discussion.
regards
Ian

 

Post a Comment

Links to this post:

Create a Link

<< Home