Getting Wine Bloggers and Wine Marketers Together
Should wine bloggers and wine publicist/marketers get together…just to look each other in the eye and see what each other has to say and think?
I started thinking about this after getting an email inviting me TO THIS CONFAB of fashion bloggers and fashion publicists.
It’s a pretty good idea and something that has been bandied about here and there among other wine bloggers. But it seems like now and again we see stories in the blogosphere and in the MSM about blogging and blogging ethics. With regard to wine this usually comes up when discussing whether or not a blogger can objectively review a wine that was sent to them by a publicist or winery.
I, obviously, have no doubt that a wine blogger can remain objective and still receive samples from wineries. The mainstream wine media has been operating this way for decades with no appreciable degrading of their objectivity.
Still, the idea of getting together wine bloggers and wine marketers is probably more appealing to the wine marketers. My sense is that they don’t quite understand blogging, let alone wine bloggers. And they aren’t sure what to make of the whole "blogging explosion".
Already there are wine blogs that have a greater reach and larger audience than many well respected wine newsletters and soon than they think a few wine bloggers will have a greater readership than some mainstream wine magazines. What’s a marketer to make of this?
I’m thinking a publication like Wine Business Monthly or an event like the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium would be perfect hosts or venues for a Wine Blogging Event. In the case of the above noted Fashion Blogging event it is a PR company that is organizing the bloggers and marketers. It makes this wine publicist think long and hard about the idea.
I think it’s a great idea. I think it’s also more of a two-way street than you think. Wine bloggers would love to be able to make the connections with publicists in order to get the latest info right away or even a scoop or two, rather than searching through Google News or other blogs to see what they should be talking about.
Tom, I have a potential sponsoring publication if you’re interested. Drop me a line.
Inertia would love to pay and host for another event introducing wine bloggers to our wineries.
P
I think this is a great idea. Bloggers could benefit not only from the direct interaction with wineries but with an exchange of ideas with other bloggers.
Doing something at Unified or wherever would be great. Putting faces to names invariably leads to better communications and understanding. Please do something and let us know how we can help. I’ll at least bring wine!
Tom –
We welcome wine marketers to converse and network at http://winemarketer.com/
It would be a great venue for organizing this event and we wouldn’t mind helping.
Cheers!