A wine writer friend of mine Alan Goldfarb is doing a piece for WBM on the ‘Changing Landscape of PR Campaigns. He interviewed Steve Heimoff who published this article about PR strategy: PR still vital after all these years
I agree with the premise entirely, but since I work with small production wineries and PR Campaigns are expensive, I offered Alan a different perspective:
“Engaging in social media is almost like having your own PR department. You are initiating a conversation about your winery and presenting your brand to the public, although for small wineries this can be a little scary due to perceived loss of control. Traditional media approaches like press releases, advertizing, and submitting wines for review are still important, but for small wineries the potential new audience reach and low cost of entry around social media are very compelling”.