Following on from Blogging Basics Part 1, these are some of the ideas that I’ve jotted down on how to increase awareness of – and subscribers to – a wine blog.  Most of them could be extended to writing on other topics. I’m not claiming to be the world’s foremost expert here, but they seem to have worked well for me.

Ambassadors in Wine Merchants and other wine retailers

• If you recommend one or more wines carried by a particular outlet then that merchant is highly likely to be a supporter.
• I think many merchants would be prepared to have business-type cards visible by their tills, or even offer them to people who are obviously interested in wine.
• Nowadays business cards are pretty cheap, I got mine from Vistaprint – and then a Frankly Wines t-shirt for good measure.
• Even without business cards it would be good to have all the major wine merchants in your town or city aware of your blog – drop in, buy a bottle and mention your blog.

Being noticed at tastings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• The biggest promotional tool for your blog is YOU.
• If you’re at a trade or consumer tasting then whoever we are talking to should know about your blog.
• This could be through wearing a T-Shirt or even something small like a badge – and if they ask about it, even better.
• I have found the vast majority of established Irish Wine Writers to be very helpful and supportive – don’t be afraid to ask for advice.

Using Twitter

• Without Social Media it is very difficult to gain more readers and more subscribers.
• Tweets with pictures get far more attention that without, so try to put at least one appropriate picture up whenever you tweet about your blog.
• Tagging people in pictures (up to ten) means you can have far more people tagged than mentioning them in the 140 characters of text.
• Three photos looks the prettiest in my opinion; try to have one portrait and two landscape orientated photos, and add them in the order:

 

Ambassadors on Twitter

• When I put up a link to a new blog post on Twitter, I’m very lucky in that lots of people like and share it, by:

1. Liking my tweet (nice, but no big deal)
2. Retweeting my tweet (great)
3. Following the link then tweeting from WordPress (even better, as I can then RT that myself later)
4. Reblogging on WordPress (fantastic, though quite rare)
5. Liking on WordPress
6. Leaving a comment on WordPress (shows engagement)

• Some of these people are just interested in wine, some are wine writers/bloggers themselves.
• To encourage this, it’s always good to thank people and take an interest in their views.
• For the second category, reciprocation is also important, so help by sharing their posts and tweets.

When you post an article

• It’s good to know who is likely to want the tweets (and therefore the article being linked to) read by more people.
• For example, if I were tweeting a post from either Craggy Range or Nyetimber (two of my favourite producers) I would try and tag some or all of the following:

Category	Craggy Range	Nyetimber
Producers	@craggyrange	@nyetimber
Winemakers	@crmattstafford	@greatrixbrad
Regional Associations	@WineHawkesBay	@englishwine
Importers	@Tindalwines, @HarrietTindal	@libertyireland
Retailers / Restaurants	@sweeneyswine	@elywinebar
Brand Ambassadors	@crmaryjeanne	@EmmaLambie

• Some of these aren’t always easy to remember / find on the fly, so preparation and organisation are important.