The Joys of Living by the Bay

The Joys of Living by the Bay

I have now made a conscious effort to not merely live in the Bay Area, but to experience the wide breath of cultural opportunities that take place in the city on a daily basis.

On September 11th, We Remember…

On September 11th, We Remember…

For the past two years, we have supported the Wounded Warriors Polo Benefit, a cause close to our hearts. The world-class polo event was held at the Menlo Circus Club, which is most appropriate, seeing as the cause supports wounded soldiers through equestrian therapy. Four Vines of Paso Robles and Murrieta’s Well, located in the heart of the Livermore Valley, donated wine to the cause.

Social Media Roundup August 20, 2012

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Social Media Roundup

Each week, CCA will be bringing you our social media roundup, with helpful information, tips, and tools to help you better utilize social media for your brand. We hope you find these resources helpful, and we welcome your feedback!

I. Social Media News & Notes

10 Online Security Tips for Gen Y

Now more than ever, Internet security is incredibly important in maintaining the health of your company. Regardless of industry or size, making sure your secure information remains that way should be a top priority of any company. Look at these 10 tips to help ensure your online identity remains safe.

5 Questions to Answer When Planning Your Social Media Greatness

Part of having social media work effectively for your business is making sure there is a solid plan in place for you to achieve your goals. This plan should be in place in the planning stages of your social media strategy as well as regularly reevaluated. Here are 5 questions that will help guide you through this sometimes-confusing process.

Why Most Companies Fail at Social Media--Understanding the Three C's

The social media world is a very complex one. For this reason, many companies do not successfully implement a social media strategy into their business plan. This article believes the reason for this can be attributed to not understanding the three C’s: content, context and conditions. See how your company stacks up!

II. Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest & Beyond

A Complete Guide to Facebook Lists

Want a way to neatly and compactly organize your Facebook friends or subscribers? Facebook now introduces the list function which allows your company to more effectively categorize groups of people such as press, clients etc. and receive customized feeds.

6 Lessons From a YouTube-Savvy Restaurant

Do you think that using YouTube to promote your small business is either too hard or too expensive?  That is simply not true. This restaurant owner from New York City’s Lower East Side shows how he used YouTube to successfully promote and create excitement about his business.

Live at the Wine Bloggers' Conference with Joe Roberts

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As Social Media Director for Charles Communications Associates, I’m attending the Wine Bloggers’ Conference in Portland this year. This morning, on my way to the Keynote session, I bumped into 1WineDude himself, Joe Roberts. We had a quick bite to eat and a Q&A about what’s new in the dude’s world:

Katie: Hi Joe. You’ve had a busy year! What have you been up to recently?

Joe: I just got back from Santa Barbara, which was my 20thtrip of the year. Instead of focusing on getting wine-related certifications this year, I wanted to get immersed in wine areas like Santa Barbara, which don’t get much attention. I also traveled to Great Southern in Australia, where I had some fantastic Cabernet Sauvignon. But it was tough to even find a hotel around there!

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kh & jr

I also just got back from Crete. There are some great stories coming from there, where you’ve got evidence of some of the longest winemaking history in the world. Yet they are completely starting from scratch in terms of the modern wine business, like mixing old wine varietals with new popular varieties. I even spent two days at Silver Oak in Napa recently.

Katie: What has been the biggest revelation from all this travel?

Joe: There is an immense amount of competition out there. So much good wine is being made. Even in places as far away as Crete, they are querying professionals who have their Masters of Wine and writers like me and picking our brains about how to reach new markets. Basically, if you aren’t defining your niche and asking customers what they want, you are going to get left behind.

From a regional perspective, I find it interesting that we treat French regions like they are a continent apart. Meanwhile, in Australia, regions are seriously almost a continent apart! In that country, it’s basically like having different countries in terms of the diversity of wine regions.

Katie: It sounds like you’ve gained a lot of insight from all this travel. Are you planning to travel into the fall?

Joe: I’m going to take a break after my trip this September to Bordeaux. I’ll be at home after that, working on some projects and spending some time with my daughter.

Katie: For now, though, you’re here in Portland. Congratulations on being a finalist  for Best Overall Wine Blog and Best Reviews on a Wine Blog, by the way!

Joe: Thanks! I’m on two panels this year and I’m excited to be here. Overall, though, I think we need to be taking more chances in the wine blogging world. We don’t do enough fringe, exciting stuff in the blogosphere. Wine coverage is like sports coverage, in that it’s still really conservative versus a lot of other types of coverage.  I want to encourage people to push the envelope as far as they can or we run the risk of getting too formulaic.

Katie: You’ve definitely got a point there, and I think you did a good job of stressing it in your recent post, the Most Glaring Omissions from the 2012 Wine Blog Awards Finalists.

In terms of pushing the envelope, what unique wine most inspired you this summer?

Joe: This was totally the summer of Italian Vermentino. It’s delicious and no more than $13. This was definitely the summer of Italian white wines in general, which I’ve been geeking out about lately.

Katie: Yum. I’m a big fan of Gavi and Arneis myself. What’s your fall wine pick?

Joe: I’ve been really craving Douro reds. I may be on a Douro red kick in the Fall. They aren’t the most food friendly wines, but when you consider how low their acidity is, they actually pair pretty well with food.

Katie: Thanks so much for your time, Joe! Best of luck!

Wineries (and CCA) get high-tech at WITS

Wineries (and CCA) get high-tech at WITS

It’s an oft-heard lament in the wine industry that when it comes to adopting new technologies, we’re ten years behind the curve. Fortunately though, we can report that this certainly isn’t the case for many wineries, who showcased how quickly they are adopting new software, mobile & social media tools at the Wine Industry Technology Symposium (WITS) earlier this month—and how these technologies are revolutionizing their business models.