What Instagram Taught Me About Wine Sales

My husband recently picked up my phone to scroll through the Bruliam Wines Instagram account.

“You have a lot of videos,” he marveled.

It’s true. Despite few followers and limited views, I post consistently. Being consistent is my core competence. I post a few Reels/week. I also embraced Reels early, thinking the vehicle was the message. I most often post about topics related to winemaking, like viticulture, winery work, winery events, harvest clips, and food/wine. But occasionally I post funny bits about overgrown vegetables, parenting teenagers, or my life. Funny enough, posts featuring a beleaguered zucchini farmer (yeah, that’s me) lamenting overgrown zucchini trend well. More often than not, didactic posts about winegrowing do not.

Is it sales, marketing, or both?

Of course, social media is winery marketing, not winery sales. But somehow, I remained optimistic that a connection between the two existed. And yet the chasm between 100K+ views and moving a single viewer to purchase a $70 bottle of pinot noir + shipping remains inscrutable. On the flip side, I’m lucky to engage online with wine lovers world-wide, many of whom may never have an opportunity to try my wines. Internalizing the “all press is good press” mentality, I chalk up that engagement to Bruliam marketing = wine community = good vibes. Let’s grow the wine tent and call it a win. Still, the “value” of social media for a small, independent winery like mine remains an existential conundrum.

Consider my best viewed Reel: a funny bit where I discover a flubbed bottle that escaped bottling line QC, despite an obvious, misplaced foil distending a shredded label.

Who’s in charge of QC around here? Oh wait, I am…

It’s a short and cute, set to a catchy Megan Trainor tune but far from revelatory film work. Moreover, within those 105K plays and nearly 56,000 accounts reached, a full 99.4% of those viewers are non-followers.

Look, Ma. I’m famous.

This should be great news. 55,959 new eyeballs now know about Bruliam Wines. (To be fair, they now know that bottling day always sucks). But the viewers simultaneously recognize that I’m totally engaged with my winery work: I pack/tape boxes myself and provide a second-look, so that whacked bottles don’t end up on your doorstep. Yet no prospective wine buyer has ever registered on my website or scheduled a tasting after admitting they discovered me via Instagram Reels.

Instagram provides business accounts with ample metrics –

until they don’t.

Wait? No insights??!!

calling all data scientists

Even if I knew how to interpret the data better, I’m not sure it would be helpful. Sure, more plays, views, likes, comments, and saves all point to a well-received Reels clip. Yet confoundingly, last week’s gambit about California’s recent 7.0 scale earthquake and concurrent tsunami warning elicited above average views. In fact, my cheeky tsunami video represents a 381.2% increase in views as compared to a weather post the preceding week. But the earthquake video is clearly an anomaly; tsunami warnings are not my typical source material.

Much of what grabs views and what withers on the home grid seems arbitrary to me. But then I am a winemaker, not a data analyst or social media guru. And they say that much about the Insta algorithm remains stubbornly opaque. But then again, “insights” offered by the social media experts are opaque, too.

Kinda like Ace of Base? “The Sign??!!”

Experts offer broad, vague platitudes like: “Keep it entertaining and inspirational” or “Stick to a clearly defined niche” and “Post as frequently as you can.”  “Stick to your niche” advice contradicts my own experience, where lamentations about tough, overgrown, unusable zucchini (& again here & here) regularly outperform videos showcasing fall release wines or harvesting our estate fruit. (Just to be clear- my wine is for sale; my veggies are not).

Smile, You’re on Zucchini TV

I indeed post “as frequently” as I can, which translates to “post when you have funny, thoughtful, or engaging ideas.” For me, it’s a few times a week. For social media celebrities, it can be multiple times/day. I imagine the Instagram Algorithm Monster demands at least a Reel/day, rewarding more time on the app with more plays and better native outreach.  That being said, I cannot imagine anyone needs to hear from me that often.

Do You Like Me Now?

As for my house style, I have always leaned into funny, silly, and goofy. My sense of humor is dry, and I know that not everything lands, as when I posted a series of haikus comprised entirely of negative wine reviews. (Come on, that’s a funny premise!). But even I was surprised that a skit of my precisely weighing aliquots of powdery, white ML bacteria to the theme from Narcos flopped. Yet as Sked Social notes, “funny or entertaining videos are great, but if they don’t lead to engaged followers that are interested in what you’re buying or selling, you might be missing the mark.” Touche!

Keep It Gay

From the outset, my personal approach to social media video content has been to pursue posting as long as it remains fun. That is fun- for me.. Not my current audience. Not my mythic “target” audience. Not the aspirational data driven demographic of premium wine buyers. Perhaps that is anathema to marketing professionals. I post what I think is funny or entertaining or educational or useful to know. In a social media landscape where formally composed lifestyle shots are essentially interchangeable from one wine bottle to the next, I aspire to be creative and authentic. Although my Reels lack actual production value, you get the girl behind the wine, replete with my passion for 80’s pop, showtunes, and enthusiastic but untrained dance moves. You’ll find detailed winemaking education and “BTS” ensconced in goofy takes. At best, my posts are a mid-day tickle, something that makes you giggle or re-think what you know about wine.

Wine buyers today are overwhelmed with stellar, well-crafted choices. New wineries incorporate daily, spread across all 50 states. If you live in Virginia, your go-to “drink local” is not my Sonoma Coast chardonnay. And the landscape for wine sales, and even alcohol consumption more broadly, is shifting quickly. Wineries need new and better sales strategies for belt-tightening ahead. Yet I’m still naïve enough to imagine that if you like me, you’ll enjoy my wines even better. Go ahead: call me a “pick me” girl. But if all of us winemakers are making delicious, similarly priced, well-crafted 93-95 point wines, I’ll venture to guess that you’ll support the people whom you like first.

A well-played Instagram post grabs short-lived attention. But to know Bruliam Wines requires more than a trending, 12 second audio clip. Wine is about connections, relationships, and your most cherished, delicious memories. Wine is “a passport to transcendence. If water is life-giving, wine is psychedelic.” Spend time with me and my wines to appreciate my enthusiasm for winemaking. Come visit the tasting room for a 90 minute deep dive. Sign up for an allocation so we can communicate old school, with a postage stamp (#IYKYK). Allocate your wine budget wisely. By all means, drink less but drink better. Just know that I am that better option, whether in your glass or on your iphone screen.