198: 3 Ways to Talk About Sustainability on Social Media

In this week’s Marketing Tip we will make it easy for you to regularly create content that entices, educates, and inspires your audience.

Welcome to Marketing Tip Monday with SIP Certified. We know customers are looking for wines labeled as sustainable. While our longer-form episodes help you learn about the latest science and research for the wine industry, these twice-monthly micro podcasts will help you share your dedication to sustainable winegrowing so you can show your customers that you share their values.

If you’ve been following along with this series, you created a bank of powerful video and photo visuals last month. Today we’re going to share how you can use those images on your brand’s social media. If you missed the Tip, just search your podcast player for Sustainable Winegrowing podcast episode 194: The Power of Visuals: How Video and Photos Can Help Share Your Sustainable Story | Marketing Tip Monday.

I highly recommend taking a few minutes to link to today’s show notes. We are sharing real-life social media examples from 3 SIP Certified brands and while I will do my best to describe the images, it helps to see them.

Stay tuned to the end to learn how the talent behind our social media, Hayli, creates captivating Reels.

How to Use Your Brand's Presence

Regularly posting content on your social media keeps your brand in the eyes and minds of your followers.

It’s a good idea to stay active on your business’s social media accounts, but the idea of constantly creating fresh content can be daunting.

The good news is, there is an endless supply of content for your brand.

Have you heard of food disconnect? It's a term used to describe the average consumer's lack of knowledge about where their food comes from and how it's made. When it comes to wine, most people only see the finished product in the bottle.

What may seem day-to-day to you is unique and exciting to consumers. Most wine drinkers do not get to see punch downs, bud break, staff tastings, cover crops, barn owls, or bottling lines. It is all exciting!

Use your brand's presence on social media to give an intimate look at all of the care that goes into taking your customers' favorite wines from the vine to the tasting room.

Here are 3 examples from SIP Certified brands:

1. Enchant & Entice

Villa San Juliette (@villasanjuliette) created a video mash-up showing exquisite views of the vines from the tasting room, beautiful Spanish-inspired architecture, the crew harvesting grapes into bins, and a table of sumptuous food and wine pairings. Each of these videos could have started out as a standalone post and then combined later into one video to tempt followers to pay them a visit this season.

Look at your past posts. Can you combine the images into one reel or carousel that showcases your brand?

2. Educate & Delight

Anyone who follows Bon Niche Cellars (@bonnichecellars) knows that they can always count on two things from their posts: learning something new and seeing adorable animals! This post does both. The image is a close-up of an adorable, fuzzy white sheep with a black nose and long ears. The caption explains how sheep are part of their sustainability program from weed abatement to soil health.

Consumers love seeing and learning about animals. Talk about the gopher-hunting owls, native bobcats, and friendly dogs at your property.

3. Express & Inspire

Foxen Wines (@foxenwines) uses their voice on social media to express their dedication to the social component of sustainability and thank the instrumental people behind their wines. The artfully captured photo shows a hazy sky with a farmworker walking away from the camera carrying a bin of freshly harvested grapes down the vineyard row. Part of the caption reads, “At the heart of our commitment to sustainability lies Social Equity.”

Sustainability means taking care of our most valuable resource – the people. Talk about the organizations you donate to and how you care for your staff by providing competitive wages, comprehensive healthcare, and access to education.”

Hayli's Tips to Create Great Instagram Reels

Have you noticed that the quality of Vineyard Team and SIP Certified’s social media content has boomed this year? That’s because our newest team member, Hayli, has passion and talent for creating content that is compelling and aesthetically pleasing.

We asked her for her top 3 tips to create captivating Reels – these are the short videos, often featuring text and catchy tunes that you see on Instagram. Here’s what she said:

A Word on Reels

“While I love carousels, infographics, and even simple and beautiful photos, Reels bring content to life. Reels offer a unique way to showcase content and allow viewers to feel like they're right there with us, experiencing everything in real-time.” – Hayli Macomber

1. Prep-work.

I always get multiple 5- to 15-second video clips during our in-person events. Capturing diverse moments is important.

For example, at a Tailgate meeting, I’ll take videos of the presenter, panel discussions, the vineyard, attendees networking and enjoying coffee, animal visitors... even a scan of the packed parking lot! These pieces create the "story" later.

Tip: Get video from different angles and directions so the movement isn't repetitive.

2. Music.

Music plays a significant role in our lives, and Reels are no exception!

If I hear music in a Reel that catches my attention, I save the audio (at the bottom right of every Reel with audio, there is a small square image – you can click on it and save the audio for later).

It's also good to keep an ear out for trending audio and mix that in... while it's still trending, of course :)

Tip: To build a good audio collection, spend 10 minutes each week scrolling through Reels and saving audio.

3. Timing.

Music creates the flow of a Reel – I like to change from clip to clip with the beat.

It's also good to make sure none of the clips are too long in comparison with the others (i.e. one is 10 seconds and the next one is 3 seconds). If you have a longer video, try splitting it up – use the clips in different sections of the Reel.

Tip: In "Edit Video" (bottom left), use 2 fingers to zoom in on the video and audio. This helps transition from clip to clip at the perfect moment!”

There are Hayli’s 3 tips. To check out our latest posts look for @sipcertified or @thevineyardteam on Instagram.

Coming Up...

Ready to get inspired by another Sustainable Story? In the next Marketing Tip, we tell the story of how Niner Wine Estate’s sustainable Business practices involve their entire team to better their community.

We are here to help you tell your customers how your brand protects natural and human resources with the Sustainable Story program.

This simple yet powerful free tool helps you tell your own personal sustainable message. And it just got better with a new online course. Go to the show notes, click the link titled Tell Your Sustainable Story to sign up, download the worksheet, watch the videos, and you are ready to tell your Sustainable Story!

Until next time, this is Sustainable Winegrowing with the Vineyard Team.