Treat Social Media Like a Yearbook

Lately, I've been intrigued by the idea of using our social media platforms as a yearbook of sorts. A journal of what has happened, rather than (only) a place to sell wine. This idea has become even more appealing to me as I learn more about the limitations TikTok puts on brands that sell controlled substances like alcohol.



I first started thinking of this “social media as a yearbook” thing a few months ago when I wanted to look back at one of my clients' posts to see when the first day of harvest was for them in 2022. 

I then started thinking about how I've done this in my own personal life: seeing when my chickens started laying their eggs again after their annual molt (I swear, every year, they wait longer and longer), when I planted my first seeds of spring, and what my nephew looked like a year ago vs. now. I wondered how we, as businesses, could be intentional about this. 

So I started experimenting, and as it turns out, the posts that are documenting news/showing what we're up to tend to outperform almost every other post.

Examples of "Yearbook" Posts:

Here are some examples of posts I've seen wineries make (and that I've made for my clients) that help document the year:

• Tablas Creek's reporting on the rain: A serious video reporting on the rain that got picked up by several news outlets.
• Foxen Winery's first day of harvest. This is an obvious one that all wineries can do. Even better, make a guessing game out of it in a preceding post.
• Brave & Maiden's 99 Point Wine. Obviously, this was a really big deal for them, so we wanted to share that news with our followers ASAP.
• Buttonwood's Sheep: This video was captured the first day the sheep were in the vineyard, and I'll 100% be looking back on this post next year to see how the vintage is progressing in comparison to 2023.
• Joseph Jewell's wine at a White House lunch. Regardless of your political affiliations, having your wine poured at a state-sponsored gathering is a big deal. Now they can look back on it!

In short, you may be keeping these records privately already but why not share them with your fans as well? It will help deepen connections and the long and short of it is that these posts generally perform extremely well, so if nothing else... it's good for engagement.