Followers and Fans: Local Wine Store Adventures into World of Socal Media

It has more than 715 fans on Facebook and almost 900 followers on Twitter. You would think the fans are talking about some up and coming local rock band. But they're referring to Cool Vines wine store in downtown Westfield.

"The audience that we're hoping to reach is the demographic that uses new communication," said founder and president of Cool Vines, Mark Censits. "If you want to be in front of them you have to talk with them the way they want to."

Cool Vines has been using social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to promote its products, engage its clients and reach out to new ones.  The store hosted a spring wine tasting event for the New Jersey Young Professionals which was streamed live on UStream – a free live webcasting service. You can watch it here.

Censits said since using the social media tools people have become more aware of the store, which opened on Elm Street in 2007.

"[People are saying] 'Oh yeah, I've heard of you guys' and not "What a new wine shop?"

Cool Vines recently hired a brand building company in Princeton called Bonfire Partners, LLC to help it develop more ways to market the Cool Vines brand, particularly using social media.

Bonfire consultant Nick Perold said Cool Vines is ahead of the curb in terms of a mom and pop wine store using the Internet to its advantage, particularly by selling its wine online but also by using social media sites like Facebook.

"They're making wine buying more fun and less intimidating and that's something that resonates with wine buyers today," Perold said.

Perold said posting on Facebook and Twitter has also made the Cool Vines brand more understandable and trusted by consumers.

Censits said the store is still doing "old-fashioned" things like sending out newsletter emails, updating its website and cross promoting with restaurants in downtown Westfield. But the big question in everyone's minds is will the social media effort pay off in terms of increased sales at the store. Censits said so far he hasn't seen higher sales. But he said he's not giving up.

"This right now is the top of the list for us. We'll see how it goes," he said.