Reasons why South African wine marketers are not embracing Social Media Marketing (SMM)

In the recent past the apparent successes of social network marketing as a wine marketing tool has been highlighted. South African wine marketers are lagging behind the European and American wine brands and I believe that the following are some of the reasons

- Wine marketers deem SMM to be a time consuming marketing tool
- Lack of knowledge of the marketing options available
- Rigid internet sites are the marketer's only presence on the internet. Marketers are not willing to move beyond this strategy/marketing tool
- Marketers live in fear that an uneducated consumer will bad mouth their brand
- Marketers are waiting for other brands to lead the way. Will follow eventually (to late)
- Marketers not have the personnel or knowledge to effectively manage and implement SMM strategies

Wine marketers must accept the challenge and must use specialists(like Bivio Consulting) to promote their brand through SMM.