Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers Social Media Report
The Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers (CAPS) Â is not using social media to its fullest extent to benefit the organization the best way that it can. Social media is a huge part of marketing and creating brand recognition and awareness, if you put in the time. CAPS is doing some things right but there is a lot that they can improve on.
What is CAPS Doing Right and Wrong?
Unfortunately for this organization, what they do effectively is greatly overshadowed by what they do ineffectively. CAPS has a good foundation for their social media with different platforms being used such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and a website. All of these platforms are active with multiple posts a month. The best out of the platforms mentioned is their twitter page. It is evident that their goal with twitter was not just to advertise their brand, but to create a community, which is an extremely effective way to use social media. While their original posts that they create themselves pertain directly to their organization, they will frequently retweet and interact with posts that have everything to do with wine and Canada. Here is an example:
The CAPS twitter page is a great place to go for everything wine related and helps you get involved with their organization. This is an example of their effective use of social media, now to move onto what they do ineffectively.
While CAPS is doing some things right with their social media presence, there is a lot to improve on that would help benefit their brand. For starters, they need to create more pages for more chapters. After searching through the internet I was only able to find their general website, a twitter account for Ontario and BC, a facebook account for BC, and a LinkedIn page for BC. The problem? There are five CAPS chapters that are advertised on their website:
It is evident that their main focus is fixated on their chapters residing in Vancouver and Toronto, but there are three other chapters that should be equally as advertised as well. To increase their brand awareness and recognition they need to address this problem, but that will be talked about later in the report. Another ineffective use of social media is their website itself; it seems to be quite outdated and there are many ways that they could upgrade it to allow more engagement with their brand. This, again, will be talked about later in the report when I provide specific recommendations on how to use social media more effectively.
Improving their Social Media Usage
To start the conversation on how to improve CAPS’ social media presence, step one is always to identify their audience. A sommelier is someone who is incredibly trained and knowledgeable on wine and everything about it including food pairings, they are typically very useful in fine dining. So, the Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers, does this sound like something for teenagers? College students? Seniors? Probably not. This organization is most likely targeting middle aged people ranging from 30-55, as they are most interested in wine and have the financial footing to engage in the hobby of fine wine. Wine can be an expensive hobby. If you look at the Forbes list for How to Achieve Financial Success at Every Age it is evident that your money should be going to different things in your 20’s, such as taking a job you love and taking a trip of your dreams. Once you get into your 30’s and 40’s your making smarter financial decisions for your future, have a more comfortable job (hopefully) and more money - which means more cash to spend on expensive alcohol! The platforms that you advertise on should always be tailored to your audience, this is something that CAPS does well. I noticed how they do not use instagram, snapchat, TUMBLR, or anything that the older generations are less likely to engage in, but they are missing out on some potential platforms they could use.
So now that the target audience is selected how are they going to increase their brand awareness? As identified earlier in the report, there a few things that need to be improved on. For starters, there should be a Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for each individual chapter as well as a main one for the entire organization. Someone from Halifax wouldn’t be too interested in the BC chapter Twitter, it’s on opposite ends of the country! Having a page for the main organization helps bring new users in and then they can be directed to different social medias for different chapters, which brings me to my next point… CAPS needs to do a better job of connecting their platforms.
It is imperative that all of your platforms are connected so that it is simple and easy for users to find their way around. It is very easy for potential customers to get frustrated and give up on your product/organization if they can’t find their way around your website and media outlets. A huge improvement to CAPS would be to have a portion of their website that connects all of their social media. There is a section already on the website that is dedicated to each chapter so they could include individual chapter media outlets there so you can check out what it’s like in your area! However, for this to be effective, it is important that CAPS restructures their website. It looks quite a bit outdated and there is a lot of website on the main page that your first see. It should be easy to use and navigate, CAPS would benefit from re-doing their website and ensuring an easy way to link their other media platforms.
Keeping the target audience in mind, there are a few new platforms that CAPS could engage with to help increase their viewership/recognition. The first, is a blog website such as Medium. CAPS has a blog built into their website, which is a cool feature for existing users, but it does not help them get recognized and it is quite difficult to find. If CAPS were to consider putting their blogs on another website and then linking back to their blog (it could even be the same content) it would help spread the word about the organization. Also, blogs are a platform that everyone uses, including the target audience.
Another platform that could be beneficial to CAPS are audio related (podcasts or videos). These are enjoyed by all generations and ages and would definitely capture the interest of the target audience. If you’re in the car or on your commute to work on public transit, you can listen to a podcast about wine, if it interests you. This would help foster a sense of community and it can be listened to anywhere by anyone. The best part about these podcasts, is that they do not even have to be directly about CAPS, just related to them. For example CAPS could create a podcast featuring a famous Canadian sommelier that is about how to get started in developing a taste for fine wine. If someone is interested in entering this hobby they would find the podcast sponsored by CAPS that provides pertinent information and probably check them out. Marketing isn’t always about advertising your brand, sometimes the best way to advertise is by providing good information about the topic that links back to you.
Wrapping Up the Report
The Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers has a strong foundation for their social media presence. A few changes such as engaging with more platforms, creating more chapter specific sites, and revamping their website would make a huge impact in increasing their brand engagement. The message that CAPS is trying to convey does not need to be altered, but rather it needs to be spread in a more effective manner. Wine is something that many people enjoy and CAPS has an opportunity to grow their brand into something huge if they were willing to reach out and take it.
References
Forbes, How to Achieve Success at Every Age. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/learnvest/2013/01/03/how-to-achieve-financial-success-at-every-age/#60cdefe23434
CAPS General Website. Retrieved from http://sommelierscanada.com
CAPS Ontario Twitter. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/capsontario?lang=en
CAPS British Columbia Twitter. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/caps_bc?lang=en
CAPS British Columbia Facebook. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/SommeliersBC/
CAPS British Columbia LinkedIn. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/company/canadian-association-of-professional-sommeliers-bc-chapter/about/
CAPS Ontario Blog. Retrieved from http://sommelierscanada.com/ontario/blog/
Podcasts and Marketing Information. Retrieved from https://blog.pacific-content.com/9-marketing-lessons-for-podcasters-inside-the-strategy-of-facebooks-new-podcast-1a25391a5a53
Sommelier Information. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sommelier