French wineries sip on social, American wineries lap it up

ABLE's survey of 528 wineries in France and the U.S. found that 94% of American outfits were on Facebook, just 53% of French wineries were. The numbers are similar for Twitter with 73% of American wineries using the microblogging platform compared to 41% of French.

But, while wine production in France has decreased over the last five years from 1.4 billion gallons to 1.2 billion gallons, French wineries are increasing their use of social media. A similar study in 2010 found that less than 20% of winemakers in France were using Facebook.

American wineries are more active on social media and nearly all report benefits from being on Facebook. In fact, nearly half (47%) of American wineries say Facebook helps generate sales compared with just 9% of French wineries.

Compared with France, more American wineries sell wine direct from their website - 72% versus 36%.

"The wine industry has been one of the slowest industries to adopt Internet-based technologies, barely edging ahead of pawn shops, bowling alleys, and dry cleaners in having websites, email addresses, and actually using them both," writes wine and restaurant blogger, Alder Yarrow, on his Vinography blog.

In April this year, a Wine Industry Social Media Index was created by industry social intelligence firm Vintank. The index, which changes daily and is measured over a running thirty day period, includes more than 600 wineries worldwide. The Index is still in beta and measures factors including engagement, activity, fan growth, and ranking within the wine industry.

Tags: Facebook, France, social marketing, social media, US, vintner, wine, winemakers, winery