Tom Raftery’s Social Media

I posted previously about the “blog buzz” that can be created by having a few bloggers write about a topic - Skype and Firefox are two great examples of companies who have used this to their great advantage (as outlined in detail in Naked Conversations).

Now it appears we have another example of this closer to home - Hugh (of Gaping Void) has posted that his blog campaign on behalf of Stormhoek Wine is causing ripples not just in the blogosphere - but like all good blog buzz - it has expanded out into the mainstream media.

In Hugh’s own words:

Orbital Wines (the London company that owns the Stormhoek winery in South Africa) got a phone call yesterday from a very well-respected journalist in the trade press yesterday. He found the story, we hadn’t said a word.

This is a guy whose desk is utterly drowning in press releases from every single wine company in the country, begging for his journo-love. And so far we’ve not written any press releases about the blog thing. We’ve not had the time.

He. Found. Us. Not the other way around. Do you know how rare that is in the wine business? Very.

So we told him we might meet for lunch or something in September. See what happens.

The trouble (actually, maybe “trouble” isn’t the right word) is that now the story is now moving too fast for the guys in the marketing department to keep up with. Including me.

In the wine business, you’re used to spending two weeks hand-crafting a one-page press release. Not to mention, spending months prior to that building other forms of expensive marketing collateral. Brochures, print ads, Power Point presentations and whatnot.

Yet another great example of how blogs can be used to create a buzz around a product for very little expenditure - Shel, Robert - you guys listening?

UPDATE:
I see Piaras thinks it will all end in tears! Not sure why, but here is what he says:

For once poor old Hugh has gotten it wrong. I love the idea behind it, give a load of opinionated guys some wine to feel all the more opinionated. Unfortunately I think you’d find that that you’d have just as much success by giving away Dutch Gold to Irish bloggers.

It’s going to spread across the Irish blogosphere like wildfire, land in the Sunday Tribune’s blogosphere and probably end up as heart ache in nine month’s time. For the sake of my liver I think this is one promotion I’m going to pass on.

Hugh from Gaping Void has started a Wiki for the Robert Scoble Blogger Dinner in Cork.

The dinner will be after the IT@Cork annual conference at which Robert Scoble is a guest speaker in the Rochestown Park Hotel Cork on November 30th.

If you are thinking of going to the blogger dinner, sign up at the wiki.