Wine for Conversation: An Example of Calculating the Value of Online Influencers

Those of you that know me personally will know that if offered a drink, I almost always opt for a glass of Australian red. For those of you that DO know me personally, it won't surprise you that in a short fit of random Google searching, I used the keywords "wine" "marketing" and "ROI." The best result? An intriguing blog post by an Aussie marketer by the name of Matt Granfield.

Granfield, who works for a digital marketing agency called e-CBD, agreed to a social media "exchange" as he calls it wherein Kirrihill Wines sent him twelve bottles of wine for instigating/creating a conversation about their products.

In his post, Granfield describes why he is deemed by Kirrihill to be an influencer. Essentially it comes down to a few simple numbers - how many people can he reach with his online network as well as a subjective judgement as to how much clout he has with this group and with the wine industry.

Granfield then uses some made-up, but realistic statistics to predict the actual value of sending him some bottles of vino - how many bottles he himself is likely to buy and how many bottles his friends and members of his network are likely to buy. This obviously makes sense, and is a nice simple, clear-cut example of how small investments in nurturing influencer marketing can really pay off.

There are other benefits to influencer marketing of this type that Granfield's blog post doesn't mention. Firstly, his post make me picked up by other bloggers... and well, the proof is in the pudding in this case, no? (You know I had to write that... I couldn't resist). So in fact, Kirrihill Wines is actually getting exposure to not only Granfield's network, but to mine as well (which, not to brag, is quite large - check out my LinkedIn profile for proof or follow on me on Twitter). Plus, links to the winery from Granfield's pages, as well as this blog will aid in organic search engine result positioning.



Important Side Note:
Australians living in various parts of Victoria are currently facing an enormous tragedy with bushfires burning out of control across the state. Victoria is a large wine-producing area, along with being the home to over 5 million Australians. Please join me in making a donation to the Australian Red Cross to help support our Aussie friends in crisis.