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We all have to thank Gwendolyn Alley (ArtPredator and WinePredator) for the word “Bloggiversary.”

Here I am with my fourth and reflecting on those past four years of amazing changes.

When I began blogging, it was because I was a bit impatient for my press releases to make their way into publications. Wine writers were also expressing (at that time) the need/desire for exclusives.

“Oh great! Let me take what should have gone in the mail in four hours and now shop it around for the next week or two.” All I could think when I read the, “I’d like an exclusive” was, “Please walk in my shoes for a day.”

Unless a wine brand like Gallo is selling its company, an exclusive is going to be passed by at every turn, and now I’ve wasted precious time while looking for an interested person during the time that traditional mailing method was the only option available. And, that traditional method always finds someone who is interested in picking up the story and running with it, because it strikes that “need” chord.

REMEMBER: Social media wasn’t part of the marketing mix for me, when I first started my blog. Web 2.0 was just emerging, and something I had just studied about being on the horizon in my html class. “Html,” remember that basic code? When I studied it, it wasn’t basic, it was the way.

I was just ahead of a curve, inspired by my compatriot in PR, Tom Wark. He had started his blog a year ahead of mine, and it suddenly occurred to me that there were no female PR wine bloggers. By starting my own wine blog, I immediately became positioned as the first female PR wine blogger, as I embarked on what I thought would be a simple journey of once a week. Yeah… right. Tom Wark had to call me out of the closet for not writing more, and the blog bug hit me.

Now, with some of my clients, I’m finding that they’ve not caught onto social media yet, and are still ruminating about the benefits.

I understand we all need to come to a belief in our own time. These people just haven’t had time to read about social media, to discover what it’s all about, and where it’s all headed.

So, I’m giving away a lot of PR advice on this Bloggiversary. If people aren’t involved in social media, then this is for you.

Especially if someone is searching the internet for “Web 2.0, what’s it all about?” this posting will pop up and be a good, basic primer.

As a PR professional, I know with compete certainty that it’s here to stay, and those who don’t get on the bus ~ quickly ~ will be losing an important link to their future success. In fact, I know of one PR professional who is shutting down a very famous practice, because it’s all become a bit too much to grasp. This is the first, but it won’t be the last, as PR is speedily evolving… almost faster than the speed of a nanosecond.

Social media (Web 2.0) was a snow ball created a few years ago; and, is now at a thundering speed, headed straight for those who don’t see it coming to bowl them over.

Fortunately, starting my own wine blog in 2005 has given me a distinct advantage as having been part of the original Web 2.0 movement. While there’s still a lot I’m trying to grasp, I also have a pretty solid foundation and vantage point.

I blog, I Facebook, I Twitter, and I belong to social media groups. I’ve attended both the US and the European Wine Bloggers conferences. There’s a huge movement afoot, and it’s mostly about the Millennial generation, which are a huge buying demographic right now. This is their way to communicate, and it’s frankly all very exciting.

What Web 2.0 is ~ is this… The World Wide Web became interactive, not just a static page for people to be reading. Just as the World Wide Web revolutionized how we’re all doing business, the next step has been to make it interactive… The next wave of the revolution. It’s being referred to as social media, and it’s quickly replacing traditional media as we know it.

EXAMPLES:

• The November 2009 issue of Gourmet magazine was the FINAL copy.
• Most magazines have become a bit smaller in paper size, cutting down the paper it takes to print it.
• Read a book on your computer with Kindle.
• Yes, some magazines will survive, but where will magazines be 100 years from now? (Just asking.)

Yes, wholesalers haven’t caught up yet, and still want a Parker, Spectator or Enthusiast score to help them support their wine sales for off or on-premise accounts. However, what social media is doing is (mostly) selling to the Millennials (who don’t buy these wine magazines), and they’re the next greatest buying segment that we now have.

What are they buying? What their friends are recommending through social media. A few key wine bloggers can have a major impact on wine brands being sold – or not. It’s a great opportunity for wine sales for those brands taking advantage, especially if you have a  likable label, as this demographic is still buying with their eyes, not old tried and true brand loyalties.

I can’t say, “Get in on the ground floor,” because we’ve climbed a step beyond that, but who among you can’t still skip a step? It’s not that hard to do now. Three or four steps to skip, once we’ve segued to that location, not so easy.

Happy bloggiversary to me! (I feel like the Mad Hatter singing in Alice in Wonderland, as this has all be a rather exciting journey into the unknown.)