How wine marketers can use social media network analysis to assess, develop, and leverage their social media network presence: an example using the search term “penfolds” and the social media sites Twitter and Instagram

Purpose: The primary purpose of this paper is to introduce some visual/graphical methods to wine marketers and wine marketing researchers that can be used to assess a firm’s participation and presence in their social media network. The parallel purpose is to approach the explanation in such a way that a wine marketer or wine marketing educator may be comfortable enough to try and use the techniques for their wine business or in the classroom. As such, the format follows a step-by-step approach to the data collection, analysis, explanation of the results, and possible interpretations for the firm.

Design/methodology/approach: Because the research is practical in nature, the term “penfolds” was used to search Twitter and Instagram posts over a 10 day period in August 2016. This gave a result of 1,091 tweets (Twitter posts) and 950 Instagram posts. These are examined for content using static and dynamic wordclouds, and for social media name and social media chain networks using sociograms.

Findings: The results suggest that the techniques can be informative and may prove to be a useful first step and potential baseline for more detailed and targeted analyses. Throughout the research, we offer practical strategies for developing and improving the social media network presence of a wine business.