{"id":14460,"date":"2010-11-25T10:07:56","date_gmt":"2010-11-25T08:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=14460"},"modified":"2010-11-25T10:14:39","modified_gmt":"2010-11-25T08:14:39","slug":"bloggers-code-of-conduct-called-for-by-wine-blogger-emile-joubert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/bloggers-code-of-conduct-called-for-by-wine-blogger-emile-joubert\/","title":{"rendered":"Bloggers’ Code of Conduct called for by wine blogger Emile Joubert"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The current social media “wars” taking place both in the food and wine arena should be a\u00a0reason for bloggers to get together, and to\u00a0write a Code of Conduct\u00a0for blogging.\u00a0 This serious call came from Emile\u00a0Joubert, a PR consultant to the wine industry, and writer of the Wine Goggle Blog<\/strong><\/span>, when he addressed the final and best attended\u00a0meeting for this year of the Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club at the Grand Daddy Hotel in the Cape Town city centre.<\/p>\n

Emile\u00a0was a most entertaining speaker, and challenged wine bloggers in improving their ‘game’.\u00a0 He had brought along two De Wetshof wines from Robertson-based winemaker Danie de Wet, the Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, as well as Kanonkop Pinotage, the only South African wine\u00a0in a recent list of “100 most exciting wines in the world”, and a magnum of Glen Carlou Pinot Noir, which were tasted by the bloggers.\u00a0\u00a0 Emile praised the initiative of the Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club, which was\u00a0established in May this year.\u00a0 He has seen the benefit that his wine clients have enjoyed through the increasing number of bloggers, all wine lovers with an opinion, he said.\u00a0\u00a0 Social media\u00a0is a perfect platform for wine promotion.\u00a0\u00a0 Every wine has a story, he said, making it eminently ‘blogable”, unlike spirits or beer, which are more generic beverage categories.\u00a0\u00a0 Wines have a brand name, a culture and a personality, and these characteristics can be used to good advantage by wine bloggers.\u00a0\u00a0 Emile acknowledged the leadership of Mike Ratcliffe\u00a0in being the first\u00a0wine blogger ever, for Vilafonte, about six years ago.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Emile was critical of\u00a0wineries embracing social media by opening a Facebook page, and paying lip service to social media through poor writing on their blogs and in their Tweets, which give the wine industry a poor image,\u00a0he said.\u00a0He said that many wine bloggers “are more enthusiastic than talented in writing” about wine, wasting the time and space for serious wine lovers.\u00a0 They are boring, he said, and if they contain spelling errors, they are an embarrassment.\u00a0 He said that many bloggers are too obsessed with readership numbers, using links non-stop, no use he says if their blogs are lousy!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He encouraged bloggers to develop their “own voice”, and to create their own ‘blog brand’.\u00a0\u00a0 “Speak your own voice\u00a0clearly, succinctly and passionately”, he urged.<\/p>\n

Most social media programs of wineries lack a strategy, in his opinion.\u00a0 He recommended that a 1\/3 each of one’s action should be focused on SOCIAL, MEDIA and MARKETING.\u00a0 He described the wine industry as ‘ego-sodden’ terrain, with over-intellectualisation of wines, for example, referring to wine tasting of “tar” and “figpaste”, having run out of new adjectives to describe the taste of wine!\u00a0\u00a0 Emile\u00a0feels that bloggers\u00a0will make traditional mainstream media wine writers obsolete, and that is why Neil Pendock too has taken to blogging.\u00a0\u00a0 He mentioned that the recent ‘Swartland Revolution’, a marketing activity by a number\u00a0of\u00a0Swartland wine producers in Riebeeck Kasteel\u00a0to make their wine region “sexy” via social media marketing,\u00a0had made TIME magazine.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In developing a Bloggers’ Code of Conduct, Emile called firstly for anonymous comments to be disallowed, saying that this would never be allowed on a letters’ page in a newspaper.\u00a0 He also called for a boycott of restaurants that ban writers!\u00a0\u00a0 When asked, he explained the split in the wine industry, based on wine writers being pro- or anti-Platter.\u00a0\u00a0 The anti-Platter writers are unhappy with sighted tastings to judge the stars awarded to each wine, as they can influence the livelihoods of those affected by lower star ratings.\u00a0 He called Platter “the best phone book” for the wine industry.\u00a0 It would appear that this group of writers is also critical of Wines of South Africa (WOSA), in that they feel that the monies spent on marketing South African wines is not effectively spent.\u00a0\u00a0Accepting ‘freebies’, including airline tickets and more, is frowned upon, and leads the anti-Platter faction to expose their ‘colleagues’ guilty of this practice without disclosure.\u00a0 This leads to backstabbing,\u00a0infantile behaviour, and persons dishing out insults without being able to take\u00a0them in turn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Food Blogger Marisa Hendricks from The Creative Pot blog<\/a><\/span><\/strong> praised her Twitter and blogging friends for their friendly support and ‘chattiness’, which makes Social Media enjoyable to her. She was honest in saying that she is a ‘messy’ cook, that her family does not eat fancy food every night, and that there are irregular meal times in her household.\u00a0\u00a0 She focused on three aspects of a blog, in making it more successful. The design of the blog is paramount, as it expresses one’s personality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Secondly, food photography needs attention.\u00a0 In her household photography is mainly done at night, which is complicated as far as lighting is concerned, making dishes look too yellow.\u00a0 She says that cellphones are not made to give good photograph quality, and that one should choose the right camera (she uses a Cannon), read the manual that comes with the camera, and experiment with the camera settings.\u00a0 Natural light is best, and it can be softened by gauze, she said.\u00a0 Food should also be lit from the side, and not directly from above.\u00a0\u00a0 Food styling is equally important for successful photography, creating a desire of “I want to lick my screen”, she said!\u00a0\u00a0 Styling can be enhanced through the use of cutlery, glasses, doilies, napkins, etc.\u00a0\u00a0 White plates are classic in food styling, but bright plates offer a contrast for a one-colour food dish.\u00a0\u00a0 The styling should be natural, in how one would eat the dish.\u00a0 This helps one when one submits one’s\u00a0food photographs\u00a0to what she called ‘foodporn” sites such as Foodgawker!\u00a0\u00a0Thirdly Marisa spoke about advertising, and she only allows text-based ads.\u00a0 She does not want her blog to look like a “billboard”.\u00a0\u00a0 She knows that advertising could be off-putting to her readers.\u00a0 She also discussed affiliate links, to cookery books\u00a0sold by Amazon, for example, which can work well if used properly.<\/p>\n

In discussion it was mentioned that bloggers’ “user-generated content”\u00a0is becoming\u00a0more trusted for recipes and information than are recipe books and magazines.\u00a0\u00a0Marisa called for better hardware\u00a0to read blogs.\u00a0\u00a0 Disclosure of receiving free products is paramount, it was said, and PR companies should not expect bloggers to write about the products they have handed out, much like a print journalist will not guarantee that\u00a0he\/she will accept a media release.\u00a0It was felt that one should not write about something one did not like.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

A competition amongst attendees to find the most frequent Tweeter during the two-hour Bloggers’ Club meeting led to\u00a0a flood of Tweets. \u00a0Hila Jonker (who Tweets as @LadyRaven) won the prize of a bundle of fresh greens from the gardens of the wonderful new restaurant Babel at Babylonstoren.<\/p>\n

The 2011 programme for\u00a0the Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club will be announced closer to the start of the new year.\u00a0 The first meeting of the year will be hosted by Pigalle on 26 January.\u00a0\u00a0 More information is available from info@whalecottage.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 Twitter: @WhaleCottage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The current social media “wars” taking place both in the food and wine arena should be a\u00a0reason for bloggers to get together, and to\u00a0write a Code of Conduct\u00a0for blogging.\u00a0 This serious call came from Emile\u00a0Joubert, a PR consultant to the wine industry, and writer of the Wine Goggle Blog, when he addressed the final and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[4795,3,124,266,21,19],"tags":[8813,568,8816,8817,8808,8811,8238,8239,2003,8805,8803,3638,8797,8814,32366,32378,8146,7951,3212,32400,8141,4569,2381,4571,8800,8815,8812,6266,2645,492,8819,8801,8818,8804,6255,3602,497,6832,8820,5081,8810,6760,4458,8809,433,32395,2630,8799,1156,8806,6256,8807,1588,1587,407,32373,8798,4824,3336,8802,156,155],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t