Wine Influencer: @attorneysomm - John Jackson

XChateau is a podcast about all things wine, from vine to your glass. We tackle the business of wine and keep you up to date with new and exciting developments in the wine industry.

In this episode, Robert Vernick and Peter Yeung interview John Jackson (Instagram: @attorneysomm), an attorney by day, wine drinker by night.  We ask John about how he got started in wine blogging and built his 11,000+ Instagram account in less than two years.  Robert and Peter discuss the methods John used to build his following, the Sips Around the Globe Initiative (Instagram: @sips.aroundtheglobe), and how he works with wineries to build their brand awareness. 

Other topics covered in this episode include:

• 2007 Opus One - the wine that got him into wine
• His favorite wines - Northern Rhones and older wines
• Start with Instagram
  • Nov 2018 - when he transitioned his personal account to attorneysomm
  • Used it as a creative outlet for his business travel
  • Posts 2-3x/week because of large time commitment to respond and engage with followers, he gets ~200 comments per post
• Other social platforms
  • Facebook - mostly just mirrors the posts
  • Twitter - just started trying to figure this out
  • TikTok - claimed the name, but haven’t done much yet
• Wine education - in the process of doing the WSET Diploma
• Following demographics
  • ~33% US, Italy, France, Brazil (6.5%), UK
  • 60% male, 40% female
  • 82% 25-55 years old
• Growing his followership
  • Trips and winery tours built some followers
  • Watched YouTube videos on how to grow followers for a month
  • Staggers content to not be too repetitive
  • Good content is key
  • Responding to people
  • Supporting others who support him
• Mistakes in growing followers
  • Follow for follow back
  • Posted more about restaurants vs wine - good to have a niche in the algorithm, moved food content to stories
• Sips Around the Globe
  • Group of 11 influencers, each in a different country
  • >100k collective followers
  • Works with wineries to reach a broad range of people globally
  • Brands send wine and work on a schedule, usually a 2-week collaboration
  • Each influencer has a different angle
  • Wineries choose which countries to post in
  • Mostly European producers so far
  • Started in May 2020 - IG page has 1,500+ followers (July 2020)
• Content that works
  • High-quality price ratio (“QPR”) wines
  • 1st growth Bordeaux gets the most engagement
  • Layout formats don’t do as well as regular pictures
  • Consistency in what you’re posting about
• Working with wineries
  • Payment sometimes in samples, sometimes in cash
  • Need to enjoy the brand and the wines to have consistency for followers
  • Takes into account winery size and means
• IG Lives
  • Wineries mostly reached out to him
  • Have done Chateau Lagrange and Charles Heidsieck

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