The Use of Social Media in the Wine Event Industry: A Case Study of the High Country Harvest in Australia

This chapter explores the use of social media by the wine event industry as a platform to increase customer interest and more importantly, patronage to wine events. Using the High Country Harvest in Victoria, Australia, as a case study, we consider which social media are utilized to promote this festival based on the platforms identified by Wollan, Smith, and Zhou’s research in 2010 plus vblogs. The chapter concludes by identifying the considerations for social media adoption of a wine event being cost, expansion, user knowledge, ease of use, longevity, and dynamic content. It also highlights official website promotion through Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube as the preferred social media channels due to the perceived usage by Australian audiences and potential visitors to wine events.