The world wide web plays a huge part in partaking word-of-mouth recommendations for places, events, things to buy and see etc ("The World Wide Web of Word of Mouth « Boldizar", 2017). Through social media platforms, blogs, and websites set up for personal use - online users thrive off these pages to find more relatable and personal advice ("Social Media and the Illusion of Intimacy", 2017). The purpose of Un’Wined is to provide fellow wine lovers with recommendations, tips and advice as the self proclaimed wine enthusiast makes her way around to wineries in Western Australia. Through social media platforms Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, Un’Wined will maintain an interactive online presence, mingling with online users with the aim to grow a large online presence and following.
Un’Wined is an online presence created by Chantal Perich - a self proclaimed wine enthusiast, for other wine lovers, or those who may not know too much about wines and wineries in Western Australia, to give the best advice, insights, deals, recommendations and everything in between on some of the best wineries and selections of wine in the world through the many wine regions in Western Australia. The website, will continuously be having additional nodes as Perich conquers through many more wineries. Through social media, Un’Wined will be teaming up with these wineries to offer special deals and offers to the online ever-growing online following. The website will not online contain recommended tips from the wine lover, it will also feature key information on the wineries to assist users.
The Un’Wined website has been created on Wix Website Editor, the theme chosen to go for when creating it was under a ‘photography’ theme, as a visually appealing website that portrays more images than worded content is more optically appealing for users, and images simply speak a thousand words. The simple colours of green and white tie in well with the winery concept, and the simple design and colours incorporated does allow users to focus entirely on the images and content on display without being too overwhelming.
Instagram; the rapidly-growing photo-sharing application ("What is Instagram? - Definition from WhatIs.com", 2017) is one of the three Web 2.0 social media platforms utilised by Un’Wined to communicate with their online following, which also allows the capability to target users who are not active followers through promotion techniques. Instagram is a great way to simply communicate key information to followers, which Un’Wined will do through collaborations with selected wineries, to promote events, deals and offers. This platform is actively known for its ability to work with large following online personalities to promote products, services and events. Facebook is the second Web 2.0 social media platform taken on board by Un’Wined to communicate with their followers. This is a very commonly used marketing concept that many businesses and online personas use to share their information ("Facebook Marketing: A Comprehensive Guide for Beginners", 2017), however differs from Instagram in the sense that it doesn’t focus to heavily on images, but more on content. However, similarly to Instagram, Un’Wined will be promoting deals and offers, and any other information that will be useful to their users such as new posts on the websites, competitors etc. The third social media platform used for Un’Wined is Twitter, a microblogging service ("What Exactly Is 'Twitter'? What Is 'Tweeting'?", 2017), where again, smaller content in relation to wines and wineries will be shared to their online following. The three nodes will have a constant theme, and will be sharing similar and often the same content to ensure everyone is incorporated with key information and deals. These were chosen as they are continuously growing social media applications and are seen to work well with similar concepts.
There is a high potential for a digital shadow to come from the online presence of Un’Wined with the sharing, interaction and engagement from online users over a number of online platforms being utilised ("Digital Risk Management » Digital Shadows", 2017), as users will be taking the recommendations from the page and implementing this into their routines, so although it may not be all tangible data stored, such as posts, comments, images etc, it is occurring in the action which then has the capability to be shared through word-of-mouth and other sharing sources.
Social media rivers have been accounted for, with the high likelihood that key content will be skipped over by a number of online users, however with the three large online presences it is likely that important information won’t be missed as it will be communicated on all platforms, and most likely on more than one occasion, and tagging users, as well as being updated on the website (Ellis, 2017).
The whole online presence of Un’Wined represented in the central and contributing nodes reflects a number of concepts discussed throughout the Web Communications Unit, beginning with the theme; with the re-use of images, the flow of colours and content, it ties in really well creating a harmonising vibe for online viewers and users. The social media platforms all tie in well with each other, and share key similarities, and incorporate sharing with each of the content sharing applications, which demonstrate a strong internet footprint, by engaging with a variety of online users, which will also be incorporated through competitions and sharing techniques.
To conclude, Un’Wined’s online presence is one that will continue to grow with content being added additionally. Through collaborations, information sharing and recommendations, the interaction amongst online users will be an intimate one that will encourage users to share content with one another online and out in the real world, leaving an everlasting beneficial internet footprint and digital shadow especially through the power of word of mouth. By having a strong online presence through a number of nodes Un’Wined will be able to provide advice for many viewers, and have an ability to expand.