Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar has recently debuted this year’s Fleming’s 100, a collection of 100 wines by the glass which acknowledges the pleasure of discovering a great wine at a great value and features 30 wines available for $10 a glass or less.

The Napa Valley Vintners is the non-profit trade association responsible for promoting and protecting the Napa Valley appellation as the premier winegrowing region.

More details coming soon!

PHOTO CREDIT: It’s Holly

• If you are a household brand name, like Virgin America, by all means use it. Followers will be looking for you.
• If you are a well known in your category and people are already seeking you out, use your name in your handle. Again, people will want to find and follow you because you’ve already built a personal reputation offline.
• If you fall into the category of virtually unknown, like most of us, consider using a descriptive name in your title, for example @winedinetv. Building my following would have been much easier had I used “public relations” or “social media” in my twitter handle.
• If you use your company name and/or your personal name and you don’t have a significant offline following, describe what you do in your profile.

2. Fill Out Your Profile Completely

• Think of this as your introduction to your followers. If you were at a networking event you would introduce yourself and at some point get around to telling people what you do for a living, your philosophy on life, the books you’ve written; whatever you want people to know about you.

3. Post A Photo Of Yourself

• This proves you are indeed, human. Leaving the Twitter icon up looks like you might be a spammer (this is the equivalent of talking to a wall at a party and no one wants to relive THAT experience). We found when we had our logo posted we did not get as many followers. When we posted my personal picture, the numbers of followers increased greatly. Again, going back to @winedinetv, they use their brand name, but put pictures of themselves up on their page.

4. Do Not Lock Your Updates

• Locking your updates tells potential followers that you’re not interested in having a two-way conversation with them. We have a client who was complaining that no one was following them, but they had locked their updates. We unlocked their updates (and changed a few other things) and followers poured in.

5. Follow Your Followers

• The whole idea behind participating in social media is to have a two way conversation with the folks in your group. If you don’t follow people who follow you, it’s like you are staring mutely back at someone who ask you a question.
• There are a few exceptions and I may be a prude, but there are some people who I don’t follow back because of the content that they are tweeting. Some of that stuff I just don’t want to see pop up on my screen!
• If you don’t follow your followers, you may find that they stop following you.

6. Follow Your Follower’s Followers

• If your followers like your content, their followers are likely to be interested in the same topics.

7. Be Consistent With Your Tweet Content

• This allows people to find and follow you based on content. With few exceptions, I consistently tweet about social media marketing, public relations, wine and restaurants. If someone is considering whether to follow me, they will have a good idea of what I’m all about and decide if that’s information they are interested in receiving.
• If your business is geographically specific, i.e. you run a furniture store in West Hollywood and you know your customers come from a 15 mile radius, you need to mention “West Hollywood” in your tweets as many times as appropriate.

8. Give Back To The Community

• It’s fine to send people to your website for specials, deals, information etc. But if you only do that, you will earn a bad reputation as a taker, you will lose followers and break the trust of your followers.
• Find articles that talk about your area of interest or retweet other posts.

9. Avoid Following People With Locked Updates

• Do you really want to try to have a conversation with someone who is already telling you they don’t want to talk to you?
• I have found that these people are less likely to follow back

10. Tweet (seriously)

• I realize this seems obvious, but clients will tell me that they can’t understand why no one is following them, but they posted three totally lame (and you know who you are) updates months ago.
• You need to post on a regular basis with relevant, helpful information. Except for your parents, few people care that you can’t find matching socks in the morning.
• We recommend that client’s tweet at least every 48 hours.

11. Don’t Over Do It

• If you are tweeting too frequently, unless you are reporting breaking news, you are probably sending out too much information too frequently that can overwhelm people and turn them away.

Check out our 26 Tips On Social Media Participation.

PHOTO CREDIT: AcousticSkyy

The Valentine’s Weekend Sharing Menu Offers:

Saucy Glazed Porterhouse Steak, Double-thick cut with a cognac mushroom glaze, served with haricot vert amandine and parmesan cheese mashed potatoes
Served with choice of Fleming’s, Caesar, or Wedge Salad
$98.00 for two**
Suggested wine pairing: Chateau Montelena, Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley, 2005

Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb and Lobster En Fuego, Coarse mustard and fresh herb crusted lamb rack, paired with generous chunks of Maine lobster prepared with shallots, sriracha chile-soy sauce, orzo, served with winter ratatouille and fondant potatoes
Served with choice of Fleming’s, Caesar, or Wedge Salad
$89.00 for two**
Suggested wine pairing: Artezin, Zinfandel Mendocino County, 2006

Dark Chocolate Frangelico Fondue, Almond sponge cake and assorted fresh fruit slices ready to dip into a warm dark chocolate Frangelico fondue
$9.50 for two**
Suggested wine pairing: Yalumba, Tawny Port Barossa Museum Release Antique Australia NV

Reservations are recommended for this popular weekend. Please visit www.flemingssteakhouse.com for your closest restaurant and to make a reservation.

*$25 Valentine’s Card offer is available for visits occurring on 2/13/09-2/15/09 only;$25 Valentine’s Card will be delivered at the end of the meal and will be valid from 2/16/09 through 3/31/09; one gift card per couple
**not including tax and gratuity

The wines were selected from Fleming’s wines-by-the-glass list, known as the Fleming’s 100, also from its bottle list, which were designed by the company’s director of wine, Marian Jansen op de Haar.

The wines include J. & F. Lurton, Douro Barco Negro Portugal, 2005 (Wine Enthusiast 90 pts., sustainable); Seghesio, Zinfandel Sonoma County, 2006 (Wine Spectator 91 pts., sustainable); Flora Springs Merlot Napa Valley, 2005 (Wine Enthusiast 91 pts, sustainable and organic); Freemark Abbey, Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley, 2003 (Wine Advocate – Robert Parker – 90+ sustainable); and Yalumba, Tawny Port Barossa Museum Release Antique Australia NV (Wine Advocate 96 pts, sustainable)

Green Is The New Red

Ink Foundry convinced a foreign governmental tourism agency to name Ralph Rubio of Rubio’s as an expert on the region.

Impact

Ink Foundry secured coverage on every morning show where the client has critical mass.

By creating “Ralph’s Private Recipes” Ink Foundry was able to secure food pages coverage, unheard of for a fast casual restaurant. Did we mention that we can cook?