May 3-6

• Thursday – We have TANGO. Come watch, come learn, come tango from 7-9pm. Selection of $5 glass pours and 15% off on select wines “to go.” Ever heard of Languedoc? No, not “long duck doc” from Pretty in Pink, Languedoc is a region in France. and Thursday is Languedoc day. Come down to nectar for a sip of THREE Languedoc wines.
• Friday – Enjoy First Friday with visiting Anelare Winery and the art of Kirsten Stobie. Nashville star musician Jenny Anne Mannan providing entertainment. 5 wineries, 40+ wines, 1 beautiful location. Open until 10pm. Anelare will be offering 15% off all wines and 25% off mix and match cases. Visit all the great downtown First Friday locations for a night of wine and art.
• Saturday / Sunday – The patio is open. Bloomies enjoy $5 glass pours and a special “deal” when visiting with their race number or t-shirt. Open Noon – 10pm Saturday and Noon – 5pm on Sunday.

May 9-13

• Wednesday – May is National Foster Child Month. Join “Shine a Light” on Wednesday 5/9 for an evening of awareness, fundraising, networking and wine. Only $10 5:30-8:00pm.
• Friday – Sunday: The Spokane Winery association’s annual Spring Release Weekend. Join the 24 SWA wineries at 19 tasting rooms across the city. Nectar will have samples of 8 wines and some amazing deals including 40% off bubbles from NW Cellars, 50% off Hiney Wine from Skylite Cellars and 65% off Terra Blanca’s Lot 1 Red Blend. Learn more and download the tasting map.

May 17-20

• Thursday – Thirsty Thursday is always a fun time at Nectar. Enjoy 1/2 price appetizer plates with the purchase of a bottle of wine.
• Friday – Music from acclaimed musician Daniel Mills (Son of Brad). Dave Matthews says, “Son of Brad is organized that’s a good thing.” Music starts at 6:30. Show up early, this one will be full.
• Saturday – The Annual Lilac Parade route goes right by Nectar. Reserve your window spot and enjoy the Torchlight Parade from the cozy spot at Nectar. We have 6 indoor tables and 4 outdoor tables (new for this year) available. Your $75 reservation ($60 for members) gets you a table for 4, bottle of wine and an appetizer plate of your choice. Visit the Eventbrite site to order. Use the discount code MEMBER if you are a Club Nectar or Quarterly Sip member.
• Sunday – Open 1-5pm

May 24-27

We’re releasing 5 new Terra Blanca wines. Enjoy the 08 Merlot, Cabernet and Onyx as well as new additions to the space, Botrytis Chenin Blanc (sweeeeet) and the Block 8 Syrah (uh-may-zing). Music Saturday from Rachel Bade McMurphy Jazz Trio from 6:30-9:30. Open Sunday 1-5pm for all your pre-BBQ Memorial Day wine needs.

A Mother’s Day Weekend of Wine Tasting May 11 – 13 • New hours: 12 p.m. – 6 p.m.

In celebration of Spring and in honor of mothers everywhere, Spokane area wineries will host a special weekend of wine tasting as part of the The Spokane Winery Association’s annual Mother’s Day Spring Release Weekend.

The event runs May 11-13 during the new event hours of 12 p.m. – 6 p.m. each day at the local wineries. The event offers great reasons to visit local wineries, including wine tastings at each location and the opportunity to speak with winemakers and those passionate about wine. Select wineries have outdoor seating available, and wineries are located across the Spokane region, creating easy access to wineries. Visit each winery to explore unique festivities.

Spring traditionally marks the end of winemaking season and represents the beginning of a new wine year. The wineries invite the public to celebrate the weekend. Tasting fees may apply. Download a map at www.spokanewineries.net.

With the addition of Hard Row to Hoe, Northwest Cellars, Skylite Cellars and Terra Blanca at Nectar Tasting Room, Spokane residents and visitors can taste wine from 24 Washington wineries at 18 local tasting rooms. Nectar will be showcasing some new wines and great deals. Your tasting fee of $5 gets you 8 small samples (members taste free). Check out the wine and deals below! Nectar will be open Noon – 10pm on Friday and Saturday, Noon – 6pm on Sunday.

HARD ROW TO HOE:

• NEW – Nauti Buoy White Blend $18 (reg $22)
• Shameless Hussy Melot $20 (reg $25)

# # #

The Spokane Winery Association is an alliance of Spokane-area wineries that work to promote regional wine products.  The Spokane Winery Association’s mission is to promote communication and interaction between the wineries of Spokane, to promote economic development through winery tourism and to increase the awareness and profile of the wineries in the Spokane area. Members of the alliance produce an eclectic blend of distinctly Washington wines ranging from intense, rich reds and crisp whites to complex blends.  For more information visit www.spokanewineries.net

Expand our food options. CHECK. Promote and expand our event space. CHECK. Promote and be known as a winery. Now…CHECK. We set out at the beginning of 2012 with three major goals. Each of these goals hopefully makes us a better destination and continues to help us better serve our amazing members and customers. We are excited to announce that four of our wineries are joining the Spokane Winery Association.

With a long history of promoting great wine, the SWA now boasts 24 members including 19 from Spokane, 2 from Walla Walla, and 1 each from Lake Chelan, Benton City, and Kirkland. Wine available in Spokane continues to be a delicious cross section of Washington terroir. The Spokane Winery Association promotes three major events annually, Spring Barrel Tasting (Mother’s Day Weekend), Holiday Wine Festival (weekend before Thanksgiving) and ValenWine Weekend (weekend before Valentine’s Day). Joining the association are Hard Row to Hoe Vineyards, Northwest Cellars, Skylite Cellars and Terra Blanc Estate Winery.

What does this mean? As the owner of Nectar, it means that we get to participate at a greater level in the major event weekends and it expands our visibility to attract new customers. For our existing and future customers you can now add us to your list of stops. For me, personally, I’m excited to be a part of an amazing wine scene that was an inspiration for Nectar to begin with. The passion and quality behind each bottle produced in Spokane is equal to the other great wine regions in the state. My goal has been and always will be to stand on the roof tops and shout it out until everyone else knows what I already know…Spokane rocks!

Visit the Spokane Winery Association web site to learn about all the local wineries. Download their tour map and plan a weekend trip or even an afternoon of wine.

************* MEDIA PRESS RELEASE *************

Nectar Tasting Room is pleased to announce that four of its wineries are joining the Spokane Winery Association. With a long history of promoting great wine, the SWA now boasts 24 members including 19 from Spokane, 2 from Walla Walla, and 1 each from Lake Chelan, Benton City, and Kirkland. Wine available in Spokane continues to be a delicious cross section of Washington terroir. “We are excited to continue the introduction of great wine to the Spokane wine community. Hard Row to Hoe, Northwest Cellars, Skylite Cellars and Terra Blanca are great additions to the Spokane Winery Association,” says Nectar Tasting Room owner Josh Wade. The Spokane Winery Association promotes three major events annually, Spring Barrel Tasting (Mother’s Day Weekend), Holiday Wine Festival (weekend before Thanksgiving) and ValenWine Weekend (weekend before Valentine’s Day). “Culinary experiences are a key component of the destination experience in Spokane, and wineries play a big part in that.  Our growing reputation as a prime destination for great food and wine depends on continuing to build opportunities for visitors to taste, buy and explore,” says Jeanna Hofmeister, Vice President at Visit Spokane.

Nectar Tasting Room is on the corner of Main & Stevens in Downtown Spokane. Five wineries, over forty wines, all in one beautiful location. Visit nectartastingroom.com for hours and information.

Ed, and his company are among the most regarded and respected in their field of search, SEO, and other geeky type stuff, so I thought I’d sit down and ask Ed to “shine the search light” into what all this means.

So, Ed, explain the new Google changes in regular people talk?

What do the changes mean from an SEO and web site optimization standpoint?

It definitely makes an impact. This somewhat “officially” announced to the general public how important Google believes social signals to be in determining quality content. And while it’s still a read-between-the-lines statement to some degree, they aren’t hiding that fact that incorporating a Google+ strategy into your marketing mix will likely help search rankings.

So how did social media influence search ranking algorithm in the past? Google’s big announcement made it sound like this is a new ranking factor.

We’ve been tracking social media’s influence on search engine rankings since February of 2011. SEOmoz wrote a great blog post about Twitter and Facebook’s influence on search rankings last Spring that documents what was going on at the time really well. The best example I’ve personally seen is from the Bloom Spokane. Last February they wrote a blog post that ranked #3 on page one of Google for the very broad phrase “birth advice” within 48 hours of it being published. For a small non-profit to outrank big sites like Mothering.com, the BBC, and Wikipedia that quickly was pretty crazy. We found out that the blog post was shared by nearly 200 Facebook pages in those first few days. And some of the Facebook pages had A LOT of followers. Google was tracking Facebook shares as a signal that this was quality content. It was the social sharing that was the main signal to Google that this was quality content out of the gate. It’s received natural inbound links (the traditional ranking influencer) since and has gone to the top spot for phrase “birth advice.” But it was the social sharing on Facebook that got it to the top of page one so quickly.

How does Google+ play into things now?

Google+ amplifies that effect. By adding circles (networks) of people on Google+ with common interests Google is able to create its own social graph of and determine what the these Google+ circles determine to be valuable content. The biggest upside, however, is that through personalization people in your circles are MUCH more likely to see your content (whether a website, blog post, etc). The downside is that Google+ still isn’t widely adopted by the masses (and I’m not certain that will happen). That said, Google has been very aggressive in marketing it and the likely increase in organic search traffic will be a continued to bring business owners and marketers on board. We’ll see how that plays out in the long run, but for now it’s something that I believe people can’t ignore from a marketing perspective.

What additional information is out there that people should check out?

I’d talk to people with direct experience using Google+ that have SEO and social media experience. Get Listed University is coming to Spokane on April 27^th and will be a great opportunity to talk with some of the best folks around to understand how it fits within a good SEO strategy.

GET LISTED UNIVERSITY TICKETS ARE $199. Get admission for only $149 with the NECTAR discount code at THIS LINK.

I know you have a Google+ class coming up as well. I think that would also be a great opportunity for people to learn more about it in person. In terms of online information, I think that SEOmoz has some great information about both Google+ and social media’s growing influence on SEO. Here’s a quick list of their best blog posts and presentations on the topic:

• Why Every Marketer Needs a Google+ Strategy
• How Google+ Uses SEO to Steal Search from Facebook & Twitter 
• Social Media for SEO (Presentation by Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz)

Thanks, Ed, for dropping the knowledge bombs about Google, SEO and Social Media. Looks like ignoring Google+ is a foolish thing to do and properly optimized social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest are essential for rankings and listings.

March may have been full of mayhem but April will be EVENTful…meaning FULL of events. In fact, 14 events are on the books. Do you have an upcoming birthday party, graduation party, anniversary, rehearsal dinner, wedding reception or special occasion? VISIT HERE for info on how to book our beautiful space.

APRIL 4-7

• WEDNESDAY – Join us for the kick off of our Case for a Cause month benefiting Epicurean Delight (Inland Northwest Blood Center). For the month of April Nectar will donate $40 for every case purchased (mix and match) to the INBC. The kickoff event features complimentary tasting and live music with Stephanie Hatzinikolis. 6-8pm.
• THURSDAY – Tango Thursday returns. Dancers of all skill levels are welcome from 6-10pm. Come watch, come learn, come tango. A selection of $5 glass pours available
• FIRST FRIDAY – For First Friday we have a Hiney alert as Skylight Cellars joins us for the weekend. They bring with them their popular Hiney Wine (Walla Walla Red Blend) at only $16 a bottle, $80 a six-pack and $120 a case. Enjoy music from Rachel Bade-McMurphy Jazz Trio and “A Journey of Spokane in High Dynamic Range” from photographer Kent Henderson. Open until 10pm.
• SATURDAY – Come by for a pre-Easter wine tasting and get 20% off each of the specially selected Easter wines. Happy Easter from all your friends at Nectar Tasting Room.

APRIL 12-15

• FRIDAY – Music from Ron Criscione from 6:30-9:30
• Open Sunday 2-5pm

APRIL 19-22

• THURSDAY – Join us for Thirsty Thursday where you get 1/2 price appetizer plates when you buy a bottle (to enjoy) from 5-8pm.
• FRIDAY – Nectar was voted #3 Wine Bar in town. Come find out why. Stop by after work for a relaxing glass of wine, appetizer plate and music from Michael J. Dwyer 6:30-9:30
• SATURDAY – Do the Downtown Wine Walk with Arbor Crest, Cougar Crest, Nectar and Whitestone (only $10 to taste at all four). Music from Joe Caruso 6:30-9:30
• Open Sunday 2-5pm

APRIL 26-28

• THURSDAY – Inland NW Baby turns 2 and you’re invited to their birthday party. Nectar will be hosting INW Baby. Find out more information on how you can participate and help this great non-profit here.
• FRIDAY – Ken Davis returns for a fun night of classic rock and new covers. Music starts at 6:30.
• SATURDAY – Wanna Van Gogh and Merlot? Join this great painting class at Nectar from 1-4pm. Price is $40 and includes a wine tasting, painting supplies and a guided painting class. RSVP HERE
• Join us for The Final Sip from 9-10pm. Spokane’s best wine party where you get to try up to 8 of any wine still open at Nectar. Don’t let us dump it down the drain. That would be grape abuse.

On the radar. Don’t forget about the Spokane Winery Association’s annual Spring Barrel Tasting Weekend, May 11-13. Taste winery new releases, get special deals and in some cases taste wine straight from the barrel.

Thinking of a Groupon? This $20 class can save you thousands. CLICK HERE to REGISTER.

The way daily deals are structured

Generally, daily deal services are structured in such a way that both the merchant and the daily deal service both make money in some way. Groupon splits the income from the daily deal half and half, and requires a 50% or more discount on the product or service.

For example, a Groupon that costs $10 must be for a product or service worth $20. The merchant gets $5 of this income, and Groupon gets $5. Most daily deal sites also charge a credit card processing fee of between 1 and 3 percent. At the end of the day, this means the merchant gets approximately 22% of their usual charge for the item included in the coupon.

Each daily deal site pays out income from their deal differently; some in one lump sum, though many pay out in smaller installments.

The benefits of running a daily deal

For business owners, there are a multitude of benefits associated with running one of these daily deals.

• Very targeted customers: Generally daily deal sites offer very tightly controlled targeting of their customers, based on age,
  previous buying habits, and geographical area. There are also daily deal sites that aim for a very targeted demographic; services such as Gaypon, for example.
• New customers: Many of the customers that purchase and use a daily deal are customers that may not have otherwise spent the money to visit your location or utilize your service; these new customers can be a much-needed shot in the arm for a business.
• Social presence: Most daily deal website users are already comfortable with the web and social media. Running a daily deal means attracting customers that are already primed to use social networks and offer their opinions on your business to friends.
• Search Engine Optimization: The spike in traffic, topical links to your website, and social media discussion of your business that will happen the day a daily deal runs with your business can do great things for your search engine optimization, if your website is ready for it.

There are a multitude of benefits to running a daily deal, but unless you are truly prepared for the onslaught, then a daily deal can ruin your business. There are hundreds of thousands of stories online of businesses that have been put out of business by their Groupon or daily deal. Before you decide to run a daily deal, you should carefully consider:

• The cost of the deal: In order to run a daily deal, you will likely giving a discount of 75% or more to every customer that uses
  the coupon. Consider if your busienss can take that kind of a discount, and if not, then running the deal may not be worth it.
• Utilizing the information: You can get a wealth of information from and about the customers that buy and redeem your deal. If you do not yet have the structure to utilize the information in the future, however, then it may not be worth the cost.
• If you are prepared: A daily deal means several large spikes for your business. A spike in website traffic, a spike in orders the first few days, and another spike a few days before the deal expires. These customers are also very vocal and very likely to share, so if you are not prepared to handle the onslaught, you could do more damage to your businesses’ reputation than you could help.

So – should you run a Groupon?

So, in the end, should you run a Groupon or other daily deal for your business? The answer depends on if your business is prepared for the deal, and if you can structure the deal in such a way that the deal will not drive your business out of business. Do the math very
carefully, know your goals for the deal, and structure it in such a way that you can turn the one-time daily deal customers into a boon
for your business, rather than a drain.

To learn more about doing a daily deal the right way, check out Groupon – Deal Sites the Right Way on Tuesday, April 3 at noon at Nectar Media. 120 N Stevens

Taught by Andrea Parrish-Geyer of Savor Sweets and Hydra Creations.

*According to a Portfolio.com report citing BIA/Kelsey; September 13, 2011