Our guest, Stephen Hartley is a long-time wine lover and new owner of Palatebomb.com, a wine blog with the mantra “Raise your glass, not your nose!”. At an early age, his father began educating him on the finer points of wine. And growing up in the Tri-Cities, there was quite a bit of wine around to savor.  “I’ve always enjoyed trying various wines to experience the combination of different flavors that each offers,” he states. “Each bottle brings new sensations to the palate. That’s what I love about wine.”

Living in the heart of Washington’s wine country, Stephen finds our regional wine culture a familiar and fun atmosphere. While not afraid to journey across the sea (or the wine isle of the local supermarket) for tastes from places like France and Argentina, he does admit to having a soft spot for Washington wines, commenting that his palate finds that our local wines are strong competitors against the traditional national  leader, California.

When he isn’t out and about savoring the fruits of the local wineries, Stephen can be found around the Tri-Cities producing events as Fenix Sound & Vision, a local DJ company.

What is #socialwine you ask?

Rich Breshears is a 43 year old wine slob.  That’s right…wine “slob”.  His history with wine dates back to growing up in Caldwell, Idaho where he grew up near the Ste. Chappelle winery.  Ste. Chappelle was a part of the Symms family fruit ranching empire, and became famous in the late 1970s for their Johannesburg Riesling label.  Raised on gooey sweet wines, Rich was first introduced to Bordeaux and Italian wines while at the University of Idaho.  The Moscow Wine Company offered several courses in enjoying wine and food pairings.  23 years ago, While on his honeymoon with his wife Mary Ann, they toured wineries throughout Washington, including stops in Yakima, Prosser, Tri Cities, and Walla Walla.  Transferred to the region in 1993, Rich’s passion for wine officially took flight then.  He has worked as a distributor, marketing consultant, and agent for several distributors and wineries in the Eastern Washington region.  Currently he writes a weekly wine column for the Eastern Oregonian Newspaper, and his blog www.onerichwineguy.blogspot.com .  As a Certified Professional Photographer, and owner of Breshears Professional Photography one of his specialties is creating beautiful images for the wine industry.  His most recent clients are Alma Terra, Saviah, Claar Cellars, Powers Family Winery, Kyra, and Smasne Cellars.  His images are also on display at Barrel House in Kennewick, and 6th Street Coffee in Prosser.  Rich considers himself a wine “slob” because generally speaking there is nothing he won’t try at least once.  His biggest turn offs in the industry are jerks, snobs, and industry pros who think they know more than the common customer.  “Some in this industry think they walk on water.  I don’t care how good your wine is…somebody’s gonna think it tastes like crap.  Get over it or get out of the business!”  Along with that, Rich also has a strong philosophy when writing…”If you can’t say something nice…don’t say it”

There are several ways to follow a Twitter chat, here are a couple great ones!

Tweetchat: We use http://tweetchat.com Just login using your Twitter username and password, then enter the room “#socialwine” .  Tweetchat will automatically display all Twitter messages that folks tag with the #sbbuzz tag, so you will only see that conversation.  Tweetchat also automatically tags any message that you post with the #sbbuzz tag, so anyone following this conversation will see your message (without you having to tag it yourself).

Twitter Search: Alternatively you can use the search feature within Twitter itself.  Just go to http://search.twitter.com and search on the term “#socialwine” or you can use the direct link to http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23socialwine Twitter search will alert you as new messages are being posted to the chat – you can refresh your page as you see the “3 new messages” link at the top.  To post messages to the chat you must go to your normal Twitter page (http://twitter.com) and submit you message being sure to include the tag “#socialwine” somewhere in your message.  Otherwise it will not show up in the chat for others monitoring the conversations.

To participate, you only need to log into your favorite twitter client and search for #socialwine. Not quite sure how to accomplish this? Let our friends at Mashable help you get the most out of twitter hashtags!

Host Craig Sutton will ask the first question or two, we invite your comments and questions, for the chef then as well. Lets have fun and make this a successful event for all!

This seemed the right time to me to assemble a new chat hashtag (#) called #socialwine.

Ok, so what is the deal?

I have followed many twitter chats, you can in fact search and follow threads like #blogchat , managed by my good friend Mack Collier on a regular weekly basis. They talk about blogging and how it is used in various manners and the discussions include styles, etiquette, etc.

I thought, “Why not wine?” Found this open hashtag, and here we are.

At 4pm Wednesday, known as #winewednesday or #ww in Twitterville, those interested in Social Media and Wine can get together and I will host with a chosen co-host each week. My co-host and I will choose a topic for discussion and anyone who wants to be involved only need to follow #socialwine to be involved.

Let the games begin!

We were talking a bit about why some Owners or key people might choose to shy away from these events and she had mentioned a conversation with a local business owner who mentioned that the idea of coming to a show like this was appealing, but that it may show a weakness to other potential clients or a boss, if they came.

I really hadn’t thought about it this way, and I understand the concern. Having said that, there is another way to look at this.

Conferences are nothing more than ongoing education. You will hear plenty you may already know, the goal here is to get up to date on concepts you may not understand as well. Or you might be provided some information to help you make decisions about your business future.

I proudly tell my customers about the additional conferences I attend, because they also know that with technology, every facet of business changes at the speed of light. Your boss knows this as well. Explaining to your boss that the investment of the trip to the conference will prove one of two things, you know everything you need to know, or they made a wise investment that will enable you to make them more efficient!

I have been to conferences that taught me very little, and some that I have learned a lot from. The key is to read the details about what the conference is geared to provide. What is its target market, what are the key conversation points, and is there enough there for it to be sensible for you.

What about competitors? They might be there!

Yeah? So what? You should be worried about them being there while your sitting in the office. Everyone wants a competitive edge, its only the fool who thinks they have it already. A very key issue in business, its not about what you know.. you are EXPECTED to know how to do your job, its about how you build and sustain relationships. If you’re not as good as or better than your competitor at that, no amount of knowledge will save you.

Conferences are designed to help you build and keep relationships by providing you the education you need to make them happy.

Focus on YOU, not on THEM.

I educate people and learn from them, yes, even my competitors!

I also am involved in communicating on Twitter as often as I can. About 50% of the time I am watching and responding to things I read, and the rest I might comment about business, talk about coming work or more often just rattle off a thought I have at that moment because of something that has impacted me with the hopes I might help others in the same predicament.

I read a lot about the “Experts” issue, because I don’t have much choice, the group I follow are collectively people who are involved in Social Media in some business manner, but prefer that people not refer to themselves as experts. I am on the fence on this issue, primarily because noone knows who gets to set the criteria for the so called “Expert”, but there are many compelling ideas behind the concept. Do you have to be a marketing professional already? If not would some of these people qualify?

I know I am not a Social Media expert. How? Because my peers do not communicate with me on that level. In fact I don’t believe I rank on anybodys scale as a person knowledgaeble on this topic. But still, I do offer classes on the subject to local Small Businesses and I do make a small profit doing so, because my time is still worth money to someone. And more importantly, I do this for a good reason, someone needs to do it for a couple of reasons:

1. If you jump into this eyes closed, you can quickly become overwhelmed or underwhelmed. If you don’t know what to expect and some of the rules you are expected to follow (and yes folks, there are rules even if they are not posted anywhere on the sites for these tools) you will give up quickly having accomplished nothing and likely not to see the value it can bring to you.
2. I have goals that are much broader, I want to further the cause of Small Businesses like mine. It is a real struggle and has some very large ups and downs and education is a big part of how I feel I can offer something back.

Hey, I don’t have all the answers. But I’d rather do my best than do nothing. I want to believe I can help you, and I know that is a mix of my ego and my desire to be humble all jumbled up into one.

I know I have helped people, and know that I will continue to learn and pass that information forward as I can. I also believe that there is no “right” way to get involved. I teach an approach, be yourself and learn to build value to others. That is how I have grown my business before I knew a thing about Social Media! So really, I’m teaching a marketing class, or am I just teaching a class in common sense? Sometimes others just need to hear someone else say its ok before they act.

Im involved in Social Media, and you should be too. Follow the path that got you to where you are. It’s Ok!

Rosy Villa - @rosyblue

There are many people that use twitter for many different reasons, getting to know others, education, sharing information. How do you get the most out of twitter and what do you hope to accomplish?
Before joining Twitter, I sent out a weekly newsletter to family and friends. It was a hit and I really enjoyed it. Then, I decided that I wanted to write a blog. But, I had no clue what I needed to do, so the blog idea was placed on the back burner. One day I was reading the New York Times online, I came across the blog, Shifting Careers by Marci Albohers. The blog talked about putting yourself out there via a social network called Twitter. I created an account and that was it. I was clueless and didn’t really know what to do. I was getting followers, but didn’t grasp the concept of following back. Oh the pressure,  I didn’t update for a couple of months. After reading several articles and blog posts about twitter, I decided to use twitter for fun. But, as time has gone by, I realized that I’m using twitter, not only for fun, but educational  purposes, sharing information to people outside of twitter. Plus, I have met some amazing people. And, most importantly, I have realized the importance of social media for business and career, perhaps using twitter someday for this purpose, too. Twitter has changed what I would like to accomplish in life, it like I’m in a candy store and can’t decide what I need to do first. Since using Twitter, I have discovered that I really enjoy writing and  the possiblies are truly limitless. So watch out world, Rosy is here to stay!

Tell us where you are from and what you do for a living?
I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. However I had a moment of exploration and moved briefly to Costa Mesa, California (in the O.C.) for 7 years, but missed Los Angeles and moved back. Ah, there is nothing like home sweet home. I have always worked in the health field. I started working in a doctor’s office (truly enjoyed it). The doctor that I worked for was the best (great work ethic and dedicated to the well being of his patients). Then, I moved on to a major Health Insurance Company, I worked in Customer Service and Claims. I loved the interaction with people (even if it was over the phone) and the satisfation that I was able to assist. It was a new experience and learned quite bit. And since I love helping people, the work came easy.  I moved up quickly in the company. As much as I loved the work, the environment was toxic and stressful. After several years,  budget cuts and buy outs,  I made the painful decision to leave two years ago. It was a scary decision, but a brave one. I decided to take my life back. All I was doing was working 10-12 hours a day,  6 days a week with little vacation time. It was time to go and decided to explore other options. I don’t think that I will ever truly leave the healthcare field, it’s too important to me. So as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says, “I’ll be back.”

Do you know others who use Social Media tools like Twitter in your area? What would you say about the knowledge of people in your area about Social Media in general?
I have a few friends who use Social Media tools like Plurk, Facebook, Identi.ca and friendfeed. To be quite honest, most of my friends use it for fun. Like me, we starting to use social media to enrich our lives and careers. We are a wee behind, but we will get there shortly.

What gets you really motivated and excited?
What truly keeps me motivated and super excites me is my thirst for knowledge. I’m curious about this world, always have been. And it’s keep me open minded. I have always been this way, I remember reading a book as a child, if I didn’t understand the word, I would look it up in the dictionary. I’ve always been a hard worker, nothing stops me from learning new things. I think staying motivated requires that you evolve as a person. I’m not the same person I was in my twenties. I love that about myself.  I just want to be the best person I can be.

Give us one crazy fact about yourself you haven’t already shared.
I own a lot of books, I’m forever reading.  When I hear about a new book, I must have it. I get a crazy feeling and start trying to figure out which is the best way to get the book a.s.a.p. And the truly crazy thing is, once I get the book, it’s probably another 5-6 months before I get a chance to read it (I always have a stack of books to read). I know, I know.