I Tweeted My Way to The 50 Most Influential Wine Peeps List!

Well this is rich--

I was minding my own business, tweeting my little heart out about what else--wine--when I was told to check out a blog post by the Wine Wankers called the 50 Most Influential Wine Peeps on Social Media.

So I checked it out and low and behold I was on the list. The list is comprised of top scores from Klout and Kred by people all over the world who are focused on wine in social media.

I actually have never seen my Kred score before, but apparently it’s quite good with a score of 784 and 8 which put me at 44 (when the list was top 50 list) but now I’m at 45 on the on the Top 75 list --just below Jameson Fink and above Alice Feiring. Wooo Hooo! (see column at right below)

Then there is my Klout rank. I haven't really looked at Klout since they changed the whole look and feel of the site, but I just checked in and currently have a 57

On the Wine Wankers list I’m rated a 56 and that puts me last on the list. Just hanging on my by fingernails!

But here’s the deal--
Klout determines your score based on several social media sources and my score is 100% derived from Twitter. That’s all I do. Nothing else. No Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pintrest, Tumbler...or whatever the next new thing is. Just me tweeting away about #wine #wine #wine.

Imagine what my rank could be if I did all that other crap! Move over Wine Wankers, So long Ken Waggoner, See ya later Wine Spectator -- I’d be in the stratosphere! But truthfully, I would not even be on the radar of the Wine Wankers if not for Gwen Alley who mentioned to Conrad of Wine Wankers that I only do twitter and suggested I be considered for the list. So thanks Gwen!

In the meantime wine peeps started coming out of the woodwork to tell Conrad that they were worthy too and ask to be included on the list. So the list is now the top 75 Most Influential Peeps.

I hope get to stay on it, but you never know--these scores are all a moment in time. But I know one thing for sure, if Wine Wankers ever decides to rank by height I’ll be right up there--one notch above Joe Roberts aka 1 Wine Dude.

Hey Wine Wankers,  maybe you should add weight and height as a ranking. I think a few people might not want to have that information posted and I’d move right up the list.

Cheers --

UPDATE: List is now at 100-- But I'm still there!

The Holy Trinity of Synchronicity

See that box with the big number in it over here to the right → that’s a countdown clock for the Wine Pleasures International Wine Tourism Conference that will take place in Porto, Portugal starting January 31, 2011.

I have been invited to speak at the conference and join a Blogger/Media Press trip through the Minho and Douro wine regions. So naturally I’m researching the area and looking for information about Portugal before I go. After the conference I plan to spend a week in Lisbon and the surrounding area. I started to follow Portugal related wine and tourism folks on Twitter and searched for key words on the places I would be going. And that’s how I ran into David Hoffmann of DavidsBeenHere.com.

David's site offers a webshow service that allows people to ask questions about locations, trip ideas, or for tips on different destinations—and then David creates a personal video that answer the questions. The service is free and it’s amazing. It’s like sitting down with a friend who just came back from where you want to go and they give you all the inside details on what to see and what to do.

Check them out:

The first one is about Porto and the northern region of Portugal. The second details Lisbon and surrounding area. My screen layout tends to cut them off a bit but you can view them on at facebook.com/davidsbeenhere1 or on David's YouTube channel.

David was in the middle of touring Portugal when I began to follow him. We tweeted back and forth a bit. He asked me where I would be going in Portugal and I told him about the conference and that I was interested in Lisbon and possible day trips from there. As soon as he got back from his trip he made me these videos.

This to me is the perfect example of the power of connection and social media. And the power of wine, travel & twitter. In fact, I just added a slide in my presentation to talk about this at the conference.

To make things even more connected, it turns out the David is from Miami, South Miami to be exact, and his parents live just a few blocks from where my Grandparents lived and less than two miles from one of the areas where I grew up. It gets better… we both belong to the same church- Epiphany and attended the elementary school there although not at the same time. Pretty trippy huh?

So if you are planning a trip be sure to Ask David before you go. You won’t be disappointed. You can follow David on Twitter at @davidsbeenhere and click here to visit his site.

I’ll be posting about the wine and port while I’m in Portugal of course, but before I go I'll post a little preview of where I will be going so stay tuned. In the meantime, you can click on the box at the right and it will tell you everything you need to know about the conference and how to register. Or just click here.

Thanks again to David Hoffmann for his time and for making these videos for me.