German social media wine scene, add your international voice
When I started my twitter account in May of last year, the German wine twitter scene was bursting with activity. Over the following months, I made many great contacts and I am very thankful for this. I have sadly noted that the user activity has gone down tremendously this year. I guess the main reason for this is that the pool of German users was limited to start with, and after some time the excitement faded away as the pool of new participants was not growing. Many German twitter users have shifted their focus lately to Facebook, which has a broader audience in Germany. I fear that the German wine scene is losing out on a tremendous opportunity to add its own international voice: There are a great number of people who deserve to be heard, and could add value on a daily basis. The fact is that other wine lovers would eagerly listen to them if these users would use English as the preferred tweet language. I know it is not easy to adjust to adjust to a non-mother tongue language. But it is possible, after all being German myself I spend most of my day using Greek and English. From my own experience, it does not matter if your grammar or your spelling is not perfect, what matters is that other people "get" what you are communicating. Trust me, they are very responsive! The German wine scene is too important to be ignored, and many people abroad are very interested in insight views. Only you, the German wine community, are able to deliver these insights. Twitter offers an enormous opportunity to connect - don't shut yourself out because you are shy to use another language than German. Keep in mind that Facebook might currently have a broader audience, but this audience is still finite in the German language. If you do not expand, you might encounter a deja vu situation not too far away. I do not wish to criticize, rather encourage you to think somewhat more outside the box. (Social) Media has changed the landscape - be a part of it, do not limit yourself, and keep in mind: People are interested in what you have to say, it is up to you to let them understand you.
