Toutsuite: The Future of Social Media

We use Facebook and Twitter for a variety of reasons: spying on highschool friends, sharing our daily adventures, political ranting, etc., but most of our time is spent checking in with our favorite wineries, chefs and restaurants to see what's new. While reading posts and profiles or sending IMs and @ mentions helps us stay connected, how much cooler would it be to actually talk to these visionaries and get to know them personally? That is exactly what we are able to do with Toutsuite and why we're loving this new concept in social media.

Didier Loustau and Susan Quinn, Co-founders of Toutsuite, literally pull the people off their Facebook page, out of their twitter feed, and plop them in front of a camera to live stream a conversational interview with anyone who has a webcam.

With Toutsuite, you can literally "meet your maker." Through your webcam, you can chat, question and interact freely with your favorite vintner, chef, mixologist or designer, in person, in real-time. It's bar-talk from your living room (in your PJs if you so choose)!

And guess what? It just gets better if you happen to live in the Napa Valley where Toutsuite's top-notch studios are located. If Didier decides you're enough of a Bon Vivant to join in the fun, (thankfully, he deemed us worthy), you just may be invited to join the live studio audience and literally spend the hour-long show sitting right next to these people, asking them questions in person, and sipping some vino together like old pals afterwards.

This format is just as beneficial for the "Makers" too; they get the priceless opportunity to drop their guard and "meet their market." They become privy to honest information, directly from their customer's mouths that no survey or twitter question can provide.

Those who are featured on the show not only get to chill out with a glass of wine, connect with their biggest fans, and personally share their vision with an infinite number of people, but they also leave with an hour's worth of fully edited,  studio-quality video material, tons of quotes to post on Twitter or Facebook, a comprehensive understanding of what their customers want and how they think, and can even select short video clips for their own website or YouTube.

And for all you fellow Vino Vagabonds out there, the best part about Toutsuite is that you can log in from anywhere in the world, pop any bottle, and join the conversation!

Think it's too good to be true? Check out their website to see past shows yourself and the people who've already found the value in this kind of social media. Oh, and while you're there, don't forget to watch the show I helped host....but please, be kind!