Proposal of a composite indicator for measuring social media presence in the wine market

Cybermetrics field is attracting considerable interest due to its utility as a data-oriented technique for research, though it may provide misleading information when used in complex systems. This paper outlines a new approach to market research analysis through the definition of composite indicators for cybermetrics, applied to the Spanish wine market. Our findings show that the majority of cellars were present in only one or two social media networks: Facebook, Twitter or both. Besides, the presence on the Web can be summarized into three principal components: website quality, presence on Facebook, and presence on Twitter. Three groups of cellars were identified according to their position in these components: cellars with a high number of errors in their website with complete absence of information in social media, cellars with strong presence in social media, and cellars in an intermediate position. Our results constitute an excellent initial step towards the definition of a methodology for building composite indicators in cybermetrics. From a practical approach, these indicators may encourage cellar managers to make better decisions towards their transition to the digital market.