Of course, everyone who's a Facebook fan of Trelio gets an invitation to its events. And he responds to them there, too.

Marketing "used to be very simple," Shackelford says. "Now, it's really different. You have to put your word of mouth on steroids."

Chuck Van Fleet, co-owner of Vino 100 at Cedar and Shepherd avenues, is revamping his online marketing techniques.

For its first three years, the wine shop relied heavily on e-mail newsletters, but "we don't have as much response to e-mail as we used to," he says.

He's seen a similar drop in the effectiveness of Google AdWords, Google's targeted advertising program. So, in addition to signing up Facebook fans and Twitter followers, Van Fleet is starting a wine blog and recording his own videos.

"We're going to focus on branding the store to me," he says. The videos will show what he's drinking, as well as what's available for tasting in the store.

It's a strategy that's worked well for Gary Vaynerchuk, author of "Crush It! Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion" (HarperStudio, $19.99).

Since the 2006 launch of his his video wine blog, Wine Library TV, Vaynerchuk has turned into an expert on Internet branding tools. In addition to his wine business, he co-owns VaynerMedia, a brand consulting agency.

"I recommend, if you're going to be in business for five years, that you seriously understand what's happening here," he says. "Because this is going to become the economy."

He marvels at how much the world has changed. "There was no Facebook, there was no Twitter, YouTube wasn't even around six years ago," he says. "Now, YouTube is the second-biggest search engine in the world behind Google."

Vaynerchuk predicts Google Wave will be a hit. He's so keen on DailyBooth, a Web site for photo-based blogs, that VaynerMedia has invested in it. Restaurants should take pictures of their dishes, post them on dailybooth.com, and encourage diners to comment on them, he says.

He also advises restaurants to avoid certain blunders -- such as refusing to use Facebook and Twitter because they supposedly don't fit the image of a high-end restaurant. Or hiding social-media promotions from longtime customers.

"They don't want to give the discounts to their existing clientele," Vaynerchuk says. "That's a humongous mistake."

And restaurants that use these technologies must understand that customers want true engagement with a person, not endless messages about drink specials and reduced-price dinners.

"I'm desperately trying to get people to understand cocktail party," Vaynerchuk says. "... It's all about the global aspect and wanting to make real relationships."