|
 
o those of you interested in such things I ask, which production breweries, brewpubs, bars, importers, etc. make the best use social media to market their product? There should be no doubt after the recent Hansen vs. Rock Art fiasco that social media (particularly social networking and micro-blogging) provides very powerful tools for small businesses if used correctly. But there are probably just as many abandoned blogs, infrequently (and over-frequently) updated accounts, outdated websites and general poor attempts at communication as there are successes.
Who keeps you informed, interested, entertained and connected the best? What electronic services do they use? What’s the worst thing a brewery can do insofar as social marketing is concerned?
I’ll start. Stone Brewing Co. They have a slick website with very visible links to their Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, WordPress, YouTube, and Google calendar accounts. They don’t seem to over update on FB or Twitter. If a subscription starts to look like my only subscription from inane chatter, I’ll drop it. They *use* Google calendar. I can import that right into my email reader or use it alongside my own Google calendars to see how our schedules line up. Additionally, they regularly update their blog, which looks clean, is very visually oriented and the text is clear, well formatted and free of egregious errors.
The one downside is that they seem to have abandoned video blogging on YT for the time being. But there’s still so much information available in total and that’s really cool. Sure, there’s a lot of overlap between their Twitter and FB accounts and their blog, but that gives the consumer a choice in my opinion. I wish my locals did even half this much!
To me Twitter and Google calendar are the two most effective social media services. Facebook a little less so simply because I don’t find myself on it all of the time. There’s not much there that I couldn’t get out of a Twitter subscription. But I can see how others would like it. I do read quite a few blogs, but I’d probably only subscribe to a brewery’s blog feed if it was my local brewery. Otherwise I’m just not that interested in the inner workings of a particular brewery every week. Likewise, it’d have to be my local and I’d really have to know the people to be interested in a brewery’s Flickr account. I’m more neutral on YouTube. If the clips are routinely under two minutes then I could probably incorporate that into my daily beer-centric web-browsing.
The worst thing a brewery can do with social marketing? Using it ineffectively. Annoyingly frequent updates, sloppy design, abandoned projects and so on create a sense of disorganization and lack of commitment. I’d rather they not attempt it at all!
Looking forward to hearing your opinions!
(No affiliation with Stone, of course. 
|
Reply 
Private message 
|
I think BrewDog deserve a mention for exactly this kind of marketing (indeed, most kinds of marketing). Their website is clearly laid out, they regularly update the blog with lots of good stuff and reward blog readers with discount codes.
They’re also on twitter etc but I don’t really go in for such things so I can’t comment. I suspect they do it well.
I don’t often go on to Stone’s website but I do remember it being good. BrewDog are heavily influenced by Stone so I suspect they get some of it from there.
|
Post a reply
Private message
|
|
Good call, they do have an impressive blog. BrewDog (and Stone) also understand the huge importance of marketing on the shelf with great looking, informative labeling. It just feels cool to buy these beers.
|
Post a reply
Private message
|
I agree. Between their labelling and the online stuff, BrewDog have managed to get a large number of people motivated about and interested in their product (and probably craft beer in general).
I’m going to the BrewDog shindig in Glasgow this evening and it will be interesting to see what kind of people come along; I suspect the majority won’t be confirmed ratebeer-esque beer geeks.
I think a lot of breweries could take a leaf out of Stone and BrewDog’s book. It would get a lot more interested in craft beer.
|
Post a reply
Private message
|
|
Because I don’t like to sprawl all over the internet via twitter, facebook, etc etc and esp since I almost never go to brewer websites, I find that the best "social marketing" comes from the brewers who are involved right here at ratebeer. Their presence here, even if not "marketing" per se but just contribution to content and interaction with users, is the best marketing to me.
|
Post a reply
Private message
|
Being active on ratebeer is great if you want to get people who are already interested in craft beer into your product. It’s not so useful if you want to get people who are largely unaware of craft beer interested in your products.
That’s not to say being active on sites like ratebeer isn’t important, it’s just best if you do both.
|
Post a reply
Private message
|
but does social networking reach those other people? who, that is not into beer, will subscribe to Stone’s twitter feed?
I always thought it would be cool for Stone to put up an Arrogant Bastard tv commercial during the superbowl. Now *that* would reach a new audience.
|
Post a reply
Private message
|
I don’t know about Twitter, but Facebook is a definite yes. Right below the user icon for a group on FB is a link "suggest to friends". Now, if the FB account were rather mundane this would probably be pointless. But if the brewery is cultivating an image, a scene, around there beer then it can be quite infectious. Maybe New Belgium would be an even better example of this. People are always interested in cool and local anything. That this works is exactly why FB is an important tool.
As a comparison, imagine this: you email ten people and tell them to check out Stone’s ratings ratebeer.com and suggest to ten people on FB that they subscribe to Stone’s FB page. Which is easier? More likely to succeed? Now consider that you can probably suggest a FB group to 100 people in the time you could send an email to a couple of people.
I personally see the future success of craft beer not in 50-state and international distribution, but in local pride an brewer’s owning their home market. This sort of viral social media is a critical tool in achieving this, in my opinion.
|
Post a reply
Private message
|
|
Bump for more than two opinions.
|
Post a reply
Private message
|
We’re a retailer not a brewer but we use Facebook and Twitter with tremendous success. Twitter especially has been a fantastic way for us to grow our local network as well as expand into other parts of the country.
As an example of this we used Twitter to let people know about our pre-orders for Life and Limb this past week. Our allotment was 2 cases and I limited purchases to 2 btls per order and they went fast, just about 24 hours. We had a great mix of local sales and sales from other places like NY, CA, FL, NC and MO. This promotion not only drove sales of this special release it drove sales for many other items on the site as well. We ended up selling a $1,000 over our average on that release.
This coming week we have a release of Goose Island Bourbon County Stout and 2009 Christmas Ale and we’ll be using Twitter once again to spread the word and get beer to parts of the country where its not currently available.
You can find us on Facebook at brewforia.com and on Twitter at brewforia
|
Post a reply
Private message
|
|
Flying Dog is the best with social networking sites that I have seen
|
Post a reply
Private message
|
