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3 Beer Brands Brewing Great Social Media Campaigns 

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3 Beer Brands Brewing Great Social Media Campaigns 

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This article gives great insight on how a good social media campaign can have a great impact your brewery's image and business. It tells you and shows you the impact of social media had on real life brewery's.
This article is relevant to my own social media plan as it gives me great insight into what makes a good social media campaign. In my social media I would like to have a very transparent feel, showing daily activities in our brewery. This article talks about that and gives examples of brewery's who have done this.
The information on this article can be trusted because it does not show and bias toward the craft or macro brewery's, it just talks about both explains the social media campaigns of each. It is written in a professional manner in a trusted website.

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Every Tuesday, the two-person social media team at Colorado-based New Belgium Brewing Company sits down to review last week's social media analytics and determine what to put on the calendar for the week to come.

They cover a lot of ground. New content might take the form of a beer cocktail recipe on the blog, a Twitter poll, an animated GIF, or a video highlighting its 25th anniversary "Collabeeration pack." Everything is created in-house, and the duo has begun creating exclusive "beer geek" content on emerging platforms like Snapchat, Periscope, and Facebook Live.

If you're a beer brand, you can get consumer attention in a couple of different ways. One option could be a stunt like temporarily change your name to "America," as Anheuser-Busch is doing with Budweiser this summer. Or you can brew up a social media campaign with a flavor that's as unique as your beer.

The bottom line: If beer brands hope to engage consumers, they have to adopt a social media strategy that ensures they'll stand out. The beer business, after all, is ridiculously competitive. According to The Beer Institute, the industry contributed $252 billion to the U.S. economy last year. And there are over 2,500 different breweries in the U.S. alone, each with multiple brews.

There's no one-size-fits-all formula for success on social media for beer brands, but look closely and you'll see a pattern. Social media measurement company Engagement Labs recently evaluated and ranked U.S. beer brands based on their social media presence. The company measured engagement, impact, and responsiveness across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram from January to April of this year. The researchers found that successful beer brands are relevant, transparent, and know how to play to each platform's individual strengths.

"Using the same strategy across channels doesn't work," said Bryan Segal, CEO of Engagement Labs. "You have to spend a lot of time and effort to create socially-enabled content that creates shareability and talkability, and really drives one-to-one conversations."

Across the beer landscape, competition and a new digital ecosystem is spurning innovative campaigns. Breweries of all sizes, from New Belgium to Dos Equis to microbrewery Great Lakes Brewing Company, are taking idiosyncratic approaches to their social media content-and finding new ways to stand out from the pack.

New Belgium

For Segal, One of the biggest takeaways from the Engagement Labs study was that good social media content isn't all product-centric.

"It's also about corporate responsibility and using images and content to attach to a customer base," he said. "It offers a very different type of experience for users and a way for brands to drive engagement and loyalty while bringing a face to the bottle."

New Belgium-which was ranked as a Genius brand by business intelligence firm L2, in part for its success on social-uses its social media channels to lift the curtain on the company's daily operations.

"We look at what's going on with the brand right now and how we can take people behind the scenes," said Kevin Darst, digital manager at New Belgium.

On Periscope, the brand has shown consumers its office expansion and chatted with brewers about its new tangerine IPA, Citradelic. That stream was saved to YouTube for those who missed it on Periscope and Twitter, and was promoted on the New Belgium blog. The brand's most successful Periscope stream to date received about 800 live views.

New Belgium's Snapchat content is likewise aimed at craft-beer drinkers who value seeing the brewers and blenders up close. Viewers can experience a walk-through of the tasting room, check out the canning line, and ask questions about the brewing process.

"It's less about new products and more about brewery life," Darst said. "Working here is sort of like working in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. The vibe is really awesome, and we try to capture that in those snaps." In April, snaps for National Beer Day were featured on the main Snapchat Stories page and generated more than 10 million views.

This strategy also helps the brand get around the thorny issue of underage drinking. The Beer Institute's advertising regulations, which are occasionally reviewed by the FTC, require that marketing only take place on platforms where more than 71.6 percent of the audience are adults of the legal drinking age.

Since New Belgium's Snapchat and Periscope content focuses on brewery life rather than product promotion, it's more likely to appeal to long-time customers and fans-and less likely to be censored.

However, Darst acknowledges that Snapchat has its challenges. The platform doesn't let you gate content for certain ages the way that Facebook and Twitter can, and brands don't have the space to tell consumers they must be over 21 to follow.

"We try to be as responsible as we can there," Darst said, "but it's difficult."

New Belgium's first Facebook Live broadcast took place in May, when the brand cut the ribbon on its newly expanded tasting room and outdoor space. "It did extremely well," Darst said. "Live gives you the broadcast opportunity of Periscope but with the scale of Facebook, and we get much better reach than we do with our organic posts. Facebook treats Live content differently."

The four-minute video received upwards of 25,000 views-five to 10 times more than the brand's average Facebook post.

"We will definitely be doing more of these," Darst said.

Dos Equis

You could argue that nobody brings a face to the bottle like Dos Equis, beer of choice of The Most Interesting Man in the World. The brand has been using social media since 2008, and its debonair mascot, introduced nine years ago, is a big part of that.

"Fans love a strong voice-it's the most identifiable aspect for any brand," said Rachel Korenstein, social strategist with Havas Worldwide New York, which manages all digital and offline creative and strategy for the brand. "We try to create a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree world on social, and use each platform to our advantage to help further the story people are seeing on TV."

The brand is currently focusing its efforts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and its approach to social marketing is twofold: tell a dynamic story and go heavy on visuals. Nearly all posts-created by a four-person social team with input on paid promotion from the media department-have a visual component and often also integrate video. To optimize for Facebook, where videos auto-play without sound, Dos Equis has been using closed captioning for calls to action.

This year, Dos Equis celebrated Cinco de Mayo by bidding "adios amigo" to The Most Interesting Man, who will soon be replaced with a younger spokesperson. The brand sent The Most Interesting Man on a one-way trip to Mars in a TV spot that, with the help of the #adiosamigo hashtag, extends to the web.

On Twitter, the campaign led to extended conversations with fans, even inciting some of them to adopt the brand voice in their replies.

"With #adiosamigo this year, we had content with mass reach, but the deeper level of engagement we want comes from one on one interaction," Korenstein said.

At the beginning of June, Dos Equis launched the Interesting Index, an interactive tool housed at DosEquis.com that ranks consumers based on data pulled from their Facebook page. The Index is currently being promoted with two new TV spots featuring sports personality Erin Andrews and character actor Luis Guzmán.

Great Lakes Brewing Company

When Cleveland-based craft brewery Great Lakes Brewing Company underwent a brand refresh last summer, social media became the go-to tool to promote its new look.

"Great Lakes is twenty-seven years old-eons in the craft beer world-and its heritage is a big part of its social content," said Mark McKenzie, associate creative director with Brokaw, the brand's long-time advertising agency.

"Regionally-and especially locally-this is a beloved cult brand with a really loyal following," added Brokaw's creative director Steve McKeown. "Branding is a sensitive area, and using videos on social media allowed us to walk fans through the changes in a fun and approachable way and let them know we respect the brand's story."

Brokaw worked with sister company Favorite Brother to produce a series of social videos that explained the company's origins and the evolution of the brand's labeling, which were posted on Vimeo and Facebook. "We took an unpaid approach with the videos, sharing them with our followers as a fun complement to a larger digital campaign that successfully increased site traffic and increased social engagement," a spokesperson for Great Lakes Brewing said.

For Great Lakes Brewing, Facebook and Instagram are the social sites with the most value, the former for its targeting capabilities, and the latter to visually communicate brand imagery to consumers.

Twitter is used to gather "valuable feedback on flavor and quality." As social media is handled both by the brand and its agency, and regional sales people also post on the brand's behalf, Brokaw developed a social media playbook for use by all. "That playbook is essential for giving everyone direction and ensuring consistency," McKenzie said.

Beyond staying consistent, the lesson for beer brands is this: Social media content must be exclusive, distinctive, and have substance. In this industry, there's no room for bad foam.

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3 Beer Brands Brewing Great Social Media Campaigns

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Every Tuesday, the two-person social media team at Colorado-based New Belgium Brewing Company sits down to review last week's social media analytics and determine what to put on the calendar for the week to come. They cover a lot of ground.

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Beer and Brewing Magazine (CODO Design, Anonymous Author)

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Beer and Brewing Magazine (CODO Design, Anonymous Author)

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In the ever-increasing sea of craft breweries, knowledge of "self" and knowledge of "customer" is more important than ever. With this knowledge in hand, a foundation for a strong social media strategy is incubated. CODO Design, an Indianapolis - based marketing and design firm created a DIY system that places professional - grade market research tools in the hands of the novice (non marketing people). Reflection on "what you do", "who you do it for", and "how you are different" helps the user converge on creating a concept, a story, and brand focus. Further, CODO provides a matrix which yield a quantitative picture of information. Success in social media hinges on self reflection and knowing your customer.

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Positioning is crucial to setting your brewery apart and telling your story. Here, the consultants from Indianapolis-based CODO Design talk you through positioning your brewery-conceptually and then concretely.

When you're opening a brewery, you need to understand, very succinctly, how you're different from every other brewery in your town. Or even your region, depending on your concept and long-term goals. While you can get really technical with this (with market and trend analyses, etc.), we're approaching it from a branding perspective. We like to nail down three main points to define your positioning:

What do you do?

What type of beer do you brew?
What's your concept?

Who do you do it for?

Who do you want drinking your beer?
Who don't you want drinking your beer?
Who makes up your tribe?
Why do they need your company?

How are you different from your competition?

What makes you not necessarily better, but unique?

Use a Matrix

One of our favorite tools to kick off this process is a matrix. This simple graph is composed of an X- and a Y-axis, each of which represents a different attribute. It can relate to price (low-to-high), visual style (approachable-to-ultra beer geek, colorful-to-monotone, etc.), and so on. This is an iterative, "back-of-the-napkin" method for thinking about your brewery culture, your fans, your competition, and how this all comes together to reveal opportunities for brand strategy and ongoing marketing.

We find matrices are great tools to use at a few different stages throughout the startup process. You can use them at the very beginning when you've got a 30,000-foot bare-bones idea and maybe a few partners/capital/potential location and want to make sure you can produce a product that people will want. And you can use them shortly thereafter to help establish visual tone, look, and feel.

For now, let's use a matrix to help you determine where the breweries in your town fall to gain a quick eagle's-eye view of what is, and isn't, being done in your market (these are all made up). Follow along.

Are the other breweries brewpubs or bigger production breweries? What's their overall concept?

Do they package? Growlers/pints/flights only?

Are they new or established?

Are they involved in the local community?

What styles do they each hang their hats on?

Are they well-branded?

How are their tasting rooms/breweries styled?

Are they approachable places, or are they more hardcore beer-geek hangouts?

How do their prices compare to everyone else's on-premise? off-premise?

Choose a few of these and plot them on a matrix where you think they fall. Using the group of breweries in the matrix above as an example, we see a lot of inclusive brewpubs featuring well-made, drinkable, non-offensive beers. Nothing crazy; standard lineup stuff. And while there are a few breweries in the region packaging more specialty beers (barrel-aged stouts, imperial IPAs, and sours, for example), there's no brewpub to visit to regularly try these beers. Admittedly, this is an oversimplified look at the market, but there could be an opportunity if the local beer scene is mature enough to support this type of concept.

How Your Local Community Should Shape Your Positioning

Working through your branding and positioning is an invigorating, challenging, and aspirational process. And while a lot of the work involves looking in toward yourself and your partners, you need to remember to consider one of the most important aspects of any business-who are your customers and what problems do they have?

This sounds strange when you're talking about brewing beer (People want beer; I make beer. Simple!), but think about your potential customers and consider how your concept can best fit into their lives. What does your community lack? Is there no local brewpub where people can congregate? How about a great pizza and beer joint? Does your region have a brewery to call its own? Maybe there's no live music venue that supports smaller acts?

What purpose do you serve? How are you different from your competition? What role do you play in people's lives? Getting this nailed down will give you a solid foundation to build your brand and brew great beer for the right people.

It Takes a Village

Keep your matrices loose and have other people make them as well. It's fun to see how three or four people's opinions can differ when you look at them side by side. Bonus points if you can get some completely unbiased people to participate. We've actually gone to a few bars here in Indiana to find people to fill these out to help a client (this is a grenade upon which we're always willing to fall).

Producing these matrices also hammers home how subjective this entire process is, especially when you're considering how different people interpret brand messaging.

All That Glitters Isn't Gold

It sounds obvious, but there could be a very good reason no one is brewing or packaging a particular style in your market. Using the aforementioned example, opening an all-sour brewery could be a gamble in an area with very few other breweries. The market may just be getting used to craft beer itself and not ready for something more "niche."

Not Just for Breweries in Planning

Say you've been open for a few years and are considering a rebrand. Matrices are still a valuable tool to use because at their core, they identify opportunities. And the beautiful thing here is you can tailor a matrix to define whatever you want, from beer styles to tasting-room experience to package design and beyond.

Concretely Positioning Your Brewery

Now that we've explored what branding and positioning are, let's get a bit more hands-on by looking at a few different strategies to clearly define your positioning.

Through the lens of an increasingly crowded craft-beer market, we think it's fair to say that concrete positioning will become more and more difficult to achieve based on the beer you brew alone. Or to put it another way, there are a lot of great breweries making a lot of great beer.

So, how else can a new craft brewery differentiate itself?

Concept & Story

Aside from great beer, it's important to have a compelling story. Why are you brewing your beer? How did you get your start? Why does your beer (and your story) matter? This idea needs to align with your overall concept-that is, a collection of ideas including your business model, beer styles, brewery atmosphere, and pricing.

Location & Collaboration

Location used to be a great way for new breweries to differentiate, but again, with more and more new brewers opening up shop, it'll be harder to hang your hat on your geography (see "Finding a Sweet Spot," page 40, for approaches different brewers have taken to finding a location). The exception may be in hyper-local partnerships with local farmers and producers, coffee roasters, and other breweries.

Service

It may sound old-fashioned, but if your tasting room is staffed by assholes, people won't want to come back. If your delivery drivers are rude, don't clean tap lines, or drive recklessly, people won't want to support you. Believe it or not, service can still be a great differentiator, particularly if paired with a unique brand attribute.

Branding

And finally, everything we've discussed up to now has to be directly aligned with your branding, that is, the visual design of your identity, packaging, responsive website, merchandise, and brewery space.

Consider the alternate route: spending years to enmesh your beer into local bars and peoples' minds and then having to backtrack and address branding issues after the fact.

If this sounds like a lot of information, fear not. As much as we stress the importance of compelling branding and positioning for craft breweries, you should never forget that the most important thing you can do as a new brewery is make the best beer you can possibly brew. While branding can attract people initially, it's your beer that will turn them into loyal fans.

Write a Brand-Positioning Statement

We don't always craft brand-positioning statements because it's rare that you'd ever need to use it in the wild (and if you did, you'd sound like some sort of weird spam bot). So while we don't always think it's necessary, it can lend a sense of finality to the entire positioning process.

Your goal is to put together a sentence that clearly states what you offer, who it's meant for, why it's special, and the role you play in their lives. It should look something like this:

Here's an example:

Big Lug Canteen serves Nora residents English-style beers and hearty gastropub fare in a fun, airy, and creative spot.

Branding: Not an Afterthought

You probably already understand the advantage that branding can give your brewery. But if not, we should mention that branding isn't window dressing and shouldn't be placed on the back burner. Branding is not merely a way to "pretty something up" after the fact. When handled properly, branding can unite your internal team and community behind a compelling story and drive business decisions as well as it can drive design decisions. Further, it gives you a touchstone to check decisions against.

A Closer Look: Positioning Indiana's Farm Brewery

Our foundational work with 450 North Brewing Co. (Columbus, Indiana) explored vintage seed bags, tractor badge typography, and the visual vocabulary of highway Americana-resulting in a nostalgic, Mayberry-esque brand identity. The idea was simple-the Simmons family has been farming for generations. And they've been brewing for just as long.

How could we position them as Indiana's farm brewery? Their flagship packaging line tells this tale with sun-faded colors, industrial patterning, and no-nonsense Midwestern beer descriptions.

450 North came to market with a lineup of well-made, approachable beer styles (above). This allowed them to quickly become one of the fastest growing breweries in the state, and they've since added more eclectic, experimental styles to their portfolio.

Children of the Bourbon Barrel (above) was a specialty R.I.S. brewed by 450 North to be released at their inaugural corn-maze beer festival. This pushed their positioning as Indiana's farm brewery by creating a corn maze that was more than an acre in size.

A Closer Look: Big Lug Canteen, Rethinking the Traditional Brewpub Experience

Brewpubs have a certain look: dark wood, reclaimed everything, industrial finishes-the entire industry seems hell-bent on dwelling within hyper-masculine beer dungeons. Eddie and Scott of Big Lug Canteen wanted to turn this canon on its head and create an airy, fun, bright brewpub in Nora, Indiana. For more than a year, we took them through our hands-on branding process en route to developing a brand foundation (naming, messaging, brand essence, and positioning), a modular identity system, copywriting, print menu system, drinkware, huge environmental signage, merchandise, tap handles, keg collars, festival kit, and a fully responsive, menu-forward website.

Big Lug Canteen's modular identity system (above) consisted of several builds of their canteen mark as well as a robust icon system and pattern to denote individual beers.

The centerpiece of Big Lug Canteen's brewpub is a wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling mural (pictured at top) comprised of all the absurd things that would float by in a Big Lug's dream. Don't laugh, we know you dream about chicken wings, too!

We helped Big Lug Canteen build their brand around the idea of their neighborhood as a "stomping grounds" (above). This brand essence provided a lot of room for fun illustrations and storytelling.

CODO Design is a branding firm based in Indianapolis, Indiana, founded on the belief that they can create better work by directly including clients in the creative process. They've worked with breweries across the country, and increasingly, the world, on branding, packaging, environmental, and interactive design. After years of working in this field, they've collected their experience to help breweries navigate each stage of the branding process.

Originally published as a free online resource, The Craft Beer Branding Guide is now a printed book created in partnership with Neenah Packaging and features their BELLA® Label papers for craft beer. This article is excerpted from the book and reprinted with permission.

The Brewing Industry Guide Spring 2017 from Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® is available now. Order this complimentary business-focused publication, that features strategies for growth, Stan Hieronymus on hops contracts, small brewery tips, equipment supplier directory, and much more!Get a copy today!
PHOTOS: COURTESY CODO DESIGN

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Brand Strategy: Positioning Your Brewery

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Positioning is crucial to setting your brewery apart and telling your story. Here, the consultants from Indianapolis-based CODO Design talk you through positioning your brewery-conceptually and then concretely. When you're opening a brewery, you need to understand, very succinctly, how you're different from every other brewery in your town.

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6 Popular Beer Brands Rocking Their Instagram Marketing- Amanda Leclair

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6 Popular Beer Brands Rocking Their Instagram Marketing- Amanda Leclair

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This article focuses on some of the strategies that have been adopted by popular craft breweries to become a significant presence on Instagram. As this article considers small to mid to large sized craft breweries, it serves to highlight the main differences as well as some similarities that one sees in the social media strategy of these different breweries.
The article showcases the type of image that a brewery wants to promote from a local microbrewery which posts behind-the-scenes photos to some of the larger guys who want to be seen as omnipresent as is the case with Sierra Nevada's repost of a consumer's photo. I believe that the image a brewery wants to portray should change as they evolve while still staying true to their original 'mission statement' or values and this article sheds some light on how the evolution might look like.
The article is posted on Impact which is a great resource as all content creators are industry experts or atleast have been through a good vetting process. The author herself is a brewer turned marketeer and hence would be aware of how the consumers react to certain trends and what kind of marketing would work for various target audiences.

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Not many people know this, but before becoming a marketer, I used to brew beer and wine at a local shop in CT.

And today, while you're reading this, I'll be once again overlooking vats of brewing beer and bottling stations at IMPACT's first ever one-day conference, Brewing Marketing and Sales Success, at Stony Creek Brewery in Branford. (Jealous?)

Looking back at what I used to do and what I now do, as a marketer, I have a whole new outlook and appreciation for the industry.

Amid splitting beer flights with friends, brewery tours, and heaps of beer-themed swag, craft beer has become an incredibly profitable and growing market.

As more up-and-coming beer companies hit a saturated market, they need to set themselves apart. Many breweries and beer brands have recognized that their customers are coming together for a "cold one" on social media, so whether it's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat; you name it, they're on it!

With social media making it so easy to share moments, corporate culture, and marketing messages, breweries are taking to the platforms full force. One platform that is particularly popular is Instagram.

Maybe it'll inspire you to bring some along on your next hiking trip!

Are there a ton of pictures of their beers? Yes, but that's not all.

Unlike other beer brands, Two Roads' photos also show a behind the scenes look at the brewery, its employees, and its brewing process.

For someone like me, who enjoys the actual brewing of the beer (not just the drinking of it) , it's a fun way to learn and gain a deeper appreciation for the drink in hand.

Allagash is well-known for its beers, but it should also be recognized for its creativity.

Whether it's adding local Maine cherries to a brew or aging its beer in bourbon barrels, Allagash pushes the envelope. Keeping up this reputation, the beer brand lets its creativity shine on Instagram through crisp, colorful, and enticing 'grams. Just look how stunning this photo is!

On Sierra Nevada's account, the beer company shares photos of customers (and employees alike) enjoying its brews all over the world in unique (and sometimes hard to reach) places.

Key Takeaways

You're more than likely not a brewery, but don't think that you can't learn anything from these brands when it comes to marketing on Instagram! Here are some important takeaways to remember:

1. Make sure what you post fits with your brand and your customers.

2. Use high-quality images.

3. Interact with your customers. (Try reposting images or articles from them, or mentioning them in a post of your own).

4. Take the time to caption your photos. (A picture may be worth a thousand words, but with the right caption your image could go further gaining new audience members.)

5. Take advantage of relevant hashtags.

6. Post on a regular basis. (These brands don't have thousands of followers because they post once a month.)

7. Don't forget to show the human element of your brand. (Whether it's the way you talk or the people you include in your images - people connect with people.)

Now go out there and step up your Instagram game!

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6 Popular Beer Brands Rocking Their Instagram Marketing

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Not many people know this, but before becoming a marketer, I used to brew beer and wine at a local shop in CT. And today, while you're reading this, I'll be once again overlooking vats of brewing beer and bottling stations at IMPACT's first ever one-day conference, Brewing Marketing and Sales Success, at Stony Creek Brewery in Branford.

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Kristen Gramigna

The article discusses effective social media strategy as being planned and coordinated, versus simply posting random thoughts and pictures.  It is important to leverage local events and festivals for the interest generated around them, and include keywords and phrases that people commonly use with search engines in your posts.  It has been shown that people respond very well to two-way communication with a brewery, especially if it can occur as close to real time as possible.  People are also heavily influenced by reviews from others, so it is therefore imperative to monitor online reviews of your product and respond to them.  Express gratitude for the positive, and acknowledge the negative.  There is a small chance that an unhappy customer may be turned around by your response, but if they are ignored, that chance is zero and others will be influenced by the negative message about your brand.

The article offers some very useful tips for a brewery developing their social media plan, pointing out key areas where a brewery can effectively integrate strategy into their postings.  Effective use of social media is fun, fresh, relevant, engaging, and interactive. The article was sourced from a website called Craft Brewing Business, which focuses on professional insight and articles on all professional brewing related aspects such as Business & Marketing, Equipment, Ingredients & Supplies, and Packaging & Distribution. The author is the Chief Marketing Officer for Bluepay, and has over 15 years experience in the industry. She has seen the evolution of social media during her career, and given her success and high position, has mastered the strategies for effective use of social media for business purposes.

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Online marketing tools like social media, blogs and websites present a cost-efficient opportunity to proactively market to new audiences and connect with your existing customers in a way that deepens relationships. Here are few key ways all craft brewers can manage their online presence.

Plan your online marketing efforts by the "actual" calendar

Building an online presence (and subsequently managing it) isn't about posting random thoughts or images on social media, or writing the occasional blog post. Like traditional marketing, managing an online presence requires a planned strategy that coincides with the lifestyle and online search behaviors of your audience at highly relevant points in time. In addition to analyzing your website's metrics (including which site pages generate the most traffic, and where visitors originate from) consult Google's Keyword Planner to identify which search terms and phrases people use to find your site and those of your competitors.

In order to integrate those keywords into the foundation of your online content, plan an online editorial calendar for your brewery to build consistent messaging through blog posts, social media updates and promotions, strategically coincide with festivals and local celebrations, national holidays and a subject matter that is top of mind for your audience, based on time of year. For example, financial issues and dieting tend to be popular New Year's Resolutions. Although those topics may not seem related to craft beer, leverage the timely subject matter to develop relevant online messaging, including featuring the quality of your brewing ingredients and processes, to demonstrate value. Because summertime involves vacations, that time of year may present an opportunity to build engagement by incentivizing customers to snap images of where in the country they're enjoying your beer to share on social media (and identified with a social media hashtag you provide to organize the campaign).

Proactively be a part of social media conversations

A key aspect of managing an online presence is two-way communication with your audience that occurs as real time as possible. Establish a Google Alert for your brewery name (and names of private-label products) to know when and where you're mentioned online. Take a similar approach by adding those names to automated social media monitoring tool feeds so you're notified when a customer mentions you on social media. Then, respond appropriately and quickly. Be creative about ways to engage your audience based on their hobbies and interests, which may have nothing to do with craft beer, too. For example, Heineken established its foothold as the number one beer brand in social media by being creative about its online relationship with its fans. In one highly successful YouTube campaign called "The Candidate," for example, the beer brand put unsuspecting candidates through a mock interview; it then shared the humorous videos on YouTube, engaging its fan base to vote on a winner for the top prize of a job at Heineken.

Respond to every online review

According to a survey by Zendesk, 88 percent of buyers are impacted by online customer service reviews. If you don't have an established business presence on popular online review sites like those powered by Yelp and Google, establish your profile and consistently ask customers to share their feedback about your brand. In a March 2013 Forrester Research study, nearly 70 percent of respondents said that they trust a brand or product recommendation from another consumer, compared to 32 percent who said they trust the information a company presents about itself online. Invest in cost-effective tools that monitor activity on online review sites so you can immediately respond to both positive and negative comments. Harris Interactive's Retail Consumer Report indicates that 18 percent of unhappy customers can be transformed into loyal customers by being acknowledged.

Managing an online presence may be cost efficient, but it requires proactivity and strategy to prove impactful. Ensure that basic professionalism exists anywhere your brand is online (logos display properly, hours of operation, contact information and marketing messages are consistent), but experiment with different ways to speak to your audience so you can measure what moves them to respond. Every online activity that you test (and learn from) will teach you more about your audience, and how to grow your craft beer business further.

About the Author Kristen Gramigna is Chief Marketing Officer for BluePay, a mobile credit card processing firm offering merchant account services. She has more than 15 years experience in the bankcard industry in direct sales, sales management, marketing and also serves on its Board of Directors.

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Online marketing tools like social media, blogs and websites present a cost-efficient opportunity to proactively market to new audiences and connect with your existing customers in a way that deepens relationships. Here are few key ways all craft brewers can manage their online presence.

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The Ultimate Guide to Craft Beer Social Media Marketing - Derek Bullard

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The Ultimate Guide to Craft Beer Social Media Marketing - Derek Bullard

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This article is a great way to look at the different approaches craft breweries are using social media. With the great examples listed there is one common theme between them all. That is, to use social media as a window into how you want other to see/fell about you rather than to force information out in the public. Most companies that use social media well are doing other things well like having successful event and making unique products. By using social media as a tool to direct people to these events and unique things they're doing as a company their followers are much more engaged and excited about their brand.

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As a craft brewer, one of the biggest challenges you face is getting the word out and marketing your brewery. You probably realize that one of the main things holding back your brewery is getting more exposure for your beer. That's tough though when you're already busy brewing, running the business and managing your brewpub or tap room.

There's a lot of talk about social media and how unbelievably amazing it is for all types of businesses and so a lot of businesses are jumping on the bandwagon without really knowing why or having any strategy.

The truth is, social media is probably not the best way for a craft brewery just getting started to market themselves. Social media often takes a long time to get going so you can expect to be at it for a while before you really see any significant returns.

However, for craft brewery's that utilize effectively over a longer period of time, social media is an incredibly valuable tool. Done properly, it integrates into all the other aspects of running a brewery and so can pay off big long term without having to invest a lot up front.

Social Media is an incredibly powerful because it allows you to take the message the you tell in person at you brewpub, beer dinners and beer festivals to of people every single day.

It creates leverage by letting you to build the same powerful emotional connections that you do with someone face to face, but at scale.

The truth is, people are constantly having conversations about your brewery and you need to get involved!

But where to start you ask? Whether you're just getting started or looking to take your social media marketing to the next level, this post will serve a step-by-step guide to getting your brewery up to speed on the most effective strategies and tactics.

Focus on Telling Your Story

A lot of people fall into using social media as a purely promotional tool. The real power though is the ability to tell your story just like you would in person.
The rise of blogging and social media show much we love following people's stories. Let those people that are most passionate about your brand see what's going on and get them involved
Great content to share includes

Pictures and Videos from your Brewery or Event you've attended

Messages about brewing beer

Notifications on Events (on or off premise)

Anything going on in your brewery's local community

Don't be afraid to talk about your personal experience and work either. Craft breweries are small, family-like businesses and you'll be a lot more interesting if you keep the focus on human stories and not bland, corporate sounding ones.

Boulevard Brewery does a fantastic job of this by talking about local community events that they're involved in.

Keep Your Fans Up to Date

Your first followers are going to be your most passionate fans. That means they want to know what's going on and what to expect.

Make sure to post updates of the latest news, information and goings-on.

Are you starting a new, innovative batch? Are you going to a new event? Did you just land a new retailer? Let them now!

It's also a great way to spread the word and promote events. Let your followers know about that upcoming beer dinner and see if they have any friends that are interested in coming.

Get Involved in the Conversation

It's not just about you though. Social Media isn't just a broadcast platform, it's an incredibly powerful tool for connecting with other people. Stay on top of your communities and actively become a part of the conversation. This doesn't just help you by

Focus on your Local Community

One of the best ways to do this is to get involved with other people in your local community. Are there any major local events like a music festival going on? Is the local sports team making a playoff run?
Craft Brewers with a strong presence in their home market are both more profitable and more easily able to expand into adjoining markets.
Use social media to connect with other people in your local community through social media by participating in local events and discussions. By tapping into your local community's pride, you can enhance your marketing and encourage those in your community.

Anchor Brewing does a good job of this, not just by interacting on Social Media, but doing in-person events about their story for people in the community. (Not a bad way to get their story out to their customer base...)

Actions Speak Louder than Words

You can also participate in conversations of communities that reflect your brand's story. I'm betting brewing beer isn't the only thing your passionate about.

Sweet Water Brewery in Atlanta is actively involved in championing clean water in the South East so they're always finding ways to infuse their social media and marketing activities with giving back to that cause.

Being involved in those conversations and actively contributing to them lets them tell their story, not just in words, but in their actions.

Beer Lovers Unite!

The other community to get involved in is the craft beer community, of course!

One of the things that constantly amazes me about the craft beer industry is how willing the members are are to help one another out.

Use social media to promote and connect with other brewers and people in the craft beer community.

They're likely to reciprocate and help you promote your brewery as well.

More importantly than just co-promotion, social media can start meaningful, long-term relationships with people in the craft beer community. And that's WAY more valuable than just a little exposure.

Sam Adams made a point to give a shout out to all the other brands being served at the 2013 Beer Bloggers Conference

So we've covered some basic strategy - focusing on your local community, getting involved in communities that embody your brewery's story and connecting with other craft beer lovers and brewers.

This doesn't leave you a whole to get started with though - what about the down-and-dirty tactics?

The first thing you need to decide is which platforms to get involved in. There are dozens of different social media sites out there and If you try and jump into all of them at the same time, you'll more than likely end up overwhelmed

While my personal favorite is definitely Twitter (@PortableBarCo - hit me up!), Facebook is definitely the one where you'll get the biggest bang for your buck in terms of connecting with your audience.

If you've got the bandwidth to manage a couple of different accounts though - Twitter has a much better one-on-one connection that make it a great choice for craft brewers to connect on a more personal level.

While there are a bunch of different ways to use Facebook for businesses, the most effectve (and cheapest. and easiest. It's nice when those all come together, isn't it?) is to set up a page. If you're just getting started on Facebok and haven't done that yet - Facebook offers a guide to get you going with your page

Getting Set-up

Once you've got your page started - there's a few key pieces that you need to get set-up.

Short Description - This is the first thing people will read when they come to your page. Include a short statement about what makes your brewery unique and your story and then a call to action with why someone should like your page. A lot of people on Facebook are just browsing and if you don't explicitly ask them to like your page, they'll look around without ever doing so.

Web Page - Link it up to your website! You want to make it easy for people to get to your site and get more information about you and what you're up to.

Cover Photo - Your cover photo is a great place to tell your brand's story with an image. Pictures from recent events, your artwork, or banners about campaigns you're involved in are all good choices.

Stone Brewery does a good job of promoting a new product with their cover photo and linking to their other Social Media Accounts in the description so people can easily follow them on whatever their favorite platform is.

What to Post

On Facebook, most people won't ever visit your page again after they liked it for the fist time. Facebook users spend the majority of their time in the News Feed.

Which means - you need to make sure your posts are showing up in people's news feeds!

To determine what shows up, Facebook uses a special formula called Edge Rank. By keeping your Edge Rank high, your posts will get seen by more people.

Don't worry, I'm not going to geek out on "gaming" an algorithm.

Simply put, the most important factor for keeping your Edge Rank high and the content you share visible is getting interaction. Facebook wants to show people content that they're interested in so they bias showing posts that have already gotten a lot of comments and likes.

So the short version is - post things your fans find interesting and engaging.

This means it's important to focus not on just broadcasting, but creating a conversation and interacting.

Ask lots of questions and participate in the discussion.

Respond to comments to help create more conversation.

Saranac does a great job talking with their fans and adding a bit of humor to the mix:

More importantly than just making sure your posts show up in people's feeds, this also lets you get people involved in your story and communicate with them one-on-one.

Facebook also biases rich media over plain text updates. That means photos and videos tend to get more visibility than plain text updates. This is great for you anyway since photos are an easy and effective way to tell your brewery's story and show people what's going on.

Instagram is now a part of Facebook so using Instagram to share pictures to Facebook is an easy way to make sure there's plenty of photos going around.

Pictures are also a nice little way to encourage someone to grab a six pack. Don't tell me this shot from Abita doesn't make you thirsty....

Tips and Tricks

Encourage people to interact by ending your posts with Calls to Action. Instead of just posting a picture of the new batch of beer you're working on, ask whether anyone else is in the mood to do some brewing.

Another popular tactic is to use likes and comments as a voting system. You could ask people to like a post if they're planning on going to a local event or comment if they aren't.

Getting Advanced

Utilize Your Tabs - Tabs are the things displayed just below your Cover Photo. You can post custom content like contests or other special things you want to feature. It's a great place to feature special events coming up or videos of the goings on at your brewery

Like other pages relevant to your brewery like in your local community or craft beer community. Remember, it's a conversation. It also makes it easier for people to find you since pages you "liked" are likely to reciprocate and their fans can more easily find you through their page.

While Twitter isn't as large as Facebook, it's still extremely popular and growing even faster than Facebook. Twitter is unique because it's much more effective at helping you get involved in one-on-one conversations than Facebook so it captures more of the power of face-to-face, in-person interaction.

That makes it a powerful tool for both connecting on a more personal level with people in your communities as well your fans. It's a one-on-one conversation and so people feel more emotionally involved when you talk to them on Twitter.

It's not a bad way to get in touch with other brewers either. Sierra Nevada has a nice little crew they're working with!

Another unique feature to Twitter is the ability to use hashtags. Hashtags are frequently overused, but extremely useful in the right ways like at events.

If you're involved in events, follow and use the relevant hashtag to participate in the conversation. This is a great way to get noticed and connect with other people at the event.

Getting Set Up

Twitter set-up is about as easy as can be - there's only 4 things you need to get started.

Background Photo - Use a photo that really captures your brewery's message and story. Just like on Facebook, pictures from recent events, your artwork, or banners about campaigns your involved in are all good choices.

Profile Photo - While most people will tell you to use your logo here, I think you're better off at the start using your own picture. People want to interact with other people and having a person as the face of your Twitter account lets you do that.

Bio - Write a short description (don't be afraid to have a little attitude that helps tell your story) and try to include a reason for people to follow your account.

Location - It's important to set your local location since it makes it easier for people in your local market to find you and reinforces your involvement in the community.

I personally like Flying Dog 's quite a lot. They may not have followed my best practices list - but I think they get their attitude across.

What to Tweet

News and Events - Since an increasingly large number of people are using Twitter as their main source of news, it's a great way to let people know about upcoming events or things going on with your brewery. If people are following you on Twitter then the odds are pretty good they want to know what you're up to.

Personal Commentary - More than pages on Facebook, Twitter is a great place to let people know what you're thinking. Whether it's about the local basketball game or your day-to-day business, people want to see some human stories in your marketing. Lagunitas tweeted out a shot of this little critter that had crawled into their beer cellar.

Anything to do with beer? Not really, but still pretty cool looking!

Questions - If you're trying to figure out what to brew up in the next batch, why not ask the people that are likely to be buying it? Not only is this an amazingly fast and cheap form of market research, it's also a great way to get people involved.

Promotions - While no one wants to see nothing but promotions, your Twitter followers are likely to be interested in a half off pint night at the brewpub. If you have regular events or specials, consistently letting people know about them can help build momentum.

Shipyard gets the word out about their upcoming Seaport Beerfest.

Photos and Videos - Just like with Facebook, people love to see what you're up to. Photos and Videos of the brewery, events and other goings-on are often popular.

Vine is a great way to do this. Vine lets you make super short videos and tell a quick, "bite-sized" story about what's going on.

Show Your Expertise - Did you just try out a new beer you like? Been thinking about a good pairing recently? Let people know. Since you're the beer expert, your followers are interested in your opinion and insight. You've spent years building up knowledge and expertise about beer and brewing and your most passionate fans are interested in learning more not just about your beer, but the field as a whole.

Tips and Tricks

Respond to Everyone - Don't forget that the real power of Twitter is the ability to connect one-on-one. If someone is talking about you and your brewery, get in the conversation.

Ask for a RT - If you're trying to get the word out about an upcoming event or promotion, don't be afraid to ask people for a retweet to make sure their followers hear about it too.

Usa "via @" - If you share an article or piece of new from someone else, make sure to let them know. Using via @username or h/t @username (h/t is Twitter-speak for hat tip) will give the source credit and let them know you liked whatever they shared. Often, they'll retweet you for mentioning them and help you get a bit of exposure.

Now you may have realized that I skipped a pretty important step - getting people to like and follow you on social media in the first place!
Ironically, the best way to social media get followers is in person.
Actively promote your social media accounts by offering news, updates and promotions on site and at off site events like beer festivals and beer dinners either by telling people about it or putting up signs.

One easy way to do this is to use QR codes at your brew pub or tap room so people can easily scan the QR code to follow or like you.

Share interesting stuff - Seems a bit obvious, but if you are sharing and putting out interesting content, then your existing fans and followers are more likely to share it with other people in their networks. Do it right and you might just "go viral."

That's part of the attraction of social media - you can magnify your message though your existing fans and grow fast.

Put social media icons on your website so people that come there to look for more information have a way to connect with you and stay in touch. This is another obvious one, but you want to make it as easy as possible for your fans to connect.

However, the most useful way to get more followers (and actual customers!) is to get involved in the conversation! Respond to everyone that mentions your brand. Sam Adams still personally responds to everyone that mentions them!

If there's a local event going on, hop on in the hash tag conversation and interact with people.

It's these kinds of one-on-one interactions that eventually creates the raving fans that will do your marketing for you a LOT better than you ever could yourself. After all, there's nothing like a recommendation for a friend to try out a new beer.

One of the main dangers of social media is that it can very quickly turn into a time suck and since it can take a long time to build momentum, you want to use some tools to be as efficient as possible.

Tweetdeck is specific to Twitter, but is a great way to keep your twitter account organized. It lets you create columns where you can follow specific hashtags or lists of specific groups of people your following using Twitter lists to help you monitor and stay in touch with unique events and then jump into the conversation

For example, you can set up a couple of columns to monitor hashtags for events your involved in, one to monitor when people mention your brand so you can respond, and one to monitor the most important people in your communities so you know what's going on and can participate whenever you have time.

Hootsuite is great for scheduling posts on both Facebook and Twitter. While they have a paid version, the free version is more than enough to get started with. If you're sharing lots of content, it lets you schedule all your tweets in advance so you can do it in batches instead of having to check in throughout the day.

My personal favorite tool however is Buffer. Buffer lets you set a schedule for sharing your content so that whenever something comes to mind, you can just add it in and it will be dripped out over time.

You can install the browser plugin so that anytime you stumble across an interesting article or video, you just hit the share button and buffer automatically schedules it to go out according to a calendar that you set.

While it's easy to get sucked into social media as a broadcast type platform, there are two massively valuable features of social media for craft brewers - the ability to tell your story at scale and the ability to connect one-on-one with your audience. You're able both reach a lot of people while also deepening one-on-one relationships to create valuable contacts and raving fans.

The most effective place to do both these things though, isn't on social media. It's in person!

When it comes to in person events, our guide to 5 Steps to Fueling Your Brewery's Growth with Beer Festival Marketing give you step-by-step tactics to:

Grab attendees attention more effectively

Arm your pourers with the information they need to tell your story

Turn first time tasters into long-time brand advocates

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The Ultimate Guide to Craft Beer Social Media Marketing - PortableBarCompany

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As a craft brewer, one of the biggest challenges you face is getting the word out and marketing your brewery. You probably realize that one of the main things holding back your brewery is getting more exposure for your beer. That's tough though when you're already busy brewing, running the business and managing your brewpub ...

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As mentioned in the summary the best use of social media is to like your social media the the best things you do as a company. This helps create and invite others to the culture you're trying to create. I think if you want to be a company that engages with your customer base you should invite them into the business process through your social media. People need to connect through social media like it is the heart of the company. When social media approaches seem distant (I.e. the posts are generated from a marketing person and not the people with influence in the company) it can fall apart.

I believe this information can be trusted because it's filled with real world examples. Additionally, there's plenty of links to these company's social media pages which allows you to see for yourself. As far as the content the article does lack some deeper insight into where company's go wrong but as an overview it provides many useful tools and tricks for improving your social media game. Lastly, looking at Derek Bullard's background he has deep roots in marketing and writes regularly about the craft beer industry.