Earlier this month, I wrote an article about Taplister – the beer and bar finding mobile app — and it made me start to ponder how craft breweries were engaging with their fans via technology. Whilst doing a quick browse through the Austin breweries blogs and Twitter, I noticed that they were somewhat lacking in their social media efforts; some of the brewers posted infrequently on Twitter, took weeks to get back to customers, and created little content. This past month has seen a surge in the breweries online presence, from Hops & Grain’s excellent series on Instagram to Live Oak’s Daytrotter-esque event posters.
This got me thinking; why have the breweries been so patchy on their social media presence?
It could be that a social media blitz could affect the breweries authenticity and water down (erm, Bud Light-ifying) their authenticity, and their commitment to the local community. My co-worker noted that some of the Houston breweries seem much more active on the internet. Could this possibly be due to Houston’s acceptance of big business, as opposed to an Austin hippie-shunning of corporations and corporation like behavior?
Or perhaps I’ve over-analyzed this and they’re simply too busy making quality beers. They’re already struggling to keep up with demand for the stuff already, even in a crowded market place. I’ve had people at the bar I work at seem physically crushed after we ran out of specialty brews like Guadalupe’s Chocolate Bourbon Stout and Austin Beerworks’ Flying Headbutt.
Furthermore, October is understandably a busy month for the craft brewers, as they have to prepare for the beer festival season (the Austin Beer Festival, and Austin Beer Week are just two local ones), as well as put out their Oktoberfest seasonals.
Refreshing Localism
It is true in many cases that the social media output from the local breweries lacks the professional sheen of the bigger breweries, such as Shiner’s somewhat overcompensated authenticity graphic design campaign. However, the amateurism gives the scene a real local vibe, and it’s also nice to see the breweries banding together to fight against the Big Beer companies, instead of trying to out-compete each other. They clearly understand that brand loyalty is now changing, as beer drinkers today are way more promiscuous (with their brewery choices) than the Coors-man fathers and Bud-gal mothers of the past 20-some-odd years.
All-in-all it’s great to know that these craft breweries are taking the time and effort to let the average beer guzzler into their world through social media. For a beer nerd, it’s interesting to view images of and read about the process of barrel aging, the mechanics behind brewing, and the like. For the entrepreneur, it’s exciting to hear about young businesses expanding rapidly through their own unique branding style.
