OnTap Magazine

The granddaddy of social media. Roughly a quarter of the world’s population is on Facebook, and that penetration is even higher in Europe (40%) and America (70%). South Africa’s Facebook membership stands at around 30% of our population, so yeah, you’ve got to be on there. In fact, a lot of brewers forgo their initial website in favor of just having a Facebook page. While this might not be the best idea, you can’t deny that Facebook has a lot going for it as a primary social media marketing platform. Here are a few things it’s particularly useful for: Using as your go-to syndication platform. Syndication is when you share some form of marketing content, like a video, or blog article, across different platforms. Facebook does well as a central hub for syndication, and because it’s been around so long, most other platforms like YouTube, Pinterest, etc. have developed ways of automatically sharing content onto Facebook, which means you don’t have to share manually. Announcing and managing events. Facebook can be used as a booking platform of sorts for the events you’ll be attending or hosting. It makes it easy for your fans to share events with their friends and you can get a fair idea of expected attendance. Sharing public appearances and news. A lot of Facebook users set up their accounts to act as newsfeeds. So they expect to see, well, news. You can use this to your advantage by using the platform as a way to brag about times when you are featured in magazines, interviewed, or are generally doing newsworthy things. Running competitions, giveaways and special offers. Everybody loves winning stuff. If that stuff happens to be beer-related, so much the better! Facebook is a great platform for running promotional offers and competitions. Yes, there are rules you’ll need to follow (e.g. you cannot require likes or tagging as a means of entry to a competition), but generally, Facebook does well as a hub for rewarding your fans with beery giveaways. These platforms are primarily driven by images, especially photographic content. Given that craft beer is a very design- heavy and visual enterprise, you’ll have a ton of content to share with your fans even if you’re just a bit skilled at taking the odd photo. Instagram especially has grown tremendously in the last few years, no doubt in part because it offers great photo editing software as well as an active community of bloggers and others who use it to share content. Platforms like Instagram are great for building a visual story of your brewery and brand. For instance, you can post a series of photos of developing and brewing a new beer, or feature amusing pics of your staff doing amusing things. Images build brand flavour and story, so don’t neglect this powerful medium. If I were buying shares in social media, there would be only one platform I’d be putting money into right now: YouTube. Video is increasingly the medium of choice for people looking for good content online, and sooner or later, you will have to get your video A-game on. This needn’t be a major expense or production though. With a few modifications like external lenses, even a good smartphone camera can record relatively decent video. YouTube is great for disseminating short, powerful brandmessages. For instance, you can use it to introduce your new brews to the public, share event videos, or shoot homemade adverts. I highly recommend subscribing to Dogfish Head Brewery’s YouTube channel for a masterclass in what you can do with relatively simple-to-create video content. Like Comment Share YOUTUBE INSTAGRAM AND PINTEREST Another venerable platform, Twitter is great for quick, blow- by-blow updates of events or for having conversations you’d like to make public. So, when you host an event or go to a beer festival, you can communicate to festival goers directly via Twitter, or tweet photos of your stand and beer to keep them (as well as the sad folk who are not attending) in the loop. By having conversations on Twitter with influencers within the craft beer community, you can connect your brand to good things happening in the craft beer world, as well as make online friends that may translate into offline benefits like collaborations, guest tap takeovers, and interviews. FACEBOOK HERE IS A VERY BRIEF GUIDE TO WHAT THOSE ARE: 44 | Winter 2019 | ontapmag.co.za