Social Media & Beer Spotlight: America
Beer and social media are two of our favourite things, and lucky for us it’s our job to combine the two. Taking these passions, we’ve decided to create a new blog series simply entitled ‘Social Media and Beer Spotlight’ (yes we know it’s not the most creative title, but it does what it says on the tin/bottle).
We’ll take a weekly look at what’s going on in the world of social media and beer, sharing great campaigns, best practice and other stuff we like.
Social Media & Beer Spotlight Volume 1: The Americans
It’s not new news that the Americans are leading the way when it comes to craft brewing. From Arizona to Wyoming, there are thousands of breweries having a go and many of them are pushing the boundaries. From quirky tap rooms to travelling beer festivals. It’s beer heaven in the US of A.
So this is where our first Social Media and Beer spotlight will focus. We’ve trawled the internet, read countless blogs, liked dozens of pages and posts to bring you our favourite American breweries.
Unfortunately this list has been compiled without tasting any of the beer (free samples welcome). We’ve based it on style, digital presence, marketing and social media prowess. If any American brewers would like to fly us out for a research trip please do get in touch…
First, let’s start with a few statistics about the American market. We checked out the US Brewers Association and here is a handy infographic they created to show sales data from 2013.
U.S Beer Sales 2013. Data taken from The Brewers Association
1. Lagunitas Brewing – Tattoos, tap houses and top nights out
Social media stats;
– 26,000 followers on Instagram
– 114,784 likes on Facebook
– 7,061 followers on Twitter
A report from Beverage Industry News (US) shows Lagunitas Brewing has enjoyed huge growth over the last few years. And when we say huge we mean HUGE. 84% sales increase between 2012 and 2013. Taking them to the dizzy heights of America’s fifth largest micro-brewery.
Things we like. The #CouchTrippin campaign is inspired. Fans tweet a picture of themselves on their sofa enjoying a Lagunitas brew and they could win a party in their town. And the parties look fantastic. Check out this knees-up….
2. Shiner Beer
Social Media stats;
– 186,312 Facebook Likes
– 38.2k Twitter Followers
– 5,838 Instagram Followers
Another American ‘micro-brewery’ making big waves. According to their website they ship 6million cases every year. Not quite so micro in my eyes but nevertheless there seems to be lots of love for the Shiners.
The ‘Show Your Bock Love’ campaign aims to get consumers to talk about how much they love Shiner beer. Its ok; lots of consumer-generated content. We can see how much people love the beer but to be honest I’m not sure why anyone would visit or engage with the microsite they’ve created. Nice idea but nothing particularly creative.
3. Samuel Adams
Ok so these guys are huge. I’m sure most of us have tried or at least heard of them. But they do some pretty good stuff on social media so that’s why they get a mention.
Social Media Stats;
– 1,061,414 Facebook Likes
– 48.5k Twitter Followers
– 13k Instagram Followers
Now this little campaign is only a bit of fun but it made me smile and generated some decent results on YouTube – over half a million views in a matter of weeks.
What’s next?
In our next Social Media & Beer Spotlight we’ll take a look at some of the smaller craft brewers in America to see if the craft beer market is reaching saturation.
