6 Things Breweries Should Do, Or Stop Doing, On Social Media

A couple of things have bothered me for a bit, and it’s always better to get these things out than keep them bottled up. Nromally, I write everything with the intended reader being the beer-loving public. Today I’m writing to the brewers and the folks who have access to their social media accounts. Honestly, most of these apply to any company in any industry.

1) Stop linking to Facebook on Twitter

Grrr, this is a pet peeve that I see every day. You write something on Facebook, something long, and your Facebook is set up to throw it right on Twitter. Your tweet goes out with a short blurb and a link to Facebook for the rest. Facebook and Twitter are separate mediums that need different messages for your branding to look the best and be the most effective.

2) Don’t push your Instagram to Twitter, use IFTTT instead.

I’m guilty of doing this as are most accounts that I follow on Twitter. I only learned about this one recently, and the results from changing have been impressive. It’s driven up engagement on the pictures shared this way vs. the traditional Instagram way.

IFTTT stands for If This, Then That and is a website which allows all kinds of cool conditional programming. One of their “recipes” is If I post to Instagram, then send a tweet of the picture. Posting to Twitter from Instagram gets you a bit of the writing and a link to Instagram to see the picture. IFTTT gets you the picture as well.

Here’s an Instagram photo pushed to Twitter before I set up IFTTT

And after IFTTT

Yes, I realize this runs somewhat contradictory to number 1, but posting from Facebook -> Twitter only gets you a few words and a link. Using IFTTT from Instagram -> Twitter improves the situation by adding the picture.

3) Have accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and use them

These are all free services and don’t require a tremendous amount of time to set up. You could have at least some representation on all 3 in an afternoon. Even if you don’t post to them often, it allows your fans to tag you. If you post on them often, it drives engagement and gets people talking about you and coming into your tap-room.

4) Post your tap lists!!

This weighs into what many people plan on doing each weekend. If I see a bar or brewery send out a photo of what’s on tap I’m much more likely to see something I want and go there because of it. If I don’t see your tap list, then I’m guaranteed not to see anything I want on it, because I can’t see it, and thus less inclined to visit your establishment. This can be a 1-minute process that gets you free advertising and creates excitement for your beers.

5) Don’t promote your brand by shitting on someone else’s

Brewers always say that they’re not in competition with each other. At least in Cincinnati there’s a help each other out, rising tide raises all ships mentality. Even if there weren’t that mindset, it would still be uncool to raise yourself by stepping on someone else. Unfortunately, I have seen that happening lately. It’s ugly, mean, and ultimately lessens you and your brand.

6) You’re a professional business, act like it and pay for professional artwork

This one comes courtesy of Brew Prof who made the suggestion “don’t use MS Paint for your graphics.” A few of our local breweries have masterfully beautiful artwork. However, a few of them have utter garbage that looks like some kid was playing around in MS Paint. Breweries are businesses where branding can be as important as what is in the bottle. You’re spending money to make the best quality product you can. Now spend some money to get the best looking advertisement that you can.

Whew feels good to get that off my chest. Anyone else have pet peeves like these?