DRAFT Magazine

Flickr photo by inju

By Tim Cigelske

For years, talking frogs, twins in bikinis and dudes shouting “Whassup?” was how big beer companies told us, “Hey, drink our beer!”

If you think about it, it makes little sense.

Today breweries don’t need multimillion dollar advertising budgets, clydesdales, or retired athletes to tell about their beer. They just need an Internet connection, a Twitter account, and someone willing to talk and — just as important — listen to the beer drinking public.

“Twitter isn’t a promotional gimmick or a sneaky way to conduct marketing research,” says Matthew Steele, who operates the @StoneBrewingCo Twitter account. “It’s a way to talk to our fans and connect personally.”

Steele responded to our questions in 140 characters or less, which is the limit to a single Twitter update. With these short messages, craft brewers have found Twitter an ideal medium for communicating in an open, honest, personal, immediate, and often raw and unpolished manner.

So what do breweries talk about on Twitter? @StoneBrewingCo, for instance, has 6,600+ (and growing) followers that hear about new beer offerings, special events, personal interactions with fans, links to other Stone Brewing twitterers, and just general randomness.

21st Amendment Brewery even has a Twitter-themed beer.

The first brewery to join Twitter was likely @FlyingDog, which started tweeting way back in Sept. 2007 and now has 7,500+ followers.

“We’ve always tried to be early adopters,” says Josh Mishell, who updates the @FlyingDog account.

Mashable, the Web site of record on social media influence, called @FlyingDog the “perfect brand for social media engagement,” citing their Twitter haiku contest as one example. (Adding, “the beer is pretty damn good, too.”)

“The more we interacted with our followers,” Mishell says, “the more we realized that we were part of a community of craft beer tweeters.”

For small brewers who don’t have budgets for Super Bowl ads, the free service can also be an economical way to get their message out. This is one of the reasons Milwaukee start-up Horny Goat Brewing Company (900+ followers) jumped on Twitter immediately.

“Picking the right venues, advertising opportunity, and mediums to spread the word is important,” said @HornyGoatBrewCo’s Mandy Winter, who has even used Twitter to find people to staff new positions. “We’ve also heard a lot of buzz in bars and restaurants from people saying I’ve seen you on Twitter, I’m following you, etc.”

Tellingly, the craft brewing community has embraced Twitter, while big breweries are conspicuously absent. There are several possible explanations for this fact, including craft brewers penchant for experimentation, Twitter’s ability to interact on an individual level, and craft beer drinkers inclinations toward community.

“I know beer lovers are a very active online community,” said Mariah Calagione, who runs the @DogfishBeer (7,100+ followers) Twitter account. “We spend a lot of time and effort on our Web site, so things like Facebook and Twitter seemed a natural extension.”

Calagione said that as a result of feedback on Twitter, they’ve either acted on or talked about incorporating wine list suggestions for their brewpub, ideas for Twitter promotions and offers, and several beer dinner possibilities. Many ask about where to find their beer (and are referred to the Fish Finder) or when they’ll begin distributing to a new area (not before 2010).

“I am just so pleasantly surprised at how supportive people are,” she said, referencing messages from fans like this and this. “It’s great to get such a big view of the world from my computer here in Milton, DE.”

This isn’t just an online phenomenon, either. Some breweries are bringing together like-minded followers with “tweet-ups,” which move twittering about beer to drinking beer face-to-face.

“We consistently get an assload of people to show up and have a free beer on us,” Mishell says of their tweet-ups.

Now that sounds like the perfect tweet.

Find Draftmag on Twitter at @Draftmag and Tim Cigelske (a.k.a. The Beer Runner) at @TeecycleTim