Featured Biz – Milwaukee Brewing Company

The Featured Biz blog spotlights businesses and organizations in Milwaukee, WI and surrounding communities who do an outstanding job using social media.
Organization: Milwaukee Brewing Company / Ale House
City: Third Ward – Milwaukee, WI

Social Media Outlets:
Milwaukee Brewing Company:

Woman Behind the Avatar:
Emma Pohl
Marketing Manager – Milwaukee Brewing Company / Ale House
The Story:
It wouldn’t have been too far fetched for us to name this the Brew City Blog, but after multiple Brew City enterprises, that really isn’t as original as we strive for.  Instead, we thought we would get as original as possible and highlight the Milwaukee Ale House / Milwaukee Brewing Company for their outstanding engagement through social media.
Social Media Strategy and Micro Brews:
Emma began working with a few years back and began to take on several of the marketing tasks of the company here and there.  Soon enough her time was completely consumed with the marketing aspects of the business, one of which was social media.  The interesting theme present for the brewing company is its absence of strategy towards social media.  They look at social media as a way to build their brand, engage with their customers, and just do what they are best at…having fun!

In recent months, the Milwaukee Brewing Company has undergone significant transformations to their product, packaging, logo, and every other aspect of their business.  This re-branding project left a gateway to evaluate the role of technology and social media as it relates to the beer industry.  One example of this for the brewing company will be QR Codes on the packaging of some of the products that will tell the story of each beer.  Another aspect of social media impacting the business model is that in the near future they will be trying to create a stronger, more clear relationship between the Ale House and the Brewing Company.  Using social media to accomplish this is a huge goal for them.

Going Viral:
Knowing how important those hashtags are, the Brewing Company has promoted their re-branding project by holding a Twitter contest in past months.  By tweeting #LuvMkeCraft – and the reasons why, followers can win two packers tickets.  This has given customers the opportunity to connect with the brand, but more importantly it helps drive market research for the Brewing Company.  By reviewing overall responses, they can shift their strategy towards the ideas that satisfy their customers needs.  The more “viral” they become, the more information they have to assist in making business decisions.
Holding It All Together:
Without a mass amount of training on marketing and social media, the Brewing Company had to learn on its own what to do and what not to do.  One of the largest takeaways from that conversation is that social media doesn’t have a rule book.  “Imagine that the person you are tweeting at or commenting on is standing right next to you,” said Emma.  This allows her to create the highest level of authenticity through social media when she is engaging with fans of the brewing company.  Hootsuite is the “go to program” for the Brewing Company, unless they are tweeting away on the iPhone.

In a discussion surrounding some of the struggles they have had with social media, it seemed that keeping authentic, creative, and fresh content was a challenge.  This indicates the level of creativity necessary to implement a long term social media strategy with a company.