Social media can’t really be denied anymore…it’s part of our daily lives. This fact isn’t more important than if you’re one of our cities many breweries, trying to let the thousands of thirsty people in Cincinnati know where to find your beer, or what beer is coming. News and events are hard to keep track of as a drinker, and Twitter, Facebook, and other social media outlets have become incredibly important outlets for beer information.
Businesses are utilizing these platforms to reach people far and wide with websites like EarthWeb being used to accentuate this and help them gain more visibility to reach their target audience. In this case – beer drinkers. Having a presence on social media platforms is a great way for businesses to reach their target audience without spending a fortune. Curious how? A business that is able to find the best site to buy Instagram followers can rapidly build a following and gain the visibility it needs. Unlike influencers who may spend hours every day managing their Instagram accounts, business owners are less likely to know where to start courting new followers. Due to that, many entrepreneurs have turned to the purchase of Instagram followers to build a huge fan base.
Anyway, coming back to the topic, recently, I read a fun article on AllAboutBeer.com about when the first breweries to join twitter started tweeting. It got me thinking about our brewery social media presence here in Cincinnati…who was the first? Who held out for a long time after opening before they took the plunge? What was that first tweet? I did a little digging and pulled the first tweets from most of our local breweries – there isn’t any big news here, or label releases or events you need to clear your calendar for – no…this is just a fun article about where we were with our social media, and a nice look into how the social media presence of our local beer scene has grown and evolved. Businesses looking to expand their presence on social media platforms may well want to consider something like a social media manager. Having a manager for something like Instagram (check this out – https://nitreo.com/instagram-manager) can help you grow your following organically and build your audience in a streamlined way.
Enjoy!
Christian Moerlein Brewing Company
6/18/2009
Our journey through beer social media starts back in 2009. The first local brewery to tackle this weird Twitter platform was Christian Moerlein Brewing Company, with a simple tweet to get us thirsty.
And it did more than get drinkers thirsty for beer, it seemed to kick off the medium into a frenzy here in town. The start of beer tweeting in Cincinnati had begun!
Rock Bottom Brewery
8/17/2009
From there, our (debatably to some people) oldest brewery fired off a tweet of their own in August, with a literal status update. The brewery let us know where they stood with this social media phenomenon with a simple notice that they were in the process of making an account… It seems to me that the account was made, they were just figuring out what exactly to do with said account…
Mt.Carmel Brewing Company
11/20/2009
They are one of the first brewery’s to open in Cincinnati’s “new beer renaissance”, and we’re very quick to jump on the Twitter bandwagon, as well. Mt Carmel Brewing kicked off their Twitter feed with a simple notice of one of their seasonals, and it’s return to the Cincinnati market.
Hofbrauhaus Newport
3/4/2010
As we moved into 2010, we found another one of the city’s OG breweries trying to figure this Twitter thing out… Hofbrauhaus went the same route that Rock Bottom did… Just a simple notification that they were existing on the medium.
Hofbrau went another step though, they wanted people to know what they could expect from the Twitter feed in the future: Deals, Promotions… FUN!
Listermann Brewing
7/22/2010
Listermann kicked their feed off with some sort of rally cry. We were instructed to enlist in the brewery… I’m not certain what that means, exactly…but if you ask me now… I’ll sign up for whatever it might be! Private Gnome reporting for duty, sir!
Bad Tom Smith
2/28/2011
Early 2011 saw a brewery that at the time was called Double Barrel start up their feed. Although the name might have changed (twice) since then… They’re still plugging along! Bad Tom Smith knew things were going to be happening fast, and wanted to jump on the Twitter train while it was still in the station!
MadTree Brewing
3/13/2011
A tweet that would resonate much louder today than it did back at 11:30 am on May 13th of 2011, MadTree put themselves out there with a simple tweet…a call for a beer that is famous in this city and beyond at this point. Axis Mundi.
Rivertown
6/14/2011
If you were wondering at what point people stopped notifying us of their Twitter presence with a “I’m on Twitter”, you can see that it was still going strong in 2011 when Rivertown got started. I get it… You’re here.
Blank Slate
8/6/2011
Still a cheesy, “I’m Here” tweet from Scott LaFollette, at least with this one, we get a link to an imageshack photo of the pilot brewery in action. Unfortunately…the link is now dead and I can’t enjoy it anymore.
Bardwell Winery
12/16/2011
They might not have been making any beer quite yet, but they were on their way to becoming a brewery here in town wether they knew it or not at the time. Bardwell winery started things off in a great manner…letting us know about an event. However… The 140 character limit seems to have caused some trouble and confusion there at the end…
Great Crescent
2/15/2012
Starting off 2012 is Great Crescent Brewery out in Aurora… They kicked their tweeting off simple, clean…to the point. There must have been a tap takeover at MOTR…I don’t know if they were tweeting from the event, or informing us of an upcoming event – but I’ll cut them some slack, it’s their first tweet after all.
Quarter Barrel
2/24/2012
Now here’s a picture that I can still see! Quarter Barrel has always been as much about their food as they are their beer, and this tweet doesn’t hide that fact.
They tweeted out a big picture of some tasty fries and what they say is a BLT… If this doesn’t get you hungry when you’re out and about at lunch time, I’m not sure that I can help you.
Moerlein Lager House
3/23/2012
The Moerlein Lager house wanted everyone to know that they were in this game too, along with the standard Moerlein Twitter Handle. Perhaps in years to come, we’ll finally get over these “Hey, I’m here Tweets”
Cellar Dweller
4/13/2012
Situated up in Morrow, Ohio…away from the hustle and bustle of the busy craft beer scene here in Cincinnati, Cellar Dweller has always been about a quiet, relaxed family atomosphere… I guess ever since they started tweeting in early 2012!
Fifty West Brewing Company
9/10/2012
Follow 50 West and you can receive updates… They wouldn’t open their doors for another 2 months, but if you were one of those lucky few people to like them on Twitter…you’d have known about it!
Rhinegeist
3/10/2013
Being a blogger affords some “perks” – it’s funny to think that the first tweet from a brewery as polished social media-ly as they are now was a tag and a retweet from Beer Mumbo after an early visit to see what was going on in the OTR brewery, 3 months before their doors opened to the public.
Ei8ht Ball
11/13/2013
The world of social media has changed quite a bit, as evidenced by the first tweet from Ei8ht Ball, going out a mere 10 days before their grand opening. They quickly let you know what’s up, though… 42 taps…
Taft’s Ale House (Big Billy Taft)
11/26/13
Taft’s Ale house is a funny one, although their official @TaftsAleHouse Twitter handle wasn’t around quite yet, they kicked off their Twittering with a fun social media account. You can still follow the fictional “Big Billy” Taft and here him talk about everything from weather, to beer, to politics in his own voice. It’s a great follow, and the first really unique use of Twitter locally (in beer)
DogBerry
1/1/14
They were more than a year away from their doors opening to the public, but DogBerry brewing didn’t waste any time in firing up the ‘ol Twitter machine. This was the first account of 2014, and it might have also been the first of a new breed of social media. This account was the first to really use the account to start building hype for the brewery before it opened up… It must have worked, because when they did open their doors, this thirsty city just about drank all their beer, and forced them to close early their first weekend. They still use the Twitter handle in fantastic way as well, every weekend posting a photo of their ever evolving, and varied tap list.
Paradise Brewing
4/3/14
Paradise Brewing was a homebrew supply store before they starting producing their own beer, but when they finally got their license and opened up their small taproom in March of 2014, they knew they needed to launch their Twitter feed to start promoting the fact that they had their own beer.
Their first tweet, though was a simple retweet of the year’s Beer Issue of Cincy Magazine. This was also the issue that gave their new taproom a fantastic shout out.
The Old Firehouse Brewery
5/26/14
They might not have had their date exact in their first tweet, but Old Firehouse still managed to use their new Twitter account to let people know that beer would soon be flowing in their Willimsburg, Ohio taproom very soon. Aside from Cellar Dweller back in 2012, they were also the first brewery to use a hashtag in their first tweet… I’m not sure why that’s important to know…but now you know!
Today, they are still rocking Twitter hardcore, keeping their fans across the city abreast of all their plans, including posting photos of their new cans rolling out of the brewery and onto store shelves. They’re also fantastic about using the medium to let everyone know when a new beer is going to hit the taps!
Fibonacci Brewing Company
10/21/14
The first tweet from Mt. Healthy’s nano brewery, Fibonacci, was a retweet of the story that CIncinnati blogger Brew Professor ran about their brewery right when news of it’s existence started to leak out.
The Twitter feed has grown into something very different than anything else around town, with them pulling in lots of fun stories and tidbits that tie in their math and science theme into their world of beer, giving us all a taste of why they chose their theme to go with their beer.
Urban Artifact
5/27/15
As of writing this, Urban Artifacts “unified” account is the last one to be opened by a operating brewery. Although the brewing team, and lots of the brewery’s owners and employees have separate @Artifact_____ accounts, this one finally popped up in a tweet from then WCPO reporter Jesse Folk.
Although, I still think the better feeds to be followed are the ones managed by the separate people within Urban Artifact…this one keeps up on all the happenings with the brewery, including new releases and events.
The Future of Cincy Beer Tweeting
There are more and more new breweries being announced in Cincinnati seemingly every month, and there will be a lot more as the years progress. I think it’s safe to say that mediums such as Twitter are here to stay, and even safer to assume that beer drinkers have latched on to them as a way to get their news and information about their favorite taprooms in a quick and easy manner. Make sure that as new breweries spring up, you don’t hesitate to jump on their social media accounts and follow them, although some of them might not have been to exciting form the get go, they are now managed as well as the you can hope for, for some breweries they even have dedicated people or teams to run their social media.
Cheers, and happy tweeting!