Seguin and Social Media

Everyone knows that Seguin is not the most updated town in the country, however the companies that are there still use social media. The Seguin market is much smaller than most so the difficulties the small companies are faced with are not what most social media is used to dealing with. While looking around on social media, it was obvious that most Seguin companies do not partake in a lot of social media. I decided to focus on Seguin Brewing Company, which seemed to be an exception to the social media norms. Seguin Brewing Company is active on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I think it is important to use all three while promoting via the internet. Although there are many, many more social media outlets, I think using these three cover the important aspects of what might be good advertising. Additionally, Seguin Brewing Company also has a blog on their on website. Often times social media can be used to attract the audience to the website where they can then read the blog as well.

I believe one reason this particular company is successful with social media is because they are young. While it is not clear on how long they have been established, both of the owners are young and most likely have personal experience with social media as well.

First, all three platforms they use can be used for different things, yet can have similar posts. Facebook reaches an older audience on average while Twitter and Instagram can be targeted for younger audiences. According to Guy Kawaski, social media marketing is extremely important as well as managing all of the different sites and possibilities involved.  In the article, "Guy Kawaski's 10 Tips for a Perfect Social Media Post" Kawaski discusses what is needed to have a successful post within social media. While it is hard to perfect all ten tips, some are definitely possible and Seguin Brewing Company is succeeding in regards to them. Some of the tips include, passing a re-share test, being bold, and being brief. He says, "This means your post is so good that your followers like it enough to re-share it with their followers" (Guy Kawaski top 10 tips...). Even though they do not get tons of shares, they do have a decent amount on Facebook and Twitter. The importance of boldness and briefness are other important aspects. In posts like the following, it can be noticed that they company is posting things, which include graphics, that are short and simple.

Heading out tomorrow is a fresh batch of Honey Pecan, the last of this year's Black Rye, Summer Blonde and 9-Pin Kolsch. #nightshift #seguincraftbeer
Posted by Seguin Brewing Company on Monday, June 1, 2015

Also looking at the boldness, Seguin Brewing Company is very conservative with their posts but they do not hesitate to post about their events and beer. They share images of their beers all around the world and where all they travel. A lot of individuals believe that to be bold, one must be in your face about whatever it is. That is not the case, one can be bold but still appropiate and polite about it, and that is what the owners at Seguin Brewing Company do.

The last aspect of Guy Kawaski's is the frequency of posts. Luckily, the brewing company is quite frequent with posts. Although they are not up to multiple posts a day, they do seem to post at least several times a week on all platforms.

So, they are doing well with regards to posting and actually being on social media, but what about their spreadability?

In Chapter 5 of Spreadable Media, the authors discuss about the uncertainty principle and how and what people are likely to share. In comes down to the main idea that people are hard to predict and difficult to figure out. It states,

"We may share songs from our favorite band as a way to define ourselves, to communicate something about who we are and what we like to our friends. We may pass along a news article to a former schoolmate to strengthen our social ties with her, to remind her we remember she she is interested in. We may include a video  lip in a blog post or Twitter update as a means to provide commentary on it, using that clip as inspiration for our own content and as a means to grow or activate a community" (Jenkins et al, Ch. 5).

This might be a little bit extreme for the topic of beer, but I think it is important to realize that no matter what the topic is, people must be interested in it first. For instance, I am not a beer drinker but my friends are and I know that if I share a link that I found while doing research on the company that it could indeed strengthen a connection or grow their knowledge of local breweries as well. Even though Seguin Brewing Company is small, it still matters that what they post is important.

Due to the size of the company, most of the media is also independent. They do have companies that carry their beer, but all of their social media is done by them alone. In Chapter 6 of Spreadable Media they discuss how media can be spread for people to make joyful noise. The idea behind spreading media is to amplify and proliferate the way the media circulates online (Jenkins et al, Ch. 6). Social media has to be spread to be successful and as people circulate and increase the amount it is seen, joyfulness will happen as well. Posts that are shared and created by Seguin Brewing Company will continue to gain interest and recogniziton and with 966 likes on Facebook and several hundred on Twitter and Instagram, I would say they are utilizing social media to their best ability. It might be an anomaly within Seguin, but social media is definitely working in their favor for this one!

Works Cited:

Jenkins, Henry, Sam Ford, and Joshua Green. Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

http://www.lynda.com/articles/guy-kawasaki-10-tips-social-media-post