Careful use of social media proves heady for Reno brewer

Plenty of buzz surrounds the use of social media as a marketing tool, but a Reno company finds that social media takes time and attention to be used effectively.

Buckbean Brewing Co. has built its marketing efforts largely on the use of social media Facebook, Twitter, blogs since the brewery was launched two years ago.

The marketing has drawn lots of attention to the company from northern Nevada beer aficionados as well as national bloggers. Just last week, for instance, a beer blogger for Forbes.com opined that Buckbean redefines the meaning of Reno for outsiders who'd previously thought only of casinos and "Reno 911."

And on Facebook, the number of folks who say they like Buckbean stood at 2,582 last week.

Pretty heady stuff for a little company.

Constance Aguilar, who oversees Buckbean's social media campaigns as an account executive for Abbi Public Relations of Reno, says one of the secrets to the campaigns' success has been a high level of engagement between the company and consumers.

"We are looking at this every hour of every day," Aguilar says. She's keeping track of the conversations on Facebook and reviews on sites such as Yelp, and she's jumping into the conversation herself several times a day.

Abbi Holtom Whitaker, founder of the ad agency, says the high levels of engagement necessary to make social media effective mean that business owners need to be mindful about who will serve as the voice of their company in interactions on social media.

"You just can't have any intern doing this," she says.

Increasingly, Aguilar serves as the face, as well as the voice, of Buckbean Brewery on social media.

"That made people feel very comfortable connecting with us," Whitaker says.

That's a natural outgrowth of a role Aguilar took on during the earliest days of the brewery's foray into social media.

Looking for a cost-effective way to build a reputation of authenticity for the brewery's distinctive craft beers they're canned, rather than bottled Abbi PR sought out bloggers who specialize in beer.

"I had a very personal contact with the bloggers," Aguilar says. "Within the beer world, we built a reputation. People were talking."

Closer to home, the brewery's campaign uses Twitter it has 1,500 followers and Facebook to get the word about promotions at its tasting room on sponsorships such as its deal with the Tour De Nez bicycle races.

And a handful of videos posted by the company on YouTube detail its production processes.

Aguilar says the brewery and Abbi PR increasingly are looking to build value to the social media efforts by widening the discussion to other craft-beer subjects rather than focusing exclusively on Buckbean and its products.

That, the PR agency has said, helps with its goal of developing a reputation for Reno as a good beer town a reputation that would pay benefits for Buckbean as well as other small brewers.