Recently, I created a social media marketing campaign for Stony Creek Brewery in Branford, CT. As the Marketing & Social Media Coordinator for the brewery, I was privileged to have access to a surplus of information that helped me design the campaign. 

At the start of my planning for this campaign, I had been working in this position for just shy of two months. I had been running the Instagram and Facebook accounts during this time, and I had been working on getting the TikTok page started. I had access to the company’s analytics and demographics, as well as an understanding of the brand essence and all that happens at the brewery. 

My classmates, however, were only able to work with the public profiles of their chosen brands. From my position, this would seem near impossible, so I was very impressed with their campaigns given the lack of information they had access to. 

The point of this write-up is to express just how closely social media marketers must know their brands. For the last two months, I have been planning, gathering, editing, and posting content across the Stony Creek channels. Additionally, I have been experiencing the intimate environment of being an employee at the brewery. 

Being at the facility everyday, I’ve been in a position to gather daily content, see the people who walk in and out, notice the small annoyances the bartenders have while opening, and really understand how things operate here. These small happenings are significant.

From someone who has experience attempting to plan consistent content, I can tell you that it almost always changes at the last minute. A few weeks ago, I was sick and couldn’t make it to the brewery for a shoot I had planned. Each week there’s a new beer, a new event, a live music schedule change, etc. It took me weeks to realize that we need a standard format for our weekly live music schedule posts. 

As social media marketers, the most difficult part of what we do is knowing how to handle situations like this. Having an intimate knowledge of the brands we campaign for is essential in order to adapt to these constant changes. 

We don’t always have the privilege of knowing the company as well as the employees do. So: get personal, have a backup plan, and ask questions.

by Samantha Hart