Willies Superbrew

We sat down with Michelle, Marketing Operations Coordinator for Willie’s Superbrew to discuss authenticity on social media, using tools to get a better idea of their target audience, and networking with photographers through Instagram.

The Stats

Willie’s Superbrew

Charlestown, MA

Instagram

@DrinkSuperbrew

6,970 Followers

Facebook

@Willies Superbrew

3,791 Followers

3,481 Likes

19 Check-Ins

When Willie’s Superbrew was founded a few years ago, they had three key beliefs in mind: 1. We deserve to know what we’re drinking 2. Drinks should only have real ingredients (not flavors) 3. Real ingredients taste better. 

Since their start on Cape Cod a few years ago, they’ve grown from brewing a ginger beer that you can find at some local specialty shops, to a company with a wide range of eclectic and seasonal flavor offerings that can be found up and down the East Coast. As Michelle explains, throughout this journey they’ve used social media to preach their passion for authentic ingredients, and to tell their story, as people who truly care about their craft and the product they’re putting out there. 

So tell us about what you do and what Willie’s Superbrew is all about

I am Michelle; I started in April here at Willie’s. I’m technically the Marketing Operations Coordinator, but basically that just means I do all the day-to-day marketing stuff. So that includes social media, but that also includes making signs, posters, and things for accounts, and restaurants, and different events. I help coordinate events when people want donations. And then just bigger stuff like getting all of our merchandising done, like t shirts, we’re getting backpacks soon, we did water bottles (but they came out bad), koozies, bottle openers; like all the little things we need to have. I get pricing, design them, and buy them.

We’re a hard seltzer blended with real fruit. So instead of all the other hard seltzers out there that use artificial flavoring to keep carbs and sugars real low, we believe that it’s more important to have real fruit in our products. So it’s just all natural ingredients. And when we brew it’s sugar, yeast, and water - that’s it, there’s nothing fake, nothing that you don’t understand on the label. And then we put everything out there really transparently for our consumers. 

What is your voice on social media?

We try to keep things pretty light and transparent. So we’ll do a little behind the scenes, like this is who’s working here. Our last post was about Ellen, she’s our Brand Ambassador Program Manager. Just so you can kind of get to know us and who we are. And then we like to focus a lot on the real ingredients. So most of our product photography will include some sort of ingredients, or all of the natural things that we use, just so people will relate our product to those actual fruits, and not just an abstract idea of flavor. 

What channels work best for you?

Instagram is probably our best one. I just made our YouTube page two days ago. Super exciting; we have some stop motion videos up, they’re really fun! But yea, Instagram is really our main focus. It’s just the best way to engage with consumers on a more personal level. Facebook I think is good to get the word out there for events and things. It’s a good place to lead people to if they need to find specific information. But I feel like a Facebook feed is just so much harder to navigate than an Instagram feed, so people are much more likely to see what you're saying or look at your page on Instagram.

Do you have a target audience on social media?

Not really. We’re trying to decipher who that is now. So we’ve been doing some testing on advertising to see who’s engaging more. But it’s sort of the “Whole Foods crowd”. Which is really like a broad, all encompassing group of people that just like real ingredients, like to know what they’re putting in their bodies; sort of health focused, relatively young. But it’s not just 20 year olds, like White Claw or all the other hard seltzer that are very young focused. We are pretty all encompassing age wise. But just people who care what they’re putting in their bodies. 

Do you use any tools to measure how you’re doing?

I started looking at the Instagram Insights when I first started here, just to see what posts in the past have worked and just to get a general idea of how our feed and channel were doing. And then once I took over and knew all that stuff, now we use this platform called Iconosquare. You can see what time your audience is online, so you can schedule posts based on how many people that follow you are going to be available. So obviously it’s not like super busy in the morning time, but 8 o'clock at night Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday are really high times to be online. It’s a little late to post for consumer brands; but if you do it at 6, people are more likely to see it. So that’s been super helpful. And then they also have other analytics for posts that you've done, and they give you a weekly update on your follower groups and things like that.

How much of your content is scheduled and how much of it is posted on the fly?

Almost none of it is totally scheduled ahead of time. But we have all the pictures and stuff probably a couple weeks ahead of time - and then it’s about me being like, “this one will be good today for this copy.” As far as taking a picture on the fly and posting it, we almost never do that. 

Do you use photographers for your content?

We have had some photography partners in the past. We had somebody do some product photography a while back before I started, and that’s still carrying us through. And then we’ll find people on Instagram, and be like, “I love your pictures, would you like to take some for us”. And sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. It works out!

It looks like you guys went through a bit of a rebrand a while back. You redesigned the logo and broadened your flavors a bit. Did social media help with that rebrand?

That was before I got here. But I think it was an easy way to get the message out there. Because everyone that was following us at that point was following us because of the ginger beer. So it was like, “Hey guys, head’s up, we’re different now, but it’s the same - still be a fan!” 

Have you worked with any influencers?

We don’t do a whole lot with influencers, just because most of them are going to charge you a ton of money. And I just feel like it’s not that worth it. And the way we go about the hard seltzer business, is like, we’re trying to do it a little bit more wholesome, a little bit more transparent, and just like genuine. So I try to do that with our Instagram too, we’re I’m not like “Oh my gosh, she loves our product because I paid her a million dollars”. If you post something, I want you to like our product for real. So I have reached out and sent samples to just like a couple “Trader Joe’s influencers” and things like that, but we don’t say, “Let’s partner up and I’m going to pay you a million dollars”. 

Do you use social media to handle customer service issues as well?

It’s mainly for marketing. A lot of people who reach out to us just want to know where they can find us, or find specific flavors. So that’s most of it. We haven’t really had an issue with anyone. I don’t have to handle complaints that often. It’s more like, “Oh my gosh, my store is out of Willie’s, where is the next closest one”? And then I have to go look it up for them. 

What advice would you give to a small business who wants to improve their social media game or is just getting started on social channels? 

I really think it’s just about being as genuine as possible. If you believe in your product, you believe in whatever you’re doing, your Instagram should reflect that. And people will be drawn to it. People want to follow brands and companies that they believe in, and they want to be a part of that journey with them. So if it’s just like canned photography and like dumb captions, just sentences or whatever. It might look great, but people aren’t going to be super engaged. So it’s like, telling people important information, telling them silly stuff that aligns with your brand, and being as genuine as possible. But you can also just buy followers too, haha! 

Thanks for speaking with us Michelle!