Rhinegeist Brewing: How Great Beer and Great Social Media Presence Makes Them Top in the Country

Rhinegeist Brewery was founded in 2013 and has quickly established them selves as one of the best new breweries in the country according to a 2016 poll from USA TODAY.

The name Rhinegeist, translates to “Ghost of the Rhine” and refers to their building in the historic Over-the-Rhine Brewery District in Cincinnati, OH.

Part of their great success, besides producing delicious craft beer, has come from great branding and their ability to have a great online presence.

Their iconic ghost can be seen across anything they do. It’s starts with their logo and follows to everything else including, tap handles, beer labels, merchandise, posters but most importantly it stays consistent across their entire online identity.

When I visited Rhinegeist, I met with Tracy Ireland (pictured below), who is the brand manager at the brewery. Her job is to manage their entire marketing team and make sure the voice of their brand is consistent in every media outlet.

Tracey comes from the agency world and has a true passion for craft beer.

I asked her a few questions about the importance for a brewery to have an online and social media presence.

How important is it for Rhinegeist Brewery to have a strong presence on social media?

Tracey Ireland: Social media is crucial for us. It’s our primary communication tool and allows for unencumbered organic expression. The various social platforms help us grow our brand and build a community of beer-loving super fans. We use social to create a visual storybook of our beer, our brewery, our people, our fans, and everything in between.

How many hours do you or your team spend on social media a week?

Tracey Ireland: We’re actually ramping up our role in social and have dedicated someone full-time to the position. We want to make sure we are attentive to our followers because that’s top priority.

How many hours do you feel are actually necessary in order to do social media right?

Tracey Ireland: Social media is a full-time job. The hours to do it right depend on a brand’s content strategy and overall product offering.

Would you say social media for a brewery is a necessity or a luxury in today’s digital age?

Tracey Ireland: Social media is a necessity for any brewery or brand. It’s a foundational element for any business because consumers expect you to be there. It also gives a platform to display the internal —our hardworking ‘Geisters smiling while they sweat— in conjunction with the external —our beers and happenings around town. It’s an amazing channel that enables discoverability and community building. I can tell you that I reached out to someone this morning regarding custom design work for a project solely due to their awesome post we saw on Instagram. It can definitely drive one’s business.

If you had to pick one social media platform for Rhinegeist, which one would it be and why?

Tracey Ireland: I can’t pick one because consumers use each platform differently. It’s not a one and done channel game. Instagram is a heavy hitter for us. We’re a visual brand and Instagram is visual platform so it works. That being said, Facebook is table stakes for us on two fronts: we’re there so that people can find us, and it’s a great for event pages. We know Facebook is a paid platform and the days of seeing impressive engagement metrics on posts is over.

What is your biggest frustration about Social Media as it relates to a brewery?

Tracey Ireland: Deciding which beers to feature and when. We produced 76 different beers last year so it inherently becomes a challenge as there’s only so much social media space. Many of those beers are limited release and won’t make it to all of our accounts, so walking that fine line of educating and displaying without frustrated folks.

How do you measure the ROI of social media?

Tracey Ireland: Standard engagement metrics. We’re a small team and robust reporting is an ambition that we haven’t fully realized.

Describe the biggest social media challenges for a brewery?

Tracey Ireland: I think breweries need to keep it visually interesting. Beer remains king but there’s an entire ecosystem to a brewery that should be taken into consideration. Making sure you’re in touch with what your consumers think is interesting is also pivotal.