Why A “Year in Review” Recap is Worth Your Time

The effervescent Kate Bernot joined our recent #CraftSocialMedia workshop to share her insight on the Year In Review with a journalist’s lens. She also penned this article about why you should plan a year in review this (and every) year.

Thank you Kate!

No one is looking for another item to add to their to-do list, but a “year in review” recap for your brewery is a worthwhile investment.

As a journalist, I’ve been on the receiving end of these recaps and can testify to their utility in your media relations plan—more on that shortly. But these reports aren’t just press release fodder; done right, they can be a powerful internal and external strategic tool. 

A year in review recap is a chance to reflect, organize, and communicate. It’s an archival snapshot of your business, one that is useful now and years into the future. When life moves at breakneck speed and it’s a challenge to even remember what month we’re in, there’s immense value in accurately cataloging your business’ milestones at the end of the year. You’re likely to understand your own brewery more deeply, and to help share important achievements with stakeholders like staff, media, distributors, retailers, community partners, and the public.

First, let’s discuss the year in review as an external communications tool. I cover the business of beer, which since the pandemic has not been smooth sailing for many companies, large and small. Amid the varied challenges breweries face, I’m still always looking to tell success stories. They certainly exist, but are perhaps not as obvious as they once were. Particularly when I’m writing for a trade publication, I need data points—everything from sales volumes to competition medals—to justify why I’m spotlighting a particular brewery.

Breweries can help me uncover these bright spots by sharing their wins, and their challenges, with me at the end of the year. How else will I know that your company launched two new seasonal beers into distribution, or grew own-premise sales, or paid for 100% of taproom staff to become Cicerone certified, or committed to local malt across its core beers? All of those are potential angles for media coverage, either now or in the future. Having them bundled in one easily digested report is a reporter’s dream. Attach the report to an email and send it once it’s ready— timing is less important to me than clear, organized information.

But members of the media aren’t the only external shareholders. Share your year in review with wholesalers, key retailers, and your nonprofit or community partners. Think of the year in review as your family’s holiday card: It’s a reason to reconnect with people you haven’t talked to in a while, update them on your milestones, and keep yourself top-of-mind as those partners are planning for the year ahead. (… Maybe send that email in advance of spring resets?) You may also want to disseminate some aspects of the year in review on social media and your newsletter. Turning core accomplishments into content is a way to highlight your wins and remind your fans of great times they’ve had with the brewery over the past 12 months.

Finally, and perhaps even more importantly, embrace the year in review as an internal exercise. At the management level, examine your brewery’s mission statement alongside your year in review. Do your most important moments of the past year reflect what your brewery stands for? Are there areas of the mission statement that weren’t operationalized? Are there emerging areas of importance over the past year that should be integrated into your mission statement? Finally, make sure your staff sees all or part of your year in review. Keeping employees connected to your mission and celebrated for their role in it is core to maintaining morale. Shout out the people who took the lead on major projects, and use achievements as a reason to celebrate the whole team. 

There are few tools within a brewery’s kit that offer this kind of multifaceted return— and cost almost nothing to implement. 

Written by Kate Bernot

RadCraft Partners With Empowered Streaming To Amplify #CraftSocialMedia Workshop Experience

INTERNATIONAL— RadCraft will bring back its virtual social media marketing workshops for breweries in 2024, this year with the amplification of streaming services from Empowered Streaming. 

The #CraftSocialMedia experience will be improved with enhanced video and audio, faster streaming, and expanded capacity for participants to communicate with speakers and one another. 

There are three #CraftSocialMedia workshops with expert speakers planned for 2024. The series kick off will feature Kayla Stinnett of Iron City Social presenting Social Media Marketing For Recurring Brewery Events on Friday, May 10 at 12pm MT. She’ll share tried-and-true strategies to promote recurring events while keeping them fresh and top of mind, all while on a budget. 

Details about these next two beer marketing workshops Social Media Management For Multiple Brewery Locations (August 16) and Social Media Automation That Sells More Beer (November 15) will be published in coming weeks.  

Register for the #CraftSocialMedia workshops at radcraftbeer.com. 

ABOUT EMPOWERED STREAMING 

Empowered Streaming was created to make virtual and hybrid events stress free for event planners. Behind the scenes, it’s run by a passionate set of studio musicians, engineers and videographers. During the pandemic, it became clear that the technical skills and sense of precision honed in music performance and studio work was very much needed in the corporate events space. Today, Empowered is responsible for the video and audio production for events all over the world, with a passionate crew dedicated to providing a fun and easeful experience for everyone involved.

ABOUT RADCRAFT

Beers and spirits should tell stories about brands, and RadCraft loves a good story. Founded in 2012 by Emily Hutto, RadCraft provides communications support for the beverage industry. From breweries and distilleries to maltsters and their affiliates, RadCraft’s partners are makers of thoughtful products and cultivators of radical ideas. Learn more at radcraftbeer.com. 

Advice From The Trail: Brooklyn Brewery on Social Media

Brooklyn Brewery have always been pioneers, in the craft beer industry and beyond. What started as a risky endeavor to introduce New Yorkers to the potential of beer and worldly flavors has spawned into the most widely distributed craft brewery in the world.

We reached out to Brooklyn Brewery Social Media Coordinator, Paige Snyder to get her insight into managing a global brand's social media and what other breweries can incorporate into their strategy regardless of their distribution footprint...

A multi-platform approach is the only way to reach as many potential beer drinkers as possible. Each platform comes with its own benefits and challenges, and figuring out how to wield those effectively is a key part of any overall marketing strategy.

Combining the local-level targeting of Facebook with the overarching reach of Twitter and Instagram allows us to keep targeted messaging relevant to specific audiences while using the broader platforms to achieve general branding goals.

Each social media platform demonstrates a very different pattern of consumption. Our main challenge is to figure out the best way to deliver content to be sure we are reaching our audience and not getting lost in the noise. For example, a short, pithy snippet of copy that might cut through the crowd on Twitter might not provide enough information for our audience on Facebook.

It is up to us to consider our message and who we are trying to reach, then translate it into the best form of communication for each platform.

Changing your name on Twitter is the online equivalent of carving jack o’lanterns and hanging skulls in your window for your neighbors to see.

Above all else, be approachable and be kind. At worst, you will divert the sort of customer service disasters that end up as clickbait on media websites. At best, you will be able to provide your audience with a detailed, interesting, and useful interaction on a platform that can often feel completely overwhelming. The people you’re talking to (in most cases) are also beer people. The more we can respect our fellow drinkers and their communities, the more good can be achieved and the more utility will come through for all.

Also, every picture of a beer in a glass needs to have a good head on it.

— Paige Snyder, Social Media Coordinator at Brooklyn Brewery