Social marketing

I don’t follow many brands on twitter or facebook. Those that I do are local businesses we actually shop at. It’s been interesting watching these local groups use the social networks to market.
One is The Milk Pail Market in Mountain View. They have a reasonably active Facebook page. How have they been using social marketing?

• Announcing specials “from now ’till close, come in and tell your cashier “Milk Pail Rocks” and get a free pint of ice cream.
• Posting about special events and tastings.
• Posting their weekly sales pages.
• Promoting other local food related businesses.

Another is Gordon Biersch Palo Alto. They have a Facebook page and a twitter account. They regularly tweet about which bartender is working. As they are a brew pub and all their beers are made on-site, they also tweet the status of their current seasonal. It’s a good way for fans to keep up with the beer status.
The thing about both of these companies is they feel authentic. They really are ways for the companies to keep in touch with their regular customers. It’s not always about driving new customers in, but more about keeping the current customers happy.