My Three Cents

Commerce 464 flew by, first and foremost. It feels like yesterday that I was panicking about having to approach a real-world client to pitch our help to them. It was something that I had never done before and felt that I didn’t have the experience to do. However, approaching Black Kettle Brewing and talking to them about their social and digital media, it was clear that asking never hurts. They were more than happy to have our group on board to help them out and it was a fun and engaging experience over the three months to see their company grow its presence online.

Using tactics and strategies we learned about in class, we saw their online presence grow substantially. To list off some numbers, we saw an 11% increase in likes on their Facebook page, a 12.6% increase in followers on Twitter, and a staggering 55.8% increase in followers on Instagram. A few of the highlights included introducing a brand new website for them, seeing one of our Facebook posts reach over 1000 impressions, and seeing the new monthly beer that they introduced in October sell out in under two weeks, something they had never seen before. That’s 900 litres of beer spoken for and most likely consumed in under 14 days!

All of these results show two things. First, Black Kettle clearly has a quality product and a company that customers have come to trust. Second, as soon as we started helping the company optimize their social and digital channels, we were seeing real world results that stemmed from seizing the opportunity that was lying within that trust and rapport that the company had built with it’s customers.

Here are a few of the main takeaways that I personally had from our client project:

1. Each post on social media counts. You need to share content that is relevant and engaging to your audience. You want to start and maintain conversations about your brand and what your brand stands for. Your social media is a key factor in establishing your brand personality.
2. Your website is just as important as your social channels. Customers need to feel at ease and comfortable with your website, being able to find the information they want as quickly as possible. Make sure your website doesn’t leave your customers with any unanswered questions, and provide easily accessible resources for customers to obtain those answers that can’t be found on your website. You need to strive to have website ‘stickiness.’ Make customers want to come back.
3. Build your brand personality. As a craft beer brewery, Black Kettle doesn’t just sell craft beer. They sell a product that represents creativity and originality. They are a brand that’s not afraid to break from the norms of the craft beer market by experimenting with new and unique recipes. They represent the North Shore of Vancouver, with it’s mountainous backdrop and West Coast mentality. Black Kettle is more than it’s beers, its a brand that customers feel that they can identify with.

Thank you Paul and Julio for sharing your knowledge and insight. This course was eye-opening and the experience that I gained from it is invaluable.