How NOLA Brewing Used Twitter to Get A New York Times Interview

Often times the power of Social Media is questioned and, when faced with case studies or success stories, critics attribute credit to various reasons like: company size, traditional marketing elements that supported the online efforts or, even dumb luck.

NOLA Brewing recently announced the launch of the NOLA Brewing canning line. Despite being one of our smaller clients, NOLA Brewing has always had a special place in our hearts. And, the incredible success of the announcement, and the rapid growth, was something that came as the result of  easy-to-digest (and share) messaging delivered to a strong and committed community. NOLA Brewing may never be as big a brand as Miller Brewing Corporation, or even larger regional breweries. But, social media can make David feel like Goliath and that’s just what happened last week with the canning line announcement.

Here’s What Happened:

When Kirk Coco gave us the approval, we wrote a short blog post and then distributed that post through Facebook and Twitter. Our budget was approximately, oh, zero dollars.

• Blog Post (>400 words)
• One Facebook Status with “teaser”
• One Facebook Status with link to Blog
• One Twitter Post with “teaser”
• One Twitter Post with link to Blog

Results:

What NOLA Brewing received from that one blog and  four social media posts (two on Twitter and two on Facebook) was a domino effect of interaction from its loyal online community.

Less than 30 minutes after posting the link to Twitter, “@nolabrewing” was a Trending Twitter Topic in New Orleans and within 2 hours, the bit.ly link had been clicked 200+ times.

Other notable numbers: 

• NOLA Brewing received 106 Interactions on the two Facebook Posts

• 62% increase in Facebook Fans in one day

• 119% increase in Facebook Post Views and 312% increase in Facebook Post Feedback in one day

• 121 Interactions on Twitter in one day, compared to an average of 11.23 interactions daily in May

• 596 total bit.ly link clicks as of May 31, 2011

And finally, after finding the information about the Canning Line announcement through Twitter, a New York Times reporter came to the 2:00 pm NOLA Brewing tour and interviewed founder Kirk Coco, as well as team members, on the launch of the canning line and growth of NOLA Brewing.

So, there you have it. In 2 hours a few social media efforts (based on years of growing the community through valuable interaction) gets a small business an ear with a national publication. An indisputable example of the power and successes of a long term commitment to social media.