By Ben Brown of Social Cloudcast
Denver may hit the Twitter charts with the one of the top “Trending Topics” within the next three days with “The Great American Beer Festival” going on. This festival is the oldest and largest beer festival in America. GABF set another record this year, selling out 5 weeks in advance. The 29th edition of the festival is estimated to have 462 US breweries bringing 2,200 different beers to serve to 49,000 plus attendees. That’s a lot of people, but even more people will be reached.
Through social media others will hear and see their friends, family and co-workers experience at the festival. Much will be shared about great, not so great beer, good times and bad. Awards will be given out for the best beers, but all brewers should pay attention to the feedback about their brands mentioned in social media.
Many brewers are very aware of social media and at least have a presence. In fact the buzz about GABF has been brewing for a while. There have breweries, individuals, PR and marketing companies tweeting about GABF and using the hash tag #GABF to reference their tweets. The Great American Beer Festival has a live stream of these on their website.
In the stream you’ll find chatter about those attending, those who want to and those who can’t. GABF has been taking advantage of other forms of social media too. They used YouTube as a training platform for their volunteers. If you search YouTube right now you will find about 222 videos. One of those videos is from last year with George Wendt’s interviews and talking beer. There will certainly be more videos to appear after this year’s event.
The Great American Beer Festival is a popular event, setting sell out records. Next year will be the 30th installment and sure to be another record breaker. Social media will be alive and well this year through out the event. Where will this industry takes social media in the future will be exciting and surely one to keep your eye on.
Interviews on YouTube with George Wendt:
Draft Magazine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdJ4q0OXDjI
Examiner.com: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ouh54dxV54k
See this article on Examiner.com as well as other articles from Ben Brown
