Frequently a company or a brand’s use of social media is not marketing, but being someone’s friend, noted Bob Morehouse and Josh Hill of Vermilion Inc., Boulder, Colo., during their presentation on social media at the Craft Brewers Conference in Chicago in April. Many craft brewers are using Facebook, Twitter and other websites to communicate with their often passionate fans, the speakers noted.
In turn, people are able to share their love of the brands with their friends. Every day 20 million people declare their allegiance to their favorite things on Facebook, Morehouse and Hill said. Last month, the website changed the term from “fan” to “like.” For brand pages, this provides more awareness because liked pages will appear on a user’s profile and posts from the page will be posted as news, Facebook says.