Tweeting as advertising, gone bad?

Same situation with the major craft beer store in my area, but when they get a very limited amount of anything (best example is FW proprietors series) they don't tweet about it. I'd rather they did so I know it's in the area and may whoever can get there fastest win

 

If you can tweet when something special comes in, why not tweet again when it sells out?

 

I have always wondered this. My shop barely tweets most of the new stuff they get in, but they tweet 5 times about something more rare, and can't be bothered to let us know that it sold out in 45 minutes. So frustrating.

 

4 hours is a long time for a special release to sell out. Especially after a tweet/instagram. Around here you have to be there within an hour and hope to get lucky. If they tweet at 1-2pm. Basically SOL. Tweet around 5pm the. Maybe a chance to get it.

 

Would you have gone to the store on both of these occasions if they hadn't tweeted?

Personally I would prefer stores didn't post on social media either - but that's just me looking out for my own interests, given my schedule. I completely understand why they do it though. I don't think it's reasonable to get frustrated with them. And I don't think they should be expected to post more updates when they sell out either. Using that logic - should bars that tweet/facebook/instagram about tapping a rare keg, also send out an update when the keg kicks? Just seems like it's expecting too much to me.

Using some of the numbers that have been quoted in this thread as an example - if I'm going to a store 4 hours after they tweeted about having 6 bottles of a sought-after release, then common sense would dictate that I have my expectations pretty low.

 

I've had this happen and I quickly learned to call them before going out of my way to stop in. My bottle shop will sell out of things within 30 min - 3 hrs, and are always happy to take a phone call and tell me it's gone. I know it's a little old school to use the phone for a call rather than twitter, but it works.

 

^^^^^^^^

OP - look - problem solved

 

As the beer game gets ever more popular, you have to become more blood thirsty. Call me Old School too, I don't look at social media for my local bottle shops. If they had a "rare" or "limited" beer come in and the case is sold out, I just count my loss and pick up a stand by.

 

If I call my bottle shop after they post on social media they will hold the item for me until I get there later in the day to pick it up.

 

Sounds like overkill advertising for beer rather than questionable advertising. But it's cheap and works great, ie gets the bottles of beer they had sold quickly at no extra cost and minimal effort.

Odds are they probably don't even know or haven't thought about any of the other, less visible effects on the potential customers who follow them. Or the effects of not doing a follow up tweet when the bottles are gone.

Even less likely they have given any thought to the effects on potential customers who don't, won't or can't follow them. Tweeting hasn't eliminated old fashioned word of mouth communication it just broadens and quickens the good and bad side effects.

 

My store does something similar but they usually tell you how much they received.
What irritates me with them is the inconsistency I.E., they tweeted they had founders Harvest Ale but not Backwoods Bastard. Makes no sense!

 

I was recently in my local store chatting to the beer manager (we are friends) and he mentioned that business had been very slow so he went through the back room where they keep special release beers and tweeted a few of them out to drum up business.

To a person, the people came in, asked for the special beers, bought one and left. Didn't look at anything else, just claimed their whales and f@*ked off. It sort of backfired as a way to drum up business as all it did was clean him out of whales.

He mentioned that they were still getting calls about the beers he had tweeted 2 days later and that he must have fielded 30 or 40 calls from people, many of whom just hung up as soon as he said they were sold out. It really pissed him off how rude people were and he said he won't bother tweeting special things again (only tweets if he has 3 or 4 cases of something, or if something nice goes on sale) - he will just keep the special releases in back and offer them to regulars.

These days given how douchy the whale hunters are, I am not surprised. I have stopped going to the stores that tweet special releases - they all usually sell out within the hour and I have basically stopped following the stores that do this. I am fine if they use twitter to tell me that Founders Breakfast Stout is on sale or something, but the whale game is just so cut throat.

I am sure the OP is just like me, a regular beer guy who has a real job and can't drop everything to go whale hunting. I used to get pissed off missing out, but the problem was solved by finding a store I liked with nice people who I then chatted to and made friends (nothing nefarious or sneaky - I am a friendly guy!).

Once they learned the sort of beers I like and what gets me excited (and realized I was buying all my regular beer there too - the exact phrase was "he spends") these guys started holding a bottle of special releases they thought I might like aside for me. They do it for all their regular customers. Some people don't like the idea that special beers get held for regulars, but to be honest, if the alternative is a tweet then sold out 20 minutes later to the whale hunters, I will go with the regulars every time.

 

Sounds pretty bait-and-switchy, to me. Tweet, get people in there -- oh dear we're out, but you've come all this way, wouldn't like you something else... Like any type of advertising/marketing, as long as the market bears it, fine for them. But you could let them know you have limits. I'd at least open the conversation, gently and disarmingly.

 

I have a couple local shops that tweet or post on their blog/facebook when something comes in. Sometimes if I'm in the neighborhood or not busy when a tweet comes out I'll run up and score a bottle, if I'm going 4 hours later I don't get my hopes up. It sucks missing out but tough titties, thats life. Even if I don't get what I was hoping for I'll pick up something or another. Don't want to be "that guy"

 

Yeah, I love it when I get offered something special - I was at a new place recently just to check it out, and I had been browsing for 10 minutes. One of the store people came up to ask about what I liked, and I told them I was looking for some fresh IPAs to take home to Australia for a trade with a friend - he popped out back and returned with a 6'er of Zombie Dust bottled about 5 days earlier! You can bet that I have been back to that store a few more times!

If you are a regular at the store perhaps it is worth mentioning to the manager that the tweets meant you missed out because of your work schedule. If they are focused on craft and good customer service they probably aren't big fans of the truck chasing whale hunters and might be open to feedback on the issue.

I imagine some places are getting into social media and tweeting because they feel like they have to in this day and age and don't realize what the impact is....