Anchor Steam Beer – Brand Social Media Audit

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this audit is to answer several questions within the social media landscape:

1. Who is talking about Anchor Steam?
2. What are they saying?
3. Where are they saying it?

In order to provide some context, this social media audit will also attempt to answer the above three questions for several of Anchor Steam’s competitors.

OVERVIEW

Anchor Steam is essentially the flagship beer of the Anchor Brewing Company. Utilizing traditional brewing techniques and ingredients, Anchor Brewing is considered a craft beer^[1]. According to its website, Anchor Brewing relies on word of mouth in favor of advertising and marketing campaigns^[2]. Another important aspect of Anchor Brewing is its strict rules regarding how its beers can be distributed and strives for a slow expansion of its market area^[3]. These factors result in a unique opportunity to study how a specialty item with limited distribution is being discussed on the internet.
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Social Media Audit – Is Hulu the King of Content? (Examining Online Video Distribution)

ONLINE VIDEO DISTRIBUTION – INDUSTRY SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT

SUMMARY

This social media audit highlights online conversations relevant to the online video industry from January 2009 to October 2009. The data summarizes coverage behavior within influential blogs regarding online video brands in relation to one another. The overall industry is explored, followed by a closer look at conversations on the individual brands themselves. All metrics included in this report were recorded on 15 October 2009.

The following brands are examined in this report:

- Hulu

- Crackle

- TV.com

- YouTube

INDUSTRY

As online video distribution rises in both popularity and profitability, traditional media distributors have, in the past year, initiated ventures into new partnerships and platforms to keep up with the trend.

The ever popular, Hulu, governed by NBC, Fox and ABC continues to threaten traditional network television. With CBS’s TV.com and YouTube’s partnership with Sony’s Crackle, network presence online has become increasingly apparent. Finally, geolocation tracking on Hulu prevents those outside of the US from accessing its contents, giving an additional edge to sites like YouTube.

In June, Editor-in-Chief of ZDNet, Larry Dignan commented on the growth of online video by saying that, “Internet TV viewing appears to be a ‘second screen experience’ as 74 percent of consumers view content on their computer monitors without connecting to the TV. In other words, Internet TV doesn’t supplant the traditional stuff.”^[1] He additionally cites Hulu as the biggest legitimate threat to the cable distribution model.
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