Should Your Brewery Be on TikTok?

TikTok is littered with abandoned craft brewery accounts—each sharing just a handful of videos, many of which launched around 2021-2022 without a clear vision. It’s a familiar tale: a few underwhelming posts lead to frustration, then silence. Beneath this graveyard of forgotten accounts still lies a treasure trove of potential though. Just last week, my TikTok account crossed over 50,000 followers, well eclipsing my 11-year-old Instagram presence in a small fraction of the time. This milestone got me reflecting on my learnings from this app and how I could prepare a brewery looking to harness TikTok’s power for their own good. If you’re wondering whether your brewery has what it takes to thrive on this dynamic platform, keep reading—I’m here to make sure you’re looking at the opportunity correctly.

Let’s begin with why anyone would probably consider TikTok in the first place. We all want to sell more beer, but a better way to get to the same result is to think less about selling and more about building an audience who feels invested in the brewery’s mission, business, personalities, and of course, the beer. TikTok provides a wide open canvas to accomplish that through untraditional ways that don’t require high-end videographer skills, but do require the highest end of authenticity and forthcomingness.

To take advantage of the platform’s potential, short form videos must be successful at keeping users on the app. That means contributing good story-telling and interesting information that serves the beer niche well and doesn’t cause viewers to instantly flick to see what’s next. Like Proximo said in Gladiator, “I was not the best because I killed quickly. I was the best because the crowd loved me. Win the crowd and you will win your freedom.”

Before getting started on TikTok with big aspirations, it’s crucial to understand a few things before you even begin to formulate a plan.

1. What makes TikTok different than Instagram,

2. How to strategically approach the platform, and

3. The qualities that the individual behind an account should have in order to thrive.

Misconceptions of Instagram Vs. TikTok

TikTok came into power at the same time that Instagram engagement began plummeting around 2019, leading right into the pandemic. After a delayed reaction, Instagram eventually responded with Reels which essentially made their TikTok competitor into a feature of their existing platform. The addition didn’t come without it’s hiccups and still isn’t close to as powerful as TikTok, but the move has generally been successful in staving off a mass exodus of Instagram’s users. As a result of the similarities between Reels and TikTok, many are incorrectly associating the two platforms as being one in the same. That approach is flawed and could lead to overcomplicating one’s approach on TikTok. Let me explain…