From the beginning, Newton realized it was a David in a sea of running shoe Goliaths, so it focused on the small but affluent market of core triathletes and quickly built a loyal group of customers. Backbone implemented an integrated social media strategy that leveraged Newton’s tribe of product evangelists to increase brand awareness and connect with new customers. Backbone launched and manages the official Newton blog, which has an engaged and passionate readership. Backbone also administers the Newton Facebook page and Twitter profile, which have both experienced significant growth since inception. Backbone manages all of Newton’s social media anonymously, posting under the persona of Sir Isaac Newton, which Backbone helped establish as Newton’s unofficial founder and inspiration.

In 2009, we launched the "What's Your Folly?" Facebook application, to grow the Facebook audience by engaging users to become a fan of New Belgium and then send in a response to the question, "What's Your Folly?" to win a cruiser bike. The application drew 2 million social impressions across Facebook, added 11,000 new fans, and almost 7,000 submissions.

 

Read more about New Belgium's social media program on Mashable.com.