A good social media strategy is an important tool in anybody's kit these days.  Back in June I posted about beer bloggers who using Twitter to promote their blogs and/or brews.  A couple of days ago, I wanted to see what sort of beery things I could find on another popular social medium, Facebook.

I've been on Facebook for a couple of years and have found it a great way to connect, reconnect and stay in touch with friends, and a terrific way to promote and link to my own blog posts and to point out other items of interest. I've discovered that many of my favorite local beer bloggers and breweries are similarly using the site.

But just how widespread is beer culture on Facebook?  I logged on and searched on the word "beer."  The search returned "about 34,000" people results, among them two - Eugene Beer of Columbus, Ohio and Cathy Beers of parts unknown - with whom I share mutual friends.  Small world.

The search also came back with "about 1,800" results among Facebook pages.  I decided to drill down into the pages results using the filtering tool. When I pulled down the menu with the filtering options, one of them jumped out at me - politician.  I took the bait.

The politician filter (doesn't that term have promise!) narrowed the list down to 7 pages, primarily for office seekers or holders, including Sigrid Beer, who's running for Burgermeisterin in Paderborn, Germany; Ruth Beer, a candidate for city councillor (her spelling, not mine) in Headington Hill and Northway, Oxford, England; and Larry Beer, a member of the the Aurora, Co. city council, representing Ward III.

I decided to contact Aurora's Mr. Beer to see how his Facebook experience has been.  I sent him a couple of questions in an email and was pleased to promptly hear back from him. 

It turns out that Mr. Beer is well represented on Facebook. In addition to the Larry Beer-the-politician page which has 24 supporters, he also has a "Larry Beer for Aurora" political organization page with 337 followers, and a personal page with more than 1,500 friends.

He said his organization page, "has been a good tool - among the many others I use - for both constituent and campaign outreach.  Plus my personal Facebook page has more than 1,500 friends, and I think about 20% are Aurora citizens if not Ward III constituents."

I was particularly impressed with his "Larry Beer for Aurora" page.  His profile photo on the page shows him standing next to a sign reading, "BEER IS YOUR FRIEND."  It was apparent that this is a politician who understands that his last name can be an advantage if used with the proper attitude.

"On balance, I'm pretty sure being a Beer is more positive than negative.  It's all about having a reasonable sense of humor about it, which by this point in life would be pretty sad if I didn't. My phone number ends in 2337 (spells BEER) and my campaign material points out that 'good things are brewing for Aurora.'

"I should mention that my wife is also an elected official, and by choice, she is definitely not a Beer (she's Karen Middleton, a Colorado state representative)."  But, Mr. Beer adds, "she let me keep my maiden name when we got married."

A prompt reply, a well-reasoned social media strategy and a sense of humor?  Here's one politician who would certainly get my vote.