Harvesting the Benefits of Facebook & Twitter
Harvest is rapidly approaching, a season filled with measurements of a farmer’s success. Agriculture needs to look at yields in areas beyond the combines and choppers. One of those needing yield improvement is consumer understanding of agriculture. I’d encourage you to look at the millions of opportunities in social media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Ning, et al) as a critical tool in improving perception measurements about the agrifood business. Why?
- Networking: People with multiple decades working in agriculture have told me that they’ve never found a better networking tool than social media. For example, Twitter’s #AgChat on Tues., 8-10 p.m. Eastern, has brought together hundreds of people in the business of raising food, feed, fuel and fiber. In addition to discussing timely issues and educating others about agriculture, participants in in #AgChat regularly dialogue about what they’re doing in the field, the latest equipment, ways to improve practices and experiences in animal care.
- Listen louder: Identify trends and thought patterns shaping opinion about what you do on a daily basis. Social media offers an early glimpse of emerging trends – and media outlets have been using tools such as Twitter to break news, as well as source it. Social media gives you the opportunity to really listen to people’s thoughts, needs and worries – and respond to them.
- Share sound bytes about agriculture: Create greater understanding of what’s happening on the farm, in the field, the role of agribusiness and the challenges faced by those who produce food. In a society two or three generations removed from the farm – this is a critical business tool to ensure your long-term success. Don’t expect people to understand ag if you don’t tell them about it. Many of my speaker friends comment on the food facts I post on my Facebook and LinkedIn, noting their surprise. You’ll likely be surprised with the feedback you get from your social networking – people enjoy hearing about farm, food and your family.
- Build collaborations: Many groups are interested in exposing misinformation campaigns and improving people’s critical thinking skills. For example, biomedical researchers and pet ownership groups have similar interests as agriculturists do in exposing animal rights activists. Broaden your circle and you may be surprised at what you learn – and who you meet.
- Put a face on the plate: Connect with consumers and influencers – by the millions. Take two minutes a day to share what you’re working on your farm, in your agribusiness, or challenges in the business. If you’re not telling people, how do you expect people to know? When I began tweeting a weekly food fact (there’s now #agfact Tues. and #foodfact Thurs.) back in January, I saw my followers begin to diversify. People are hungry for information about food and it’s a tremendously polarizing issue. The day the L.A. Times Food Section began following me was the day I figured out Twitter is a very useful business tool.
- Engage in debate with people from different backgrounds: This is particularly true when misinformation is running rampant. Blogs and Twitter have taught me how single-minded some people can be in debates about sustainability, local food, biotechnology, organics, animal rights, urban gardeners, et al. Time spent in civil discourse is constructive if it builds understanding of both parties’ opinions. Frankly, it also provides reason to step back and assess if agriculture is too single-minded.
The yield potential is significant. An estimated 1.9 million tweets are sent daily. There are more than 225 million people on Facebook and it reached 150 million users nearly three times faster than cell phones. Do the math about how many opportunities you have to connect agriculture if 98.5% of those people aren’t actively engaged in farming. Call social media a fad if you wish, but know that agriculture is missing an opportunity to be proactive if you don’t take the time to harvest the benefits of at least one of the tools. What’s holding you back?
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This blog post does a very good job at summarizing the various ways that Social Media has an impact on agriculture. When I first started using Twitter I was amazed by the amount of people talking about agriculture. People want to know where and how their food is produced; they are going to social media outlets to get these answers. Unfortunately when they get there most of the information they get are from people quoting sources like Omnivore’s Dilemma.
We all know the importance that advocating for agriculture is going to have as special interest groups continue to force legislation through that will legislate us out of business. Social media gives us a chance to do this. Every time I talk about what I am doing on my farm over 1,000 people see it. They come to respect me and what I do, and when I see an issue that I have a problem with they are quick to react to it with help and understanding.
I want to touch on “listen louder.” This is important, a lot of people that are not involved with food production have some preconceived ideas about how food is produced. To just jump on them and say they are wrong will not yield any results, its important to listen, engage, and have a constructive conversation. If you don’t learn something from them in the process then they have not learned anything either.
I will agree with this blog and anyone that is not involved with social media needs to take a look at the various outlets available were they can get their voice heard. The more people we get involved the stronger voice we have to be proactive on issues facing agriculture today and in the future.
Thanks,
Mike Haley
Thanks, Mike – it’s valuable to hear that your farm has benefitted from using social media. I also want to congratulate you for the list of ag and farm people on Twitter that you’ve put together at http://www.dataforag.com/followfarmer.a5w. Keep up the good work!
Excellent points, Michele. As we continue to encourage and empower farmers and ranchers (some like Mike come fully equipped with both)to put their faces on today’s agricultural issues, social media is one of the best tools available. It’s the best way to reach high-end, motivated communications — people receptive to solid information and constructive engagement — where they gather. The valuable contacts we make through agricultural social media help amplify our message that farmers and ranchers care about the environment, their animals and their communities while producing healthy food for America. Social media has ignited a new fire of passion across agriculture and we must all continue to share the torchlight whenever and wherever possible.
Well said Mace – there are farmers and rancher who find these tools to be far more comfortable than getting behind a microphone. I appreciate AFBF’s efforts to get the message to farmers and ranchers across the country about the necessity to share how they care.
Great post, Michele–
As a communicator who’s defended traditional food production for fifteen years, I’ll corroborate everything you say here. Farmers and food processors have generally tended to go about their work quietly and resolutely, ignoring the misinformation spewed by detractors, and allowing the fruits of their labor to be their response. It’s painfully obvious that we live in a world where a more definitive response is going to be required. Our detractors have become _very_ adept at using the communications channels and building communities.
It’s great to see online ag communities emerge to provide balance to the discussion. The detractors and their audiences are accustomed to hearing from those of us in corporate communications. But farmers have an incredibly powerful and credible voice. It’s encouraging to see them join the discussion.
Thanks, again, Michele for your role in bringing this community together.
As a professional in the agrifood business, you raise an excellent point – detractors are using these tools with increase force. If we don’t choose to participate, ag loses – and that impacts farm families across the country. Thanks for your insight, Ed.
Michele asked me to comment here, and I am happy to do so although there is not much I can add to the well written post. There is a power in social media for farmers and the agriculture industry to connect with consumers that is unprecedented. I was recently asked why I support and participate in this new media/communication. My answer is simple: these tools are a must for sharing information, making connections, and maintaining relevancy in a world that moves at the speed of information.
I will admit that I sometimes wonder about the true value, but then I quickly remind myself: adapt or die.
Andy, you do a great job communicating the science in your Extension work with others. Appreciate your insight here at through your blog, http://agvanwert.wordpress.com.
First, a little background. I work in the agricultural industry as a provider of decision support tools. My passion in life is agriculture, second only to my family. Part of my responsibility is the strategic and tactical marketing activities of our services. As such, I have included in this strategy the leveraging of social media. We have already started gaining valuable insight and knowledge of the ag market place, especially at the farmer level. I can’t even tell you what a great deal I have learned, both on a professional and personal level.
Michele makes very good points on what can be achieved once you engage in social media. I will talk about each point separately.
Networking with other individuals and companies is critical to any endeavor. In my view, the key to effective networking is an ability to listen and a willingness to share your knowledge with others. Growing food is a complex process, and many of the consumers I engage with have a romanticized view of farming. It is our job as companies and individuals in the business of raising food, fuel, and fiber to educate others who want to know where their food comes from and how it is produced. Social Media tools like Twitter and Facebook (among others) are excellent communication platforms that we can use to share our knowledge of agriculture. Just think about it; as a farmer, you must have knowledge of agronomy, risk management, finance, large machinery operation and repair, weather, legislative policy (how romantic is food policy!), and human resources, to name a few. How many consumers have a good understanding of the knowledge and skill it takes to produce crops? The more we continue to encourage social media adoption and the principles of networking, the stronger our voice becomes and the more the populace “hears” us. So let’s continue to network together and spread the message of agriculture and what it means to society. Michele mentioned #agchat on Twitter every Tuesday from 8-10 Eastern. I encourage you to find, and if needed, make time to take part in this open forum.
Listen Louder – Enough just can’t be said about this. The essence of engaging and learning derive their value from listening. Your message CANNOT reach any audience if you are not listening. @FarmerHaley made an excellent point regarding the #ProFood movement. This movement has taken root, in part, due to strong voices like Michael Pollen. There are also very knowledgeable individuals who are also promoting what they call The Five Stones of ProFood. We need to listen to them and engage, while at the same time share our knowledge. What will happen if we do not engage is quite detrimental. The risk is very high that farmers will be painted with a broad brush causing the “bad” to take center stage. We cannot allow this. There are, by far, a greater number of excellent farmers than there are not. I envision a world where farmers are producing what the world needs in terms of food, fuel, and fiber all the while doing it sustainably. I like to think of agriculture and farming like medicine. Both are “practiced”. Medicine is not static. It is complex and takes very smart people to continue to make advances for the betterment of society. So it is with agriculture and farming. Farmers are the “doctors” of agriculture and continually work to make their business better and sustainable. This is exactly why we need to listen louder. If we do that through the social media outlets, our knowledge will then be heard.
Share sound bytes about agriculture: We live in a sound byte world and Twitter is the perfect venue for that. This has both positives and deltas. The positive is that we can share short pieces of information on ag, health, farming, nutrition, and the like. The delta is the risk of providing just enough information to “make people dangerous”. For example, I know enough information about managing a database to be quite dangerous! So, in my view, we need to be sure that what we share in a micro-blogging format is 1.) content rich, and 2.) directs users to other outlets with more detail (ie blog, facebook, website, etc..). Michele, I completely agree that people like to hear about the activities taking place on the farm and the many pieces of information we provide on #foodfact Thursday, and in general all through the week. What I would like to keep seeing is that interest gets piqued in a sound byte fashion so the user is then enticed to navigate to blogs where a more in depth discussion can take place. To this day, I am still impressed by the amount of farmers and farming related businesses that are involved in social media, specifically Twitter. What a wonderful tool to share and gain knowledge. I second the thanks to Mike for developing that list for Twitter.
Build collaborations: The open forum #agchat is a shining example of how collaborations are developed. Each time I participate in this, I gain at least 10 new followers who I can then collaborate with. As many in agriculture know, there are others outside of our industry that spread mis-information, as Michele mentioned in her post. Collaboration is a good way to counter the mis-information as well as spread the truth about what we do, how we do it, and why. So, come and participate; you will enrich your life. Take this quote from Christo, an artist, “It is not only one person’s work, it’s really a partnership and collaboration during all these years.” Christo was referring to her artist counterpart; however, the quote is apt. It isn’t a “job” for one of us to advocate for agriculture, it is all of ours.
Put a face on the plate: Food production and food policy have really been thrust into the spotlight. It makes really good sense to know where you food comes from. There has been a huge push over the last 2 years for end to end traceability. This is just a natural progression of agricultural and technological advancements. Consumers can see these advancement and want to know where the food was produced and farmers need to know how to manage their crops at a sub-field level. So how do we engage and interact with people? Personally, I like to deal with people on a face to face basis. It engenders trust. We in agriculture need to leverage social media so we can get in front of consumers both virtually and possibly face to face.
Engage in debate with people from different backgrounds: This point is one that I rank high on my Twitter “list of benefits”. Debate is a cornerstone of our democracy. As Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania stated, the healthcare debate is a lesson in exactly how democracy should work. I mention this so we can gain a full understanding of the impact(s) a vigorous debate can have. Naturally there are going to be individuals and organizations that are not interested in a discussion, much less a good debate! These are on the extreme sides and should not impact our desire to spread the message of agriculture. It should, on the contrary, embolden us to get our message out there. So, don’t take a backseat on the agriculture discussion. It’s just too important to not only our nation, but the entire world. If you participate in the agriculture industry, engage in a thoughtful debate and share your story. We will all learn and be better for it.
So what are you waiting for? Dive in head first. There are plenty of people that will help and we need your voice! Michele, thanks for this great post. If you are in agriculture and have an interest in social media but have questions or need some help, let me know. I would be glad to assist. You can find me on Twitter here: http://www.twitter.com/natejtaylor. I look forward to connecting with you soon, sharing knowledge, and learning from one another. I will leave you with a quote. “What we plant in the soil of contemplation, we shall reap in the harvest of action.” ~ Meister Eckhart. It’s time for action!
Regards,
Nate J. Taylor
“Agriculture not only gives riches to a nation, but the only riches she can call her own.” ~ Samuel Johnson.
Nate is a great example of someone who has learned to get above the “noise: in social media Thanks for your valuable insight and the time you took to share with others, Nate!
Excellent post!
People often ask why they should get involved in social media beyond their facebook page. Your list is a powerful tool for communicating the value of the space. And as Prof Kleinschmidt notes, “adapt or die.”
Its easy for farmers and ranchers to brush off PR and communication duties for social and/or geographic (or myriad other) reasons. Online media cuts right through those barriers and makes it easy for our industry to communicate directly with our consumers. No proxy, no gatekeeper, just raw message.
Shawn, it’s been great getting to know you through social media. I like the analogy of cutting through barriers – and a raw message. Maybe we can create a “raw message” movement akin to raw foods. 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to comment!
I think this brief article is pertinent to this discussion:
http://www.jsonline.com/business/53949887.html
Came via Twitter. Funny how information works!
Michele,
I wanted to comment and thank you for being a major voice for the ag community. Not only for speaking out, but also for educating. Your post is well written and says much of what I try to live by, both for Fastline’s social media presence, as well as my own.
I wanted to touch on putting a face on the plate. Prior to getting involved with the Ag industry, I never really gave much thought to this concept. However now I can see how important it is to know where your food comes from and who helped to get it there.
With the birth and explosion of social media we have been given the tools and the audience, ag and non ag alike. We are now able to reach people we may never have been in contact with before. We have an opportunity to reach, teach, and even learn. Talking to people and giving them insight into the ag world has always been important. Doing so with social media isn’t trying to recreate the wheel, it is enabling us to do it more and better.
Keep up the great work for ag Michele, we all appreciate you and your work.
Sabrina, that was very kind, but I really believe the power is in the community – of which you’re a valuable player. I’ve often used Fastline’s SM presence as an example for other agricultural companies to learn from. Your perspective about putting a face on the plate is so critical. Farmers are busy people and many don’t want to add another chore to the list. However, our future relies on each person in ag talking about what we do. Thanks for helping to set an example of that. I also encourage readers to check out your blog at http://blog.fastline.com/.
For so long it seams like everything was a secret. No one asks what you feed ’em or where you sell ’em until social media. Now there seems to be more ways to collaborate on every little thing on the farm or ranch. Think about how much wasted time we could avoid by just sharing and talking to each other a little more.
Bret Wade
http://www.ranchwabble.com
You raise a great point – sharing information within agriculture is just as valuable as it is sharing with folks away from ag. It’s a fast, simple way to check with others who have experience on issue that’s perplexing you. Thanks for the ideas!
Michele
Great job summing it all up the reasons why Agriculture needs to embrace Social Media. As the previous posters have already covered many points I want to focus on your last statement: “Call social media a fad if you wish, but know that agriculture is missing an opportunity to be proactive if you don’t take the time to harvest the benefits of at least one of the tools.”
I agree with you that even if it is a fad we will be out much more if we do not embrace it than if we use Social Media to its full advantage. During an interview yesterday I was able to come up with the comparison that Social Media is essentially a virtual Office “water cooler”. Social Media will allow farmers & ranchers to bridge the ever growing divide the public has with Agriculture. It will allow the public to know farmers and realize we are real human beings. What is better to get the word out that “We care for our comm(you)nities, our environment & our animals.”
Thanks again for keeping the flame lit!
Thanks for taking the time from your cows to comment Ray – and for helping to set an example to other farmers on how to employ SM. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn can be the “water cooler” where a lot of information is shared – which prevents all of us from recreating the wheel. Keep up the good work in these very tough times for the dairy business!
Michele, it’s hard to do much commenting – you’ve summarized why we need to harvest the benefits of social media VERY well. I think the ‘listen louder’ is very important. I had the opportunity to travel a lot last winter and my eyes were opened wider as to the disconnect amongst the majority. I have found Twitter to be my favorite SM tool-at only 140 characters it doesn’t take much time. Being able to share that we’ve shipped cattle that had no hormones or antibiotics – I think is very valuable to share.
None of this is rocket science-which is what I love and try to tell other farmer friends now is the time to start telling your story–because lots of others are trying to tell it for us. But we still have the advantage, we have the truth and that’s why we need to be talking everyday–what we do to provide the safest, most abundant food at the lowest cost.
I’ve said to many others, so what if it is a fad – it’s the best opportunity we have today and we’ld better take advantage of it now.
Thanks again for stepping up.
Hi Debbie. Great to hear from another farmer who is using social media very well. You are correct that it’s not rocket science; it’s just a matter of having the initiative and insight to do it. Thanks for helping others in ag see that!
Excellent summary of the potentials for social media. It is obvious that you not only participate, but observe behavior of those who engage and get involved for the various reasons they do so.
It sometimes feels like we are talking to ourselves, but you never know who is listening in to your/our perspectives, your fact-based discourse, your passions. This is Issues Management 101, but there are those who will always agree with you, there are those who will never change their minds and who do battle with us, but there is a vast majority in the middle.
It seems to me (the middle)they are made of two broad groups. One segment could care less where there food comes from. They do not sympathize with the ag way of life, the challenges of producing food with all the uncertainties and risks, the use of technologies ag uses to produce more on the same acres. We talk to them as if they should care, but they don’t nor should they. Pick any business sector and many of us do not have the appreciation for what it takes to succeed and the commitment those folks have for what they do.
But there is another vast group in the middle that are trying to understand. They do listen to both sides. These are the individuals we must for whom we must battle. Hopefully these are people who will listen intelligently to the debate, the facts presented, and appreciate the respect shown for their questions and debate.
Keep up the good work, Michelle.
Thanks, Bill. I advise the 80/20 rule with most of my audiences. There’s at least 20% we’ll never reach, but hopefully a majority who we could potentially impact. I agree that not everyone cares where their food comes from, but that may also be because we haven’t connected ag with something that’s important to them. Appreciate your shared experience.
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