A Brazilian popstar, Hollywood celebrities and an agricultural speaker are side-by-side in the race for an internationally-recognized social media award. Mashable, The Social Media Guide, announced the nominees for the 2009 Open Web Awards today and Certified Speaking Professional Michele Payn was one of the top five nominees for Twitter User of the Year. There are over two million “tweets” sent daily on the micro-blogging site Twitter and celebrities attract the largest number of followers, so agriculture’s representation on this list is an exciting opportunity for the agrifood business. Payn was nominated by members of an agricultural community, “#AgChat”, which Payn founded in April.

Take a look my video response about why this type of ‘exposure’ is important for agriculture, even when it’s painful to be the name involved. It is true that many in our #agchat community launched a campaign to make this nomination happen while I was overseas.  Believe it or not, this has been a really good lesson for me to practice what I preach about agriculture folks to get over self-consciousness if it means we can tell our story to a wider and more diverse audience.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF4XaU-oWBs]

Again, thanks to those who have chosen to vote and participate to put agriculture in the spotlight. I really believe this is about the community and not any given user name. Regardless of whether you choose to vote daily at https://mashable.com/owa/votes?v=247&c=50 or not, I’m thankful for your interest in food and the people who raise it this Thanksgiving season.