Social Conversations Around Farmers & Food

Why should you care about social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube? It’s really quite simple. Mass influence. Facebook reached 150 million users nearly three times faster than a cell phone. Social media is a culture changer, not a fad. If you’re not at the table, you can’t be a part of constructing the conversation – nor can you counter the misinformation campaigns around farm, food and nutrition.

Activist groups are becoming increasingly active on social networks and understand the power of messaging, according to Cause Matters Corp. research. The Humane Society of the United States has had more than 100x increase in their Twitter following since January 2009. Videos on animal rights and environmentalism increase 30% monthly. Science-based information is often overlooked in lieu of celebrity recommendations proliferated through our social world.

Food is an extremely hot issue – and it’s time for people with firsthand experience to leverage that through social media leadership to influence public opinion, rather than react to rhetoric. It will take experts from all sides of the food plate. Only 98.5% of the population aren’t in food production. How can we expect them to understand the origins of food, today’s practices or what’s really happening if we’re not using new media to communicate?

Cause Matters Corp. will help you grow the voice for your cause. Michele and her team have built communities around food and agricultural issues, such as #AgChat and FoodChat on Twitter. Trainings range from one-hour webinars to a full-day workshop, or Michele will work with you to build social media strategy for your organization. In a nutshell, you get a recipe designed for your audience’s social media needs.

Don’t be intimidated by today’s social world; Michele teaches a common sense approach to social media, combined with real life experiences of how farmers, ranchers, registered dietitians and advocates for agriculture have influenced significant change with these tools.

Discover more about the social farm and food conversation with Michele’s compilation of social media resources.