Teenage playground. College hangout. Fad. Be honest. When you hear “Facebook,” you likely have thought one of these or simply that it’s a waste of time. Tables have turned. Facebook reached the tipping point last December; it now boasts a population larger than the United States with 315 million users. Nearly two-thirds of users are beyond college age, and the fastest-growing user group is women over the age of 50. Facebook essentially levels the playing field for the 1.5 percent of the United States that’s involved with farming because of the numbers of people you can connect with and share information about agriculture.

The business value is in the insight on trends, collaboration and intelligence you can gather from this large of a population. Regardless of your political position, consider the Obama campaign’s record turnout among young voters. This occurred largely because their online operations were run by the co-founder of Facebook. He built hundreds of communities through Facebook, quickly equipping the campaign to build a groundswell of support in different locations. Do you think agriculture could benefit from a groundswell of support? I do – and have seen the benefits of sharing agricultural messages through Facebook firsthand.

If you’re not on Facebook yet, all you need to sign up is a valid e-mail account and a password at www.facebook.com. You’ll need a picture and few tidbits of interesting information about yourself. The initial setup can take as little as 15 minutes or as long as you want to put into building your profile. I recommend you piece it together over time. After you create your profile, start adding some friends and be sure to use the “suggested friends” column to the right (which is shockingly accurate at finding friends and relatives). You can easily set up your account with help from a robust guide at www.facebook.com/help/new_user_guide.php and manage your privacy with suggestions from www.allfacebook.com/2009/02/facebook-privacy/.

Click here to continue reading.