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Are you feeding your brain trash? Episode 18

by Michele Payn

“Food is such an integral part of our social fabric. It becomes a part of the storytelling process,” but our farming memory is being lost across generations, says Dr. Cami Ryan, a Canadian social scientist. This loss of farming memory has created gaps and barriers between rural and urban. Opportunists fill in the gaps with new information, which isn’t always accurate. Cami explains how food can be taken on as identity, leaving a person susceptible to bullying. She offers insight on information literacy to keep the trash out your brain and social feeds.

Animals are not humans

by Michele Payn

In a society where we embrace rodents as cartoon...

What’s not working for you in social media?

by Michele Payn

Does social media still give you a headache? Feeling frazzled by Facebook? Troubled by Twitter? Michele would really love to hear your ideas about what you need to learn next about any of the social networking tools to build better connections between farm gate and consumer plate. We’re developing some virtual learning products here at Cause Matters Corp. as a part of the continued emphasis on improving agvocacy skillsets-vote to add your ideas.

Social tools not making sense? Don’t be embarrassed.

by Michele Payn

Know a latecomer to the social world who might be embarrassed to ask for help? Michele shares a variety of articles and resources to help them. Scary fact; 57% of people talk to people more online than they do in real life. If agriculture isn’t a part of that, we all lose.

Farming the human value of Pinterest

by Michele Payn

What does a site filled with wedding dresses, recipes and shoes have to do with farmers? Pinterest is ripe with opportunity for agriculture to go beyond choir & connect on a human level.

Is social media dead in the food & farming discussion?

by Michele Payn

Center pivots of information are directed right at you; we consume about 168 million DVDs worth of information on the internet each day. Are you ducking, drinking or drowning? Info overload is very real; Michele shares social statistics that may surprise you and asks – if social media is dead, what has been birthed in its place?

I’ve got questions. So do 70 million others.

by Invited Guest Blogger

Jodi Oleen is a Generation Yer who relies on an online network of people she’s built to provide trustworthy information. She seeks out blogs that she trusts, people on Twitter she’s had meaningful conversations with and webpages or Facebook pages that give her a glimpse into things she needs to learn more about. This guest post challenges readers to answer some of the questions asked by Gen Yers.

Agvocating: Quick, Short & to the Point

by Invited Guest Blogger

Wayne Black is an Ontario farmer who shied away from social media because of his dislike for Facebook. Then he discovered Twitter… Read this guest post to discover what he’s learned.

Savvy Chicken Suits: Defining the Food Story

by Invited Guest Blogger

Guest blogger Lara Durben has had animal rights extremists throw a rock through her window, participated in a meeting with a HSUS employee who was an Illinois 4-H farm kid and found activists are much savvier than wearing chicken suits on sidewalks. She offers perspective on how poultry organizations have utilized speaker bureaus to empower their producers, participated in social media and how you can blur work and personal life to maximize impact.

Farmer Grows Agritourism & Winery Through Social Media

by Invited Guest Blogger

Ohio farmer Bill Bakan highlights how communicating, especially through social media helps farms. He points to the fact that even if you don’t direct market, other people have an increasing say in how you operate, which translates into your cost of production. Learn how he’s used social media to balance and control his online image for their winery and agritourism operation.

Growing Educated Opinions in FFA Leaders

by Invited Guest Blogger

Did you know Facebook, Twitter, Skype and YouTube can help students learn? Amanda Sollman, a future agriculture education teacher and product of Michigan FFA, pens a guest post about her experience learning from others in agriculture. Social media has helped her be a leader with an educated opinion – and a voice in online conversations about our food system.

Agvocating from a FFA Advisor’s Perspective

by Invited Guest Blogger

An agriculture education teacher and FFA advisor writes a guest post about the continuing need to share agriculture’s story – and defend his teaching profession. Drew Bender has found science, education and agricultural chats essential to his professional learning – and that of his students. He explains how he got started in social media and why it’s important in his classroom.

Can Social Media Protect Your Farm’s License to Operate?

by Invited Guest Blogger

DeEtta Bohling, guest blogger, didn’t grow up on a farm or ranch. She says a great deal of what she has learned about corn, sorghum, ethanol, and livestock has come from the farmers and ranchers she interacts with in person, on Twitter and on Facebook. She also challenges farmers about using social media to protect their license to operate.

A Farmer’s Perspective: Why I Facebook, Tweet and Blog

by Invited Guest Blogger

A fifth generation farmer in Nebraska who grows corn, popcorn, soybeans and alfalfa has found his use of social media growing. Learn about Ryan Weeks experience in starting with Facebook, then moving to Twitter, YouTube, Linkedin and now blogging. This modern day farmer challenges others in agriculture to find their voice to counter misinformation.

Agvocating in the World of Social Media

by Invited Guest Blogger

Celeste Settrini has embraced social media as a key tool in telling agriculture’s story. This guest blogger agvocate, a commodities broker from a cattle ranch, shares her social media journey and the whole new world opened up by Facebook, Twitter and blogs.

Teaching with Technology: Agriculture & Universities

by Michele Payn

Taking lessons from her university ag classes, college student Laura Padgett provide the first blog in a series about how the use of technology in the classroom can be utilized by those in the agrifood business. How can techno tools used in education help consumers ask questions and farmers provide answers?

Advancing Social Media for Agriculture

by Michele Payn

Society has shifted in an era of 500 million Facebook users, 50 million tweets, 450 million people on mobile internet and 68 million bloggers – whether you accept new media or not. We’re bombarded by 13,000 marketing messages each day, now largely due to new media. Watch the Evolution of Online Agvocacy if you want to see more. All of this social media mania is also building a fear that humans may just stop having real conversations -after all, we can just text, direct message, instant message, Facebook or email (how old school!). Nothing could be further from the truth, based upon the energy level of a group of farmers, ranchers and agricultural folks this week at the inaugural AgChat Foundation Agvocacy 2.0 Conference.

Earning the Right to Educate

by Michele Payn

Nine states. More than 50 hours of training...

Milk Pongs, Family Farms & Politicians

by Michele Payn

The National Agriculture Week celebration continues with great events across communities, large and small, in real life and the virtual world. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and even Linkedin have been filled with updates from people working to increase awareness of American agriculture. The idea extravaganza at the Cause Matters Corp. Facebook fan page has brought people from across the country to the party.

National Ag Week Idea Extravaganza

by Michele Payn

Cause Matters Corp. is celebrating National Agriculture Week by throwing a “party” at https://facebook.com/causematters. Ideas are being shared from across the country on how to advocate effectively for farmers.

Time for a Party

by Michele Payn

This party is going to be a bit different; it’s all about idea sharing and is happening virtually on Facebook at the Cause Matters Corp. fan page, so you’ll have to BYOB. What’s the occasion? National Agriculture Week, of course! What better time to connect the people raising food, feed, fuel and fiber?

Inspiration

by Michele Payn

Agricultural speaker Michele Payn talks about how farmers and ranchers inspire her to continue helping agriculture champion its’ cause!

Farmers Share Social Media Success

by Michele Payn

Ever had a cow lick your video camera? Wonder why a farmer tweets? Want to know how the agricultural community is REALLY using tools such as Twitter, Facebook and video blogs. Certified Speaking Professional Michele Payn spends time talking on camera with farmers about how they have benefited from social media.

Twitter Empowers Farmer

by Michele Payn

5th generation farmer in Ohio tells Michele that Twitter has empowered him to better speak out for agriculture. Mike Haley points to the opportunity engage and learn from others in the value of social media to his farm.

Translating the Twitterverse

by Michele Payn

Learn, understand and find the business value for agriculture in Twitter. In order to make more approachable, look at Twitter as a large party or coffee shop; there are hundreds of conversations (tweets), millions of new people to meet (following) and different rooms to go to find those with similar interests (hashtags). Learn more with Michele’s latest social media article…

Why Engage in Facebook, YouTube, Twitter?

by Michele Payn

Leadership in agricultural advocacy through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Linkedin and other tools is becoming increasingly critical! Facebook is now about the same size of the U.S population with 300 million users. Hopefully that spells opportunity to you – watch professional agricultural speaker give you some quick video cliffnotes on how agriculture can benefit.

Harvesting the Benefits of Facebook & Twitter

by Michele Payn

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?

Idea Proliferation

by Michele Payn

Last night was one of those moments to learn from others; we had our first #agchat on Twitter. It was energizing, thought-provoking, eye-opening and tough to keep up with speed of conversation. Agchat is similar to #journchat on Twitter, which brings together writers and public relations people. Believe it or not, there’s even #GNO as a chat. As I participated in these chats and saw hundreds of people coming together to discuss a common topic, a chat session for agriculture seemed logical – so #agchat started on Tuesday nights, 8-10 p.m. EDT.

Social Media = Agriculture's Opportunity

by Michele Payn

Why should you take the time to engage in social...

Swaying Opinions in the 21st Century

by Michele Payn

Technology that increases productivity excites me, but I wasn’t one of the early adopters of social media. Frankly, it seemed like a waste of time. However, when I saw a “movement” created online before the 2008 U.S. elections and learned that half of FaceBook users are older than college age, I decided social media was worth a second look. Same goes with webinars; I’ve never been a huge fan, but have found the technology to be a great training tool to reach people across the world without requiring any of us the pain and cost of travel. And, since piloting them in December, I’ve found webinars make even more sense when you need the users to be looking at a computer screen, such as training about social media.

Agriculture and Social Networks?

by Michele Payn

Online communities-whether you call them social...

Technology: Tool or Time Waster?

by Michele Payn

Technology is a frequent topic in modern...