Saturday’s AgNewMedia Conference at the University of California, Davis, taught farmers the importance of social media and how to use it to further their goals. The conference was a product of academics like Anne King, Patricia Bailey, and Melissa Jordan along with a non-stop team realizing there was a disconnect in communication in the agricultural industry.
As a well versed social media maven, and a 3rd generation citrus farmer, I believe there's a separation I'm finding with farmers abilities to communicate what their seeing to their consumers, they have so much information but not the tools to deliver it. This conference began bridging the gap, and filling the distance between the farmer and the consumer. Now not every farmer is going to run out an create a Facebook page, or Twitter account but this conference provided the tools to consider it, and acknowledge the growing technology movement in an industry that is mainly analog.
There used to be what media types call "Gatekeepers" these are they people that would determine if the story, content, or information was worth any attention. These people could be found in TV, Radio, and most print media; the excitement of social media is the removal from this constricting world of "Gatekeepers" and tell your own story. This information is vital for the family farmers that make up the very small percentage left of an industry that is dominated by corporate agriculture. Through organizations like AgChat Foundation and KnowaCaliforniaFarmer.com small farms are able to speak out and speak up for different types of farming, the benefits of family farming and where you can attain their goods. This is a huge deal to most farmers that feel there are fewer and fewer options available outside of the corporate machine, and gives them back lost autonomy over their own business and families legacy.
Another great new feature of this conference was the youth embracing the farm. Along with all the other generations and ages trying to find their way in this new media for Agriculture, there is a whole new generation coming up trying to make their way as well, the 14-24 year's old. Usually only 4H or FFA are the options, but to give and new, sexy exciting twist on Aggies is ILoveFarmers.org this non-profit has been organized to embrace, engage and invigorate a whole new generation of farmers, and they are very clever in their approach. With a whole product line based around their tattoo looking design the buzz is getting started even outside their target audience.
For those farmers out there past the first stages of social media and trying to take a new road to capture their audience there are videos like the one below and have made a clever edge to their product, which has already over 1,000,000 views.
As a well versed social media maven, and a 3rd generation citrus farmer, I believe there's a separation I'm finding with farmers abilities to communicate what their seeing to their consumers, they have so much information but not the tools to deliver it. This conference began bridging the gap, and filling the distance between the farmer and the consumer. Now not every farmer is going to run out an create a Facebook page, or Twitter account but this conference provided the tools to consider it, and acknowledge the growing technology movement in an industry that is mainly analog.
There used to be what media types call "Gatekeepers" these are they people that would determine if the story, content, or information was worth any attention. These people could be found in TV, Radio, and most print media; the excitement of social media is the removal from this constricting world of "Gatekeepers" and tell your own story. This information is vital for the family farmers that make up the very small percentage left of an industry that is dominated by corporate agriculture. Through organizations like AgChat Foundation and KnowaCaliforniaFarmer.com small farms are able to speak out and speak up for different types of farming, the benefits of family farming and where you can attain their goods. This is a huge deal to most farmers that feel there are fewer and fewer options available outside of the corporate machine, and gives them back lost autonomy over their own business and families legacy.
Another great new feature of this conference was the youth embracing the farm. Along with all the other generations and ages trying to find their way in this new media for Agriculture, there is a whole new generation coming up trying to make their way as well, the 14-24 year's old. Usually only 4H or FFA are the options, but to give and new, sexy exciting twist on Aggies is ILoveFarmers.org this non-profit has been organized to embrace, engage and invigorate a whole new generation of farmers, and they are very clever in their approach. With a whole product line based around their tattoo looking design the buzz is getting started even outside their target audience.
For those farmers out there past the first stages of social media and trying to take a new road to capture their audience there are videos like the one below and have made a clever edge to their product, which has already over 1,000,000 views.
From tips like video blogging needing to be kept under 1-2 minuets, to acknowledging that the future of social media is actually mobile media were given among many others. Applications like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, QR (Quick Response Codes) and Groupon are all embracing a growing mobile world, and this is where the farmer should be looking now. QR codes could be the newest and most revolutionary part of the industry, as they are a special barcode, which when scanned by a smartphone application would lead the user to wealth of product information in a matter of seconds.
One thing that Jason Shoultz of America's Heartland, spoke to was the notion that contained, and controlled messages will always lack transparency, and the more bureaucracy on the farm, non-profit, or organization the more complications will come in creating a message to share with your followers. This can be something that so many people give to little credit to, the "upper management" is so worried about what negative message will leak out that they are very wary of social media, and when they baby-step into it everything is overly controlled.
Jeff Fowle of AgChat Foundation has some very concise remarks to be said on making the message, "There is no main glove that encompass all, we need farmers of all types from sustainable to traditional, organic to GMO to come together, we may not all agree, but there is no one glove that encompasses agriculture. We need to make CA, and the U.S aware of the farmers in the field that feed America, and the world." "Be genuine, be honest, and kind in your messages to the public."
There were great breakout sessions including: Delivering a positive message, Engaging your audience, Evaluating effectiveness, Niche marketing, Providing useful information for policy makers, Just getting started with use of social media, Share Your Story, Using visual media, Writing an initial story, Working with multiple commodities. With such a great conference put together it made me wonder why it took so long, so I spoke to Dr. Anne King, Professor in the Department of Animal Science at UC Davis. "It's something that I've been thinking about for 2 years, it need to happen and finally we just formed a committee and made it happen, as everything was coming together we even had people walking onto the committee they were so excited about what we were doing."
Some final take-home points that Jim Morris from the California Rice Commission said were
There were great breakout sessions including: Delivering a positive message, Engaging your audience, Evaluating effectiveness, Niche marketing, Providing useful information for policy makers, Just getting started with use of social media, Share Your Story, Using visual media, Writing an initial story, Working with multiple commodities. With such a great conference put together it made me wonder why it took so long, so I spoke to Dr. Anne King, Professor in the Department of Animal Science at UC Davis. "It's something that I've been thinking about for 2 years, it need to happen and finally we just formed a committee and made it happen, as everything was coming together we even had people walking onto the committee they were so excited about what we were doing."
Some final take-home points that Jim Morris from the California Rice Commission said were
- Pinpoint your message, and your auidence
- Speak in their language
- Be prolific and proactive
- Have sound science back up your claims
- Brevity - be brief
- Gain third party support
- Be Real - genuine
- Maintain other outreach - story pitches, personal interaction, responsive
- Don't over engage - too much information isn't good
- Remember this is a "Game Changer"
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