FARMliFe social media in agriculture

social media in agriculture FARMliFe

Social media its so much more than what you had for breakfast

Farmers Weekly recently hosted a live 90-minute web chat on the subject of social media. You talked about issues ranging from the etiquette of following people on twitter, to how to use Facebook to sell. Heres our pick of the best bits featuring panellists and guests MeeT THe Panel
Heather Gorringe runs the Wiggly Wigglers garden supplies business and studied social media as part of a Nuffield Farming scholarship www.wigglywigglers.co.uk @ wiggled Jan Minihane and Tim OGrady are consultants who run workshops and provide online marketing advice www.thenet advantage.co.uk @janminihane @tim-ogrady Julie Robinson is a former head of government and parliamentary affairs at the NFU @robinsonjevelyn Matt Redman is a farm foreman and Farmer Focus writer for FWs arable section @redmanmatt Harriet Wilson is one of Farmers Weeklys College Calendar writers 78
FarmersWeekly 2 september 2011

who dont do this? i grow grain and keep sheep how could it make a difference to my bottom line? MR For people like myself an arable farmer with no direct link to the public twitter gives us the ability to show what we do, why we do it and how we do it in an up-todate way. short and sweet and to the point. Its also great to engage with others in similar lines of work for questions or general chat. TOG Lots of industry news comes through twitter, so you could find out latest trends and information specific to growing grain and raising sheep. @Joon123 Ive learnt more about actual farming from @Farmrphil via twitter in the last few years than Ive ever known before. HG twitter is not just for diversifications its for farmers producing grain and beef. Whether you are a commodity producer or not, twitter is there to engage

What is the best way to find followers/customers on Twitter?

How could i use social media to sell my dorset down ewe lambs?

TOG Have a look who other people are following. If they are interesting, go and have a follow to see what they say. You can always unfollow if you dont find them interesting. Id also suggest doing a local search in twitter, and go and find your neighbours. In the search bar type near:yourtown to find local tweeters. @emelfp: I pick up followers when I get involved in tweets so I tend to follow the ones that interact. @edmogFW: A good way of getting new followers and sharing information is using hashtags such as #agrichatuk and #farmpics. JM Using search.twitter.com to find your target audience is a great way to build quality followers very few twitter users make use of the search function effectively. Also do a keyword analysis for your farm/business and then search for hashtags incorporating those keywords and phrases and see which bring back good results. then go and see whos using it and follow where appropriate. If someone isnt already using a hashtag, why not use it as your own as a way to share knowledge and expertise?

HW even though I normally use Facebook for personal reasons it is so useful as a shop window for livestock. However, I feel that Facebook is not only a great way to sell produce but also to make people more aware of what you have to offer; thus building your brand image. I have been added to a lot of herd and livestock pages where breeders can upload pictures of their stock coming up for sale or any shows that they have done well at; again a huge shop window. TOG Harriet, you talk about shop windows on Facebook. Its possible to set up a real e-commerce store for free on Facebook if you have a paypal account which means no need for expensive websites if you are on a budget. It is really good, its an app called payvment. Another one is Vendingbox. HW As a family we would like to look into the possibilities of selling our Wagyu beef online and this could be a much better way than setting up a website as it is faster and easier.
i can see a role for social media

consumers. think of the effect they are all having on attitudes, prices and loyalty to british produce. Its there to engage mps and journalists. basically anyone and everyone is on twitter and we as farmers have the chance to have a conversation with them and, better still, a public conversation that other people can listen in on and be influenced by.
Whats the value in live

@FarmrPhil I think its important that as farmers we are seen to promote transparency within our industry social media is a perfect medium. HG If we get to the stage, for example, when we need to inform people that we are spraying, why not place the onus on them to follow us on twitter? that way we can simply tweet from the cab when we are spraying. If they want to know, they can follow. Its an opportunity for us to lead with positive open communications. If there is no problem with what we are doing then lets use social media to tell people who want to know about it quickly and easily. Ignorance breeds contempt. MR thats a great idea. It would be simple for both and allow the farmer to promote farming with other tweets to people who wouldnt normally follow them. @hehisself A lot of the people we are attempting to reach are never going to come around to our way of thinking. I doubt social media will change that.
Sceptics often say Twitter

numbers of people globally. We have often missed the opportunity to communicate directly and blamed all sorts of people for misconstruing farming and agriculture social media is a fantastic opportunity to improve the situation without lots of effort and from our homes or tractors. Its a wild time. Its bigger than when they invented the telephone, in my view. TOG I often call twitter ask a human. com. It can give better results than Google. people often just follow a few celebrities and update people on their lunching habits, but thats it. Its a shame as it can be so much more, but a lot of people dont get it. @FarmrPhil Ive had some cracking discussions about badgers and bovine tb on twitter just search badger or btb. remember how sceptical many of our parents generation were about the mobile phone proclaiming it a waste of time and a fad. @Will_FW the power of social media is in connecting a network of people to address a common cause. Whats the cause in farming? Its great having a network, but a network with a purpose would be way more awesome. social media is the first step towards wider use of tech and ICt in food and farming. Agriculture hasnt even scraped the surface of how to use the web to best effect.
can social media help relieve

with people when youre working long hours on your own. I use it more than texts to pass the time. JM shropshire (where I hail from) has many isolated businesses. twitter has done an amazing job at bringing people together and helping them feel part of the community. Its a very, very strong community on twitter and Ive seen stunning random acts of kindness. JR In one case I tweeted about there being no rain in east Anglia and @NFU_Kent weighed in to remind me that the south east was badly affected too. It was good to know.
isnt it just a matter of time

tweeting at ag conferences and events? JR It was interesting at the NFU Council. those who got to know each other on twitter seemed more likely to chat face-to-face. MR tweeting from the NFU Council was brilliant. I kept up with what was going on as it happened. If I had to read a report of the day Id forget half, or not finish it. the same applies to farmers Ive met quite a few people at Cereals who, without twitter, Id have no idea who they are or how they can be useful to know. TOG Live tweeting is spreading. Local parish councils are taking it up as a way to get a wider community involved in decision making. JM Im a big fan of live tweeting from events its so powerful to extend the messages out to the public and make people feel a part of it.

before all these technologies are superseded? MR Who knows? I think once you get the hang of one, it is easier to use a different one. plus that will always be the case, so I guess youve got to start somewhere at some time. TOG the technology will move on, but twitter particularly is fairly simple. If you learn one thing now then it will be easier to learn something new in the future as youll have a knack by then. JM New social media sites are springing up all the time. twitter will have its day, Facebook may take longer, but personally I think not for a few years at least, so there is plenty you could be benefiting from. my advice is start with one site. Dont try to do them all, its just too overwhelming.
2 september 2011 FarmersWeekly

@ fwi.co.uk
Want more? Find a full transcript of questions and answers from our social media web chat at www.fwi. co.uk/SMtranscript If youre struggling with social media jargon you can also find a glossary of key terms at www.fwi.co.uk/ SMjargon

and Facebook are just places for people to update each other on what theyve had for breakfast. is that so? HG Folks who say that are completely out of date. It would be like saying the phone or email are just for that too. We must not blame the tool for the conversation we need to use the tools to drive and build useful conversations with huge

a common complaint from

if i ran a diversification or sold food directly to consumers but what are its benefits to farmers

farmers is that theres a disconnect between what happens on the farm and the general public. can social media address this?

rural isolation?

MR Definitely. It keeps you in contact

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