john blue - why do farmers and ranchers need social media?

Truffle Media

Ned Arthur, Director of Sales and Content Development

John Blue, Chief of Community Creation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48H7zOQrX3U

Why a video?

Greg Peterson wanted to help their friends in town understand what Greg’s family does on the farm.

Why do farmers and ranchers need social media?

Farming Mythology

Unusual events happen that make us go "Huh?"

Smuggling cheese.

PETA, HSUS, Mercy for Animals portray any use of animals in any way is always wrong all the time.

Lean Finely Textured BeefPink Slime

Food safety in the news implies all food of same type is now bad.

Consumer observations of products in the stores not always as they seem.

Science to advance growing more foods is opposed by people wanting to not have science based approach to growing food.

Why do farmers and ranchers need social media?

Everyone eats

Number of farms

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s0823.pdf

Relative farm population segments

http://agtoday.us/us-farmer-subgroups-info-2011

Relative farm revenue size

http://agtoday.us/us-farmer-subgroups-info-2011

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s0823.pdf

Can Agriculture Media Help?

78+  Ag  agencies70+  Ag  associa/ons160+  Ag  focused  companies232+  Ag  focused  print  media

http://www.agrimarketing.com/

Print Association

Company Agency

Pictures via Twitter: Lower Dairy Farm, Tracy Zeorian, Ryan froman, Marilena Barbera, Jennifer Dewey, Chad Ingels, Susie J Kirkham, Suderman Bros, sean harmon, McGregor

Farms, Zach Watson, Philip Brigham, John Pawsey, Brenda Kirsch, Tried&True, Bryan Avison, James Lane

Because they havea story to tell.

Why do farmers and ranchers need social media?

Here are some examples

Why: milk prices in the USA were not working well for some dairy farmers; Do consumers know this?

Action: use Twitter to trend #Moo to help draw attention to the milk price issues.

http://gilmerdairy.blogspot.com/2009/08/dairy-awareness-moo-ving-on-up-in.html

AgIowaWhy: to bring ag social media people together to learn and share plus help promote agriculture to non-ag population.Action: leverage the 140 brand and crate a physical event in a large ag focused state (Iowa). Share info via live event, Twitter, and web site.

http://140conf.com/agiowa

Why: Zweber Farms is a family farm that made the decision to be organic. How do they tell people about it?

Action: Create a blog, start using twitter, take pictures, utilize Facebook, go to events to share what they are doing. Tim Zweber tweets from the tractor and Emily writes blog posts and connects on Facebook.

http://zweberfarms.com/

Why: Create a profitable ag digital media company

Action: Be willing to try almost anything, technology wise and marketing wise to build the business. Build platforms on WordPress, Flickr, and connections within the ag industry.

http://agwired.com/

SXSW

Why: Elevate the understanding of agriculture with a tech savvy crowd

Action: Design and submit SXSW proposal and then engage core support crowd to provide supporting votes. Show up and hang on!

http://schedule.sxsw.com/2011/events/event_IAP5858How Farmers Get Serious Business Done With Mobilehttp://schedule.sxsw.com/2011/events/event_IAP5986Agvocacy 2.0: Adding a Human Voice to the Farm

Why: with less than 2% of the US population actually growing food, there is a disconnect to understanding who does produce food.

Action: create a campaign on Twitter around #FoodThanks, utilize a landing page to share info on how to participate, include Twibbon on Twitter avatars, and talk with people to encourage them to blog / thank farmers for our food.

http://foodthanks.com/

Why: There is a lot of information about genetically modified organisms that the public believes yet is not true.

Action: Build a blog around science experts and interested parties to share what happens in science and research. Create a face with FrankNFoode on Twitter and in real life to help educate people on the science.

http://www.biofortified.org/

Why: Many people are not familiar with farming and the work it involves. Young people have energy and a belief they can make a difference.

Action: "Together, our generation can make a difference." through concerts, design, Social Media, Selling T-shirts at events, talking to many people, using social media

http://www.ilovefarmers.org/about.html

Why: To empower farmers and ranchers to connect communities through social media platforms.

Action: setup events to bring social media training to farmers and ranchers in large and small groups.

http://agchat.org/

Telling a great storyWhat is happening?

Contact Information

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