By Eric Jenks, Special to NEAFA
The producer panel during the February 8th NEAFA Annual Meeting focused on using social media to promote agribusiness and farms. Eileen Jensen, from the NY Animal Agriculture Coalition moderated the discussion. Panelists included Carrie Edsall of Black Willow Farm, Johanna Bossard of Barbland and White Eagle Dairy and an agricultural teacher at Hamilton Central School, Paul Fouts of Fouts Farm, and Keith Franklin of Miller Farm.
Each panelist utilizes social media and the different platforms in a number of ways so that they can best tell the story of their respective businesses. “I’m very much a fly by the seat of my pants person,” said Edsall. “Instagram has been an easier platform for that for me. From moving sheep, gathering turkeys, etc., I gather video and photos as I go. I look at Facebook as more of an advertisement. That’s where I post really good pictures, push that we’re lambing, have new products, pastured poultry for the season, things like that. The ability to connect in two different ways, is great to have.
For Bossard, social media use is more about planning out her posts. “It’s the teacher aspect in me,” said Bossard. “I use scheduling apps to my advantage; the meta business suite is my friend. I don’t have the time to do posts in the moment, but I do know what I want to highlight and when it should go out. Someone is doing something at every moment of the day, and that’s not going to always be me. I’m not in the tractor, I’m not milking cows, or spreading manure. I have to rely on employees to get me footage. I do a lot of stuff at night time and on weekends, making posts and reels for the week. Most of the employees know to send me photos or video, even when spreading manure. The thing is, most people don’t know what we’re doing on the farm. Whether it’s changing a tire, welding a gate, or spreading manure, the general consumer wants to know that, and it’s good to get that footage from the people doing it.”
The panel also spoke on the challenges, positives, and negatives that come from using social media regularly. “It can be challenging coming up with new creative content,” said Franklin. “My role on the farm changed, for example. When I was around the cows, it seemed that they presented a lot of opportunities for photos. But being buried in an engine and fixing something, well that doesn’t seem as intriguing to me.”
Making sure that you use the right medium for each social media platform can be a challenge as well. “I try to use reels a lot in instagram; video or picture put to fun music,” said Bossard. “Videos on Facebook don’t do as well.”
As anyone that has spent a modicum of time in the comments section of a post will well know, posts can also have a negative interaction. “I’ve been fortunate not to have that many,” said Edsall. “When it happens it can be really frustrating. I try not to get defensive, because you really have to educate the general public about agricultural practices. They don’t know what they don’t know. We all have to share what we’re doing when we raise and consume meats and animal products. I do my best to turn the conversation to be educational and not take it personal.”
“I use a banned words list,” said Bossard. “You can block phrase or moderate comments based off of those words. With those safeguards set, they filter out 90% or so of the bad stuff. You have to ask yourself, do I want to deal with this, and is this a discussion with someone in the moveable middle. If not, banning is very easy.”
Conversations however, with those that are open to them, can be rewarding. “Quite a few times I’ve thought I don’t want to do this, it’s not worth it,” said Fouts. “But then I quite often get people that say that I’m one of the only things that they look at on Facebook, and that they use me as a resource to show people what agriculture is really like. There was one time that a person that my wife knows, they live in Los Angeles, and they shared an animal activist video, and I explained what they were actually seeing versus what they were being told by the video. It took several hours of back and forth before we reached an understanding. But I got through to them, and I changed their opinion on agriculture. That was when I decided I wanted to be able to get information out there that I wanted people to have access to. Social media is an easy way to have a connection with people.”
Those connections on social media can go far beyond someone’s friend’s list as well. “I think one of the first times that I felt that my little voice could reach a lot of people was during a corn harvest,” said Franklin. “I had a GoPro camera mounted on the combine to give multiple different video angles. Well I got done editing and posted it, and it got 10,000 views overnight! Throughout the day you’re getting dinged from people watching. It gave me the idea of the power of what you can do with just a little bit of tech.”
Bossard added that it is also a great way to educate the next generation. “The youth are always watching,” said Bossard. “They’ll come to me and say ‘I saw xyz thing, what’s going on here?’ If it spurs a conversation with someone not in agriculture, if it helps me connect with them and makes me more relatable to them, then it’s worth it. It’s not just kids too, it’s the same with other people in my life. I see a lot of other teachers in my life, and they’ll say “we had no idea you milked the cows this way, or that there was so much science that goes into feeding them.” If we all did that a little bit more, it wouldn’t be so overwhelming for advocating for agriculture on social media. You might not think you posting would make a difference, but I guarantees it does to someone; and that’s a win.”
For some, getting started posting to social media can be intimidating. “We’re all doing the same things,” said Bossard. “You can start by following others, and seeing what they’re doing. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Figure out a way to use a topic to highlight your farm. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask younger people in your life for help. Don’t know what kids want to see? Ask them. They’ll show you how to do reels. They’re an awesome generation. Let’s bring them in to the ag industry and have them teach us things when we need help too.”
Franklin adds, “Just do your thing. I was pretty computer illiterate when I started, but it’s not hard. We’re not going to be out there dancing on tiktok, but you can do other things. The people that you’ll reach are different from the people I reach, but you can look at how it spiderwebs out. If we all put out positive messages about agriculture, it’s harder for negative messages to get a foothold.”
Fouts agreed. “You don’t have to know what you’re doing,” said Fouts. “Starting out it boggled my mind that my routine is strange and interesting to so many people, but I know that I’ve reached a lot of different people and showed them what agriculture is all about. Just do it, be yourself, and be respectful.”