Bringing awareness and Interest to your Operation
Social media is more than just a place to catch up with old friends and post new pictures of your family. When used correctly, it can be a tool to help grow awareness about your business and agriculture. Whether you have a large operation or keep it small, social media can help you. An estimated 73% of the United States population uses social media in 2024, which comes to about 308 million people in the US.
Agriculture is a visual lifestyle; people love to hear stories about what is happening at their neighbor’s farms. Even if you are not selling products, social media can help to push the light of food grown and produced to people who may have previously thought it just came from the grocery store.
When starting, the most common platforms to use are Facebook and Instagram. By using these platforms, you will be able to find your target audience. You can also link these platforms, allowing you to post on both simultaneously, saving time and energy. Other platforms that would be useful to promote your operation would be YouTube or TikTok; both are more video-focused. These can be used to share a day-in-the-life video or how-tos.
When setting up your accounts, make sure they are business accounts. That way, you can track analytics and reports on what your audience responds to and what they see the most. This also allows for multiple administrators to run the account. Another important part of social media is linking your website if you have one for your operation. If you are selling a product, it is recommended to have a website.
When running a social media account, a good rule of thumb to follow is the rule of 80/20. This rule states that 80% of your posts should educate or entertain, and the other 20% should promote or sell. A second rule of thumb is to have a call to action on the 20% of posts used to sell or promote. A call to action could be the following: visit us at a market, pick up at our farm, or even vote for our new farm dog’s name. This is a way to get your followers to interact with your posts, and they will be more likely to remember them.
A way to bring more attention to your page is by using hashtags. Hashtags help people find things related to what they are looking for. For example, if you were to have Beef for sale in NW Arkansas, some hashtags could be #BeefforSale, #LocalGrown, #FarmLife, #FarmToTable, and so on.
A second way to bring attention is to follow trends you may see on the platforms you are using. These trends are wildly used by people and are what people are liking at that moment so they will show up on other peoples.
Another way to help start your social media or refresh your brand is to hire marketing professionals who have time to study analytics and post content that specifically analyzes your brand without you having to do it.
Leveraging social media in agriculture offers a powerful opportunity to connect with audiences, educate the public, and elevate your brand. Sharing your stories can bring a new light to the farming process and highlight dedication. With the right approach, your social media presence can transform from a simple communication tool into a vital asset that brings awareness and drives interest in your operation.
