Social Media in Agriculture

Social Media in Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. If you spend any time at all on the computer you probably have a MySpace, Facebook or Twitter account. Even if you don't personally have one you know of someone who does. Teenagers use them to keep up with what each other are doing and a lot of older folks use them to reconnect with old school mates and long lost friends. But exactly how do all these social media outlets fit into the world of agriculture? Will Gilmer chairs the Farm Bureau Young Farmer and Rancher Committee. He says farmers need to tell the story of where food and fiber come from. GILMER: When we don't tell that story there's other groups that are stepping in and trying to talk about the things we are doing and are usually *** to get in a very negative light and giving a lot of misinformation out there. Well our consumers, they don't have a reason to know different so that's what I think is important. We get out there and talk about what we do because when we do that we can build a good relationship with our consumers. We can put their mind at ease. Make them continue to feel good about the products they are buying from us and that relationships key to keeping agriculture strong and viable for many years to come. A lot of people use social media to keep up with not only their business but hobbies as well. Most of my posts usually involve my passion for scuba diving. Gilmer says in the time he's been using social media he has seen a boom in other farmers doing the same thing. GILMER: I've been involved for about a year on Twitter and Facebook and now 5 or 6 months on YouTube and the more I get into it the more people I make connection with outside of agriculture. And just because that list of connections is growing kind of signifies to me, yea, I'm doing a good job in of itself but also a lot of the conversations I've been able to have back and forth have been real positive. I've been able to address some misconceptions that some people I knew might have had but also just a lot of comments from people saying thanks for doing what you do on your farm and it's great for America and thank you and all the other farmers and ranchers out there. So that shows me and that's proof that we're making great strides with the public in doing that. You can follow Will. His Twitter id is @gilmerdairy. You'll also find his moo-tube minutes on YouTube under the Gilmer Dairy name. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.