trends in social media & agriculture

Prepared for:The National Agri-Marketing Association NAMA | Trends in Agriculture ConferenceKansas City, Missouri | November 11, 2009

Developed by:Leslie Bradshaw

Principal | Bradshaw Vineyards (Willamette Valley, OR)Director of Engagement | New Media Strategies (Arlington, VA)

6 Trends in Social Media & Agriculture:Tips, Tricks and Insights from Bradshaw Vineyards

Why I am Passionate about Agriculture

My Ancestors:• I am a 5th generation Oregon Trail survivor – Baskett Family, mom’s side,

homesteaded in Idaho and Oregon• My grandfather was an agronomist for the State Department and World

Bank – he was a soil and rice specialist

My Parents:• Managed a walnut ranch in Ione, CA in the 1970s• Have instilled an ethos of hard work, respect for nature and love of

homegrown produce in my sister and me• My dad is a farmer, engineer, mechanic, Ferrier and viticulturist; so is my

mom and, add to that, she’s also an equestrian

Me:• Born in Carson City, NV – not much growing there, save sage brush• Lived in Northern California (Lake Tahoe) – I grew carrots and lettuce in

our backyard• Helped found our family vineyard in Oregon (1987 – present)• Raised sheep for 4H; helped raise Polled Hereford herd with my dad• Attended UC Davis (transferred after 1 year to UChicago)• Pioneer with / for tech and media companies in Washington DC (today)

1982 - 1993 1993 – 2000 2001 – 20042000 – 2001 2005 – present

1843

So, Basically, I’ve Been Traversing the Oregon Trail… in Reverse

Carpe Diem Literally Means “Harvest the Day”

“I don't dwell on Facebook or Twitter at all because I just don't need to get into that area of someone's life. I've got so much going on in my own. ... So I'm looking for weather reports and market reports mostly.”

–Scotty HerrimanCommissioner on the Oklahoma Soybean Board

The Oklahoma City Journal Record | August 21, 2009

! ALERT: YOU ARE LIMITING YOUR

POTENTIAL DIGITAL YIELD!

“I leverage Facebook, Twitter and other social media because the future of my family’s business is tied to the demand for and connection to our [grape] crop. Social media is expediting connections, raising awareness and helping my family tell the Bradshaw Vineyards story.”

–Leslie BradshawStrategist | Entrepreneur | Vintner

NAMA Trends in Agriculture | November 11, 2009

1 – Read, Enjoy

2 – (Re)Search

3 – Identify, Authenticate

4 – Share, Praise, Store

5 – Connect, Reinforce

For Example(True Story)

#1: Twitter, Tweeting, TwitPic’ing

“People out in the cities aren't familiar with agriculture like it used to be 100 years ago. They may not have an appreciation or an understanding of what goes on out in the rural side of things…. I just try to be an information source for whoever may be listening.”

–Steve Tucker Twittering farmer from Venango, Nebraska

CNN.com | July 3, 2009

Content Credit: CNN.com; Steve Tucker (@Tykerman1)

FACT: Twitter posts are helping bridge the urban-rural divide.

FACT: Phones and social media are connecting eaters with sources of food.

FACT: Twitter has helped my family connect, as a grower, with the winery that buys our grapes (King Estate).

Strategy and Tactics• What is your objective? Connecting with consumers, media, others in

the industry?• Is it your voice? Your produce’s voice? If multiple contributors, then sign

tweets with a carrot (^leslie)• Mix up content with photos, videos, articles; keep <120 characters to be

re-tweeted (“RT”)• Participate in weekly “ag chats” 8 – 10 PM ET (use hashtag #AgChat;

message the master account by posting @AgChat)

Applications• BlackBerry: UberTwitter, TwitterBerry• iPhone: Tweetie, TwitterFON, Twitterrific• Monitoring: TweetDeck, TweetGrid, search.twitter.com, TweetBeep,

Hootsuite, Nutshell Mail• Photo: Twitpic, Utterli (+ audio), Flickr, yfrog, Facebook• RSS: Facebook, FriendFeed

What You Need (to Consider)

#2: Social Search

Social search is (now) (the future).

Users want accurate, trusted and real-time results for their search queries.

That’s why Microsoft bing, Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed and Google are doing deals.

Search

Social Media Community

Content

SocialSearch

Content Credit: Hill Holiday (www.hhcc.com)

Hunger /or/ Enjoying Produce

Engagement by Producer

Feedback from Friends & Family

Real-Time Produce Details

Decide &

Delight

What this might look like…

Your Website

Social Media Profiles

How Search Engines Rank Content

Determining Factors:• Credibility of site• Longevity of site / profile• Relevancy of content• Frequency of posting• Titling and tagging of content• Inbound links to the site

#3: Blogs, Bloggers, Blogging

Strategy and Tactics• What is your objective? Connecting with

consumers, media, others in the industry?• Do you have time to maintain a blog? What

about starting out as a guest poster on an existing blog?

• If you have a website, then it should have a blog component; great for creating dynamic, relevant content for SEO.

• Link to others, embed photos and videos.• Include links to social media profiles, contact

information.• Promote through tweets, cross-posts and even

Facebook ads.

What You Need (to Consider)

Recommended Platform:WordPress, over Blogger, over Typepad

FACT: A blog can serve as a digital version of your farm journal; publishing your crop data allows you to access and share it for years to come.

FACT: If you are working on building a website, in the meantime, setting up a blog and free social media profiles can help you still make an impact online (trust me, I know).

FACT: I will be launching this site in the coming weeks; let me know if you’d like to be involved.

FACT: I will be opening the site up to small and large farms alike; communicators, producers and policy makers will be included.

http://SocialMediaForAgriculture.com

#4: Opportunity to Engage Women

“There is no gilding of the setting sun or glamour of poetry to light up the ferocious and endless toil of the farmer’s wife.”

–Hamlin GarlandAmerican Novelist

Adapted by Agraria Restaurant | Washington, DC

Most women Most women have increased have increased their use of the their use of the

Internet over the Internet over the last 24 months at last 24 months at

the expense of the expense of traditional traditional

mediamedia

Traditionally, Traditionally, men are the early men are the early adopters of new adopters of new technologies. But technologies. But when it comes to when it comes to

social media, women social media, women are at the are at the

forefrontforefront

Digital women use Digital women use channels such as social channels such as social networks, to connect networks, to connect with their friends at with their friends at

higher rates than with higher rates than with their spouse, children their spouse, children

or colleaguesor colleagues

Social Media Skews Female42 million women 42 million women participate in any participate in any

social media social media activity weekly or activity weekly or

moremore

64% of online 64% of online women post women post

product product recommendationsrecommendations

Content Credit: InformationisBeautiful.net; Media Post; eMarketer

Harvard Says: “Women Are the WORLD’s Largest Opportunity”

$13T2009

$18T2014

$4.4T2009

$6.6T2014

Content Credit: Harvard Business Review, September 2009

$1.2T2009

$1.8T2014

Global Female Income

China’s GDP

India’s GDP

FACT: Women have more purchasing power than combining and doubling the GDPs of China and India.

FACT: Women make over 90% of the household purchasing decisions (especially groceries).

#5: Video, Video, Video

What You Need (to Consider)

Platform Selection• YouTube: Universal choice; #2 search engine

• Vimeo: Aesthetically awesome

• Viddler: Interaction through in-line comments

• Qik: Real-time streaming for live reporting

• Flickr: Efficiencies to be had when uploading pics + vids

Tag and Name for SEO

Device, Director, Producer(nothing special, promise)

#6: Publishing Photos on the Social Web

A picture is worth a thousand words.

It brings to life the people, the process, the produce.

My family has hay, grapes and humor; we use photos and videos to tell our story.

FACT: Facebook allows you to create albums and tag people, which notifies them via email and hyperlinks their profiles.

FACT: Flickr is the largest photo-sharing community online; 4 billion photos and counting (as of October 2009).

FACT: Flickr allows you to upload photos and videos all at once.

FACT: Uploading and tagging your content on Flickr can impact Google searches for key words in your industry.

FACT: Grapes are sticky. Fair warning for those picking and TwitPic’ing.

FACT: Taking photos with your mobile brings Harvest to life in real-time.

FACT: TwitPic can automatically publish your photos to Twitter.

Tweet: “6 bins full so far. Hands sticky. @bradshawpinot #harvest” Device: BlackBerryPublishing Platforms: TwitPic + TwitterTotal views: 96

Tweet: Captioned aboveDevice: BlackBerryPublishing Platforms: TwitPic + TwitterTotal views: 77

Contact & Resources

Leslie A. Bradshaw

Email: LeslieB@alumni.UChicago.edu

Longer form writings, thoughts: http://lesliebradshaw.com

In the moment: http://twitter.com/LeslieBradshaw

Friends, family, colleagues: http://Facebook.com/LeslieBradshaw

Digital CV: http://LinkedIn.com/in/LeslieBradshaw

Industry PowerPoints: http://slideshare.net/LeslieBradshaw

Let’s Stay in Touch

Web (re-launching 2010): http://BradshawVineyards.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/BradshawPinot

Blog (launching 2010): http://BradshawVineyards.com/blog Interim Blog Content: http://lesliebradshaw.com/?cat=82

Bradshaw Vineyards on the Web

Recommended Social Media Profiles:http://www.linkedin.com http://www.facebook.com http://twitter.com http://friendfeed.com http://slideshare.net

Recommended Video / Photo / Audio Sites:http://www.flickr.com http://youtube.com http://vimeo.comhttp://viddler.com http://utterli.com

Facebook Resources:http://www.facebook.com/advertising http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

Twitter Resources:Search Twitter: http://search.twitter.com/ Multi-Term Search: http://tweetgrid.com/ Monitor Twitter: http://tweetdeck.com/ Twitter Email Alerts: http://tweetbeep.com/

Blog Resources:Blog Search: http://blogsearch.google.com Blog Authority: http://technorati.com/ Blog Directory: http://alltop.com/ Largest Community of Women: http://BlogHer.com Ag Wired: http://agwired.com/ Traveling Wine Maker: http://thetravelingwinemaker.blogspot.com/

Successful Farming Resources Web: http://www.agriculture.com/Ning: http://farmersforthefuture.ning.com/

CNN :http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/07/02/twitter.farmer/index.html

The Okalahoma City Journal Record :http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4182/is_20090821/ai_n35525631/

Oregon Wine Press :http://www.oregonwinepress.com/index.php?pr=0609_21_Weisinger

Twitterers Mentioned:Bradshaw Pinot: http://twitter.com/BradshawPinot King Estate: http://twitter.com/KingEstate Steve Tucker: http://twitter.com/Tykerman1

Videos Featured:Taking a Tour on the John Deere "Green Hornet”http://www.flickr.com/photos/leslieann44/4015134936/in/set-72157622593291430/

Baby Sister Takes on Bradshaw Binshttp://www.flickr.com/photos/leslieann44/4014387563/in/set-72157622593291430/

Oregon Moss in Actionhttp://www.vimeo.com/751661

Frontline Digital Nation Interviews Leslie Bradshaw (includes Chewbacca sound describing rural Internet dial-up)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2fboBeXwz8

Ag Chat ResourcesOn Twitter: http://twitter.com/AgChat (Tuesdays 8 - 10 PM ET #AgChat)On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=67010541510

Social Media / New Media Resources Content Cited