Do you look at social media as an instrumental tool in your business? According to Sheena Hopper, agribusiness marketing consultant, talking at the latest Women in Dairy webinar, we all should be.
Ms Hopper said over the past year global figures show a 13% increase in social media use with Facebook and Instagram being the most popular channels.
“Within our industry Instagram is a growing channel and if used effectively it can have a far greater engagement than other platforms.”
If you’re wondering why you’d want to use social media then there are a whole host of reasons, however, it is important to decide the values of your farm brand so these can act as a framework for your content.
Using social media is a great way of representing your farm which helps with overall business connections and attracting new staff, and, if you share your news and views creatively and accurately, it is a great opportunity to act as an advocate for the industry.
Current Dairy Industry Woman of the Year and dairy farmer, Karen Halton, explained how using social media has helped grow the farms profile and promoted the use of its on-site vending machine to the public.
“We used Facebook to promote our new milk shack and the direct effect it had was really noticeable in terms of people using our vending machine to get their milk. We’ve also found it a really good tool when we have job vacancies as it attracts young applicants, who we are keen to employ, as they are the future of the industry.”
Simply put, a professionally run social media channel reflects a professionally run farm business, so bear this in mind when posting content that a wide platform of users may see.
Inevitably alongside social media use comes trolling and anti-dairy users which is why it is paramount to showcase the good of the industry through your platform.
Ms Hopper explained how antis want a reaction so it is best to ignore their comments and block their accounts as a response can have detrimental effects on your business.
“What a lot of people don’t understand is a lot of ‘trolls’ are paid to make comments on posts with the hope of making the post viral to the detriment of the business, however, whilst we must be aware of the risks the benefits far outweigh the negatives.”
If you’re looking to start building a social platform it’s important to understand each channel and what suits your needs best. To get the most out of your account you must utilise the features on offer, for example, on Instagram using IG Live and stories will help capitalise the effectiveness of your account. Similarly, if you use Twitter, you need to be aware of the ‘shelf life’ of your tweets and post regularly to ensure content is seen.
The full webinar can be viewed online at www.womenindairy.co.uk/online-workshops-1