My week began Sunday evening as I met with a group of people known primarily to me via Twitter. We are all board members of the AgChat Foundation. It’s an organization focused on social media but in a way that might surprise you. Farmers are our audience. Yes farmers. All of us were in Chicago (the big city) to conduct a two-day training session on the advanced use of social media. Some 50 farmers–young and old–attended with an eye on improving their abilities to tell their largely unknown stories via Interactive techniques.
The event was a great success. Perhaps the media pitch (thanks to Heidi Nelson of Harvest PR) best tells the story.
“Imagine a roomful of 50 businessmen and women convening in Chicago for a seminar on storytelling via social media – the first workshop of its kind. Not because of the subject matter, per se, but because of its attendees. These are not Social Media Specialists or Information Architects, but rather some of our country’s best and brightest farmers and ranchers. Representing all walks of farm life – organic, conventional, big, small – a select group of farmers are gathering at the first ever Agvocacy 2.0 Training to hone their social media skills to more effectively tell their stories.
Farmers have long been early adopters – inventors, even – of new technologies, driving advancements in farm equipment and cropping practices over the decades to produce more food, fiber and fuel on every acre. But those acreages – and the time required to tend them – created distance from urban dwellers. “Farm talk” was between farmers. But now, with the proliferation of rural broadband, mobile computing and social media, a new fertile ground exists for farmers to grow rapport with the 98% of the public not directly engaged with agriculture.
The AgChat Foundation is a 100% volunteer organization that aims to empower farmers and ranchers to “agvocate” via social media platforms.”
As a founding board member, I am proud to say that I took part. Despite the fact that I conducted two sessions, I have to admit that a learned a few tips and tricks. Sometimes smart, innovative people come from places that surprise you.
