possibilities and planning strategically using social media on your farm or ranch
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome – Possibilities and PlanningDr. Lauri M. Baker
Today
• Your social media plan• Audience analysis• Websites and blogs• Building a website• Lunch & website showcase
Today
• Facebook—It’s more than likes and tags• Twitter• Managing all of this• Measuring success• Wrap up, staying updated, staying
connected
Beyond The Farm Gate
• USDA funded grant– Kansas State University– Texas Tech University– Colorado State– University of Georgia
• Dr. Lauri M. Baker, K-State Co-PI• Beyondthefarmgate.org• http://www.youtube.com/user/BeyondtheFarmGate
In the past…
Now…
A great example…
• ZimmComm New Media
• Can reach more people with $2,500 in equipment than a radio station
• Makes 5,000 impressions by linking all SM pages together.
• There’s an app for that!
Blogs in Agriculture
• Word Press, Blog Spot, Typepad• The hub of your communication• Can be used as your website if well
designed– The Pioneer Woman
• Promotions• Awareness• Spark business• Socialization
Facebook in Agriculture
• What’s your favorite?
• Share information• Post news• Ask questions• Give compliments
Twitter in Agriculture
• What’s your favorite?
Lots more!
Your favorites?
Social Media is FREE!
How they’re similar
No initial costNo air time, printing, production costs
How they’re similar
First vet billTime and research to set up the plan
How they’re similar
Feed twice daily Post often, probably daily
How they’re similar
Clean up the messHandle comments, positive or negative
How they’re similar
Vaccinate yearlyRe‐evaluate and update your plan
How they’re similar
Lots of fun! Fun, challenging and effective
General Guidelines for social media
• Be authentic– Be you and be transparent! (Walmart bloggers)
• Listen!• Respond• Share information/stories and share control (let
your customers share stories)• Be relevant
General Guidelines for social media
• Engage in two way communication• Ask questions• Provide value
– Five percent off is insulting. Make it worth my while.
• Enable people to gather online and discuss an issue
First, ask: What’s the point?
• What is your goal for using social media?– Awareness?– Increase traffic?– Drive traffic to our website?– SM is our website– Increase sales
First, ask: What’s the point?
• Establish key performance indicators• Don’t feel like you have to use SM to get
clients, grow business, etc.• Sometimes SM can be well used to engage
others
Social Media Plan:
– Primary and secondary audience for SM– Purpose of social media– SM platforms to be used– General idea for the messages to be posted– Content of pages– Frequency of posts
• Some plans include occasional posting in the beginning and then very frequent in the end
– Tone of messages– Plan to gain followers– Timeline– Evaluation
Step 1: Who is your audience?
• Establish who your audience will be with your SM campaign
• Do we have a secondary audience?
Step 2: Determine your Purpose
• What do you hope to accomplish?• Do we even need to use it?• Possible outcomes
– Listen & learn– Build relationships– Build awareness of an issue– Improve reputation– Increase user-generated content– Increase traffic/page rankings– Social support– Take action
Step 3: Platforms
• Which social mediums do you plan to use?– A good example:
• https://twitter.com/#!/HomeDepothttp://www.youtube.com/homedepot
• https://www.facebook.com/homedepot
Step 4: Key Messages
• How will your key messages evolve as the campaign progresses?
• Establish keywords– Keep them consistent across mediums– Example: Home Depot promoting Father’s
Day
Step 5: Content of Pages
– What should your FB info page include?– Cover photo?– What photos do you wish to post?– What do you want your “about us” info to say
on YouTube and Twitter?– Any cool backgrounds?– For Facebook, decide what you’ll be—group,
page, event, etc. Weigh all of your options before you decide.
Step 6: Frequency of posts
– Three times daily?– Once/day?– Weekly?
– What will help you accomplish your goal?– http://www.facebook.com/DairyMax.Local.Dai
ry.Council
Step 7: Tone of messages
• Only positive?• Negative only if it impacts your business?• You decide.
Step 8: Gain followers
• How do you do it without being annoying?– Invite friends– Promotion (Like us and get a free car wash)– Contests
• Take time to plan and do well– Advertising– Quality, useful, valuable content gets followers.
• T.V. stations– What other examples?
Step 9: Timeline
• Optional for general SM site, but necessary for a campaign or event– Budget time for site development– Gaining followers– Timeline/frequency of posts
• Especially important if you plan to vary frequency of posts
Step 10: Evaluate
• How do we know we have accomplished our goals?
• The usual suspects:– Web activity—things you can measure w/
Google Analytics—page views, unique visitors, time on site, frequently clicked links
– Friends, followers, fans, contributions, votes– Mentions or re-posts
Other considerations
• Consider the following:– Responses to unfavorable/strange posts– Posting/re-posting news stories. And should
you make a comment?– Deleting posts/disabling comment boxes– Direct responses
Finally…
• Social media should be planned and executed just like any other marketing campaign
• All who will be participating in you SM efforts need to know and work the plan
• Good initial planning helps you avoid a bunch of pages and retroactive plan re-designs
Find More at BeyondTheFarmGate.org
Thank You
• Dr. Lauri M. Baker [email protected]
• http://www.youtube.com/user/BeyondtheFarmGate
• Twitter @beyondfarmgate