Cultivating MySpace

I have never addressed the concept of farms using "social media" as a marketing tool on this blog, partly because I am still not sure how much sense it makes. The social media includes sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.

If the word "social media" makes you shiver in fright and run for your tractor to do some real work, I appreciate that response; it is probably a very rational approach. If, however, you are still reading this post, you may be interested in this social media primer.

My thoughts are that social marketing can work for the farm, but I think this quote sums up why it will not work for most farmers:

The main characteristic [social media marketers] need to have is a genuine curiosity/interest in social media, particularly on how it influences human relationships and business practices. This is not just standard required job skills but rather a deep interest that pervades one’s day to day life. One needs to constantly be informed of the latest technologies while striving always to learn and improve one’s knowledge levels. In order to do well when marketing, one should have tactical knowledge and ideally, first-hand experience of the specific social media platform. [link]

One new Small Farm Central farm, Three Springs Fruit Farm told me that they have had success with marketing through Facebook and MySpace. Here is their MySpace page:
http://www.myspace.com/threespringsfruitfarm

They have 161 friends, a blog, and video of vegetable orchestra. It seems to be working for them, but I would be interested in hearing how this translates into people coming to physically buy goods from the farm.

Maybe we can spend a few weeks exploring different social media platforms if people show some interest.

Has your farm used social marketing? What kinds of successes/failures have you had?

[Photo by Gary Hayes]

Premium Template #2

Here is another premium template mock-up.

The designer says, "This template is a little less literal for Small Farm Central users, in terms of its depiction of their actual farms. What it does do though, is invoke a certain historical / cultural feel that I think will really appeal to users of the farm sites."

I would be interested to hear if you have any thoughts; leave them in comments.

Weekly Farm Web Marketing Conference

Hearing some of the great questions during the Web Session that I helped give at the Organicology conference gave me the idea of setting up a weekly web meeting/conference on web marketing issues for farmers.

There is a lot of interest in how the web can be used for farm marketing and communication between farms, but there are so many tools and the web is a confusing place.

There is low-cost software that we can use to stream video and voice to many participants right through your friendly web browser. We can talk about anything you like at the intersection of the web and farms:

• Outlets to sell goods online
• Mailing list software
• Interesting farming resource blogs
• Creating a farm website
• Web marketing strategies that work
• Small Farm Central tutorial
• Take a look at web analytics tools
• Discuss farm blogging ideas
• Etc, etc, etc

Talk among yourselves, ask me questions, or we'll look at your website and give you suggestions. This should not necessarily focus on Small Farm Central (there a lot of tools out there) nor does it have to be directed by me. I would just like to provide a forum for discussion where web marketing concerns agriculture.

So I am thinking about scheduling an hour a week to talk on a regular basis - stop by once to chat about a specific issue or put it on your weekly calendar. No cost, just communication.

Is this something you would be interested in? Please leave your thoughts in comments. Hopefully there is enough interest to make it worth starting up something like this!

3 Reasons Why the Web Works for Farms

Most farmers I talk to are already convinced that the web is an important part of their marketing. This is part self-selection (staunch Luddite farmers will just ignore me) and part osmosis from hearing about the importantance of the web at farming conferences and from other farmers.

I can think of three reasons why the web is important to farmers as a marketing tool. Perhaps you can think of others? Leave them in comments.

1. The web is a democratic medium - larger companies cannot buy attention from web surfers with money. The most interesting websites, content, and ideas will get the visitors. Luckily, interest in real food is on the rise and consumers are out there looking for your farm.
2. A web site bridges the geographic between rural producers and urban eaters. Your customers may be 50 or 100 miles away in the city, but they are working on computers all day and will take a break to search for authentic food in their area. It is not necessary to have a 24 hour customer relations representative waiting for calls -- your website can tell the story and collect email address of prospective customers while you work or rest.
3. The incremental costs of communication on the web is effectively zero; that means that once you have your website set up or your email campaign running, adding another visitor or reader costs nothing.You can reach more interested customers at a lower cost than ever before. If you paid 41 cents for each email to your mailing list each week, you would quickly silence your mailing list. Of course this is not only true for farms, but any small business.

Though the web is a perfect medium for marketing a farm, it is not in any way automatic. A good website takes time and energy and the results will not be paid back in a few weeks or months -- it will likely take years of consistent effort to build a good readership on a farm website. In this way, it is no different than building soil, refining herd genetics, or reducing weed load. It may take only a few seconds to send an email, but don't let that fool you: web marketing is as slow as anything else you do for your farm or your business.

Good luck with your farm website this Spring. We are seeing lots of new sign-ups and farmers with existing sites are excited about energizing their web presence.

Can you think of any other reasons to add to three above? Leave them in comments.