Communication: Social media

Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram are giving farmers the opportunity to have direct conversations with people who might have never stepped foot on a farm before.

And with potential audiences of millions (Twitter alone has 330 million active users worldwide, 13.7 million of which are in the UK, while Facebook’s UK audience is almost 45 million), it is enabling producers to give a voice to the industry, while also bringing benefits to their own businesses too.

“I joined social media, Twitter especially, to be nosey,” says Herefordshire arable farmer Ally Hunter Blair. “I found it was a good way to ask other farmers questions and search for answers. But then I found I was talking to more and more members of the public about our farm, and things took off from there.”

Since joining the micro-blogging site Mr Hunter Blair has amassed some 11,400 followers, with whom he shares a daily mixture of photos and commentary about farm activities, drone footage, and his infamous ‘Combine Karaoke’ videos.

Alongside his more practical farming footage, the karaoke videos — showing him mime to pop songs while in his combine — have amassed more than a quarter of a million views across Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. His social media exploits have also led him to speaking at events, and bumped up bookings for his farm stay — a ‘glamping’ experience in a converted horse box called Bertha (although the coronavirus has put paid to that diversification project for now).

He’s even starred in a farm reality-TV show, Born Mucky, after a production company found him through Twitter. “Because of the things I’ve been doing on TV my following has increased, and it is fairly evenly split between farmers and non  armers,” Mr Hunter Blair says. “I find it’s a really nice way to engage with the general public, as often people will ask
a question rather than jumping straight in to criticise.”

On the whole, Mr Hunter Blair says people generally enjoy hearing the story behind food, and he enjoys talking to people about it too. “There are trolls, because not everyone is going to agree with what you have to say,” he adds. “If it’s rude or horrible I just ignore it. If it’s a discussion about why we’ve done something, then I’ll try to engage.”

North Wales beef, cereal and egg producer Will Evans is similarly positive about the benefits of social media. His efforts to share stories about agriculture has seen him build up a Twitter audience of 17,000 people, launch his own podcast, Rock & Roll Farming, and write a blog.

He’s also become a columnist, and helped create Eat Farm Now, a website that collates stories about farming from around the world and has expanded into providing educational content during the coronavirus lockdown.

“People have never been as interested in where their food comes from as they are now, and that gives farmers a tremendous opportunity to connect with consumers on a personal level,” he says.

“Social media has allowed me to do it in an easy way, sharing videos, pictures and updates from our farm. It’s great to see people’s responses to what we’re doing and answer questions.”

As well as enabling Mr Evans to connect with global consumers and producers, social media has created opportunities he wouldn’t have had otherwise.

“I’ve spoken at conferences in the UK and abroad, I host other podcasts, and I got asked to write for Farmers Weekly on the back of my blog.

“And then Eat Farm Now came about because I was seeing so much great farming content across all the different social media platforms, and I thought it would be great if it was all together in the same place. That led to ‘Lockdown Learning’, a resource for kids to learn about farming during the pandemic — something I’m really proud of. “I didn’t plan for any of this, it’s all just happened, but it’s been great.”