Top Three Things I Learned In My Ag Comm Course

The first most important concept that I have learned in this course is the importance of website usability. Web usability is important to know because those characteristics will determine how others will view and feel about your website or social sites. From the layout to how pages are linked to how easy photos and video a viewed, these all matter.  Having consistent layouts between social sites is also crucial for visitors to recognize your site and to help in your branding. Also, giving links to your multiple accounts on your different social pages can allow those visitors to be able to connect with you or your business in different ways.

Having a plan in place for how to use to social sites is a must. There are many aspects to a plan to address different issues especially if there are multiple people using the social sites. This helps everyone to know what is expected for using the sites. Also by having a plan, you can focus on the most important areas from engagement to your audience to how you are gain followers. You can also focus on your actual posting with the frequency of posting for each social site, the tone of the message, and what key words are you going to use to help affect your SEO when people search for those keywords.

10 Examples of Good Social Media Use in Agriculture

Below are individuals and organizations who I feel demonstrate good social media use by the topics posted about and how they share content with others.

1. Ag Proud –  Ryan Goodman started this Facebook group and it has grown to have a large following. While he is the main poster, many others contribute to sharing posts on the page too.

2. Pinke Post – Katie Pinke has a great following with her blog, Pinke Post. While her blog itself is a great example of good social media use, her use of Facebook for it also is too. She is able to share and interact with her followers more on here by being able to post more than her blog posts.

3.The Farmer’s Life – Brian Scott does a great job with his Facebook page, The Farmer’s Life. On here, he shares many tasks that he is involved with around his farm operation. Many of these posts are pictures that create many “likes” and comments for his page.

4. Ohio Hog Farmers – Ohio Hog Farmers are a great example of how a commodity organization can demonstrate good social media use during an event. Right now the Ohio State Fair is going on, and they are posting pictures and check-ins to encourage fairgoers to stop by their food booth and to the hog pavilion.

5. Robin McLean – Robin is an Agricultural Education teacher in New Jersey. She posts often about education and activities in her classroom to share with others what is being learned in agricultural education classes.

10 Great Agblogs

Blog #1 – Ag – A Colorful Adventure for This City Girl – I really enjoy readying Janice’s blog. She is always posting about her travels for work and vacations and includes many things other than just agriculture posts.

Blog #2 – Gate to Plate  – Is authored by Michele Payn-Knoper who is a public speaker for agriculture. She posts herself and features guest posters for farming and other topic posts.

Blog #3 – Darin’s Ramblings – I enjoy reading Darin Grimm’s posts. He doesn’t post often but has many good topics to post about. He reminds me that even though you might not post often, people will still view your blog.

Blog #4 – KellyMRivard.com – Kelly’s blog is very interesting to read. She posts on a wide variety of topics but also brings together the big picture for agriculture-related posts and others.

Blog #5 – Reflections from a Country Boy – Sam does well on his posts he writes for his blog. He makes sure to take his time writing posts to make sure he gets his message said the right way. He posts quite a bit about swine and agvocating.