Social Media Numbers Game

(I apologize in advance if this is a long, rambling blog post on social media analytics. I know, the word “analytics” alone is a snore-fest, right? But you see, I’ve been thinking about this subject all day and it’s starting to make my head hurt. However, I decided if I could write down a few of my thoughts, it would help sort things out for me. So thank you, in advance, for bearing with me on this! I promise I will blog about something more entertaining next time!)

I am an unabashed lover of social media. There, I said it. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram. I love them all. I’d probably even love Google+ if I had more time to include additional social media accounts into my already jam-packed daily schedule.

I utilize these tools both personally and professionally. And I will readily admit that I don’t agree when people say that social media is only about people posting where they ate lunch or what time they got up this morning. And really, how many times have we heard that Facebook is a time waster? For some, I have no doubt, it is exactly that, but for me, I see much more, and I’ve made amazing, personalized, human connections through social media. I’ve made “friends” with folks on social media first, only to meet up with them in person and continue those friendships. If you think social media isn’t about human interaction, then you just don’t get it. (And I mean that in the nicest way possible – I am from Minnesota, “dontcha ya know”?!) Social media is networking – just in a different form.

I’m a communications gal. That’s what I do for a living, so I totally get that it’s easier for me to use these tools and want to get better at them to further advance the overall communications plans of the organizations I work for – the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association and the Chicken and Egg Association of Minnesota. I live to tell farmers’ stories and show the world what these good people and companies do for the world each and every day. Social media is a tool I use to do that – and I think it can and does work well.

But sometimes I struggle with how to convey the “social” aspect of social media to those I work for – the poultry farmers and poultry company people who oversee my organizations. They want numbers – and not just the number of Facebook likers or Twitter followers. That is, perhaps, a good start, but they want to know – and rightly so – what those numbers really mean. What do they translate into? “Engagement,” I say! It’s like ‘shoring up our base’ of friends and followers who will have our backs if an animal rights group ever tries to tear us down. (They do and they will.) But in the end, many of the folks I work for aren’t on social media themselves, so they don’t see it all come together first hand and it’s hard for them to truly understand. I get that too. Where I hear conversations and “a ha” moments, they hear crickets.

The importance of reaching consumers continued to hit home for me today, when I learned that in Minnesota, nearly 60 percent of people in a recent survey indicated that they don’t know someone who operates a farm. Pretty amazing statistic when you think about. I mean, Minnesota is farm country, right? (Maybe not as much as Iowa or Nebraska, I’ll give you that – but we still have a lot of farms and farmers.) But the reality is, more and more people live in cities and don’t have that farm connection. And even those in more rural areas of Minnesota aren’t as connected to the farm as they used to be. These are all people who don’t know what a farm looks like these days, and definitely don’t have a reason to trust a turkey or chicken farmer simply because they don’t happen know one. So how do we reach them? Well, not to sound like a broken record but … social media comes to mind — early and often. To me, it makes complete sense. It’s a powerful tool in our communications arsenal.

I’ll keep working on ways to best explain why and how Minnesota Turkey and Minnesota Chicken should continue to navigate the social media world. One blog post that’s been particularly helpful for me can be found here, written by Kelly Rivard of AdFarm, a marketing communications agency in Kansas City. Love this piece!

And if you have any ideas/suggestions on how to share the success stories of social media, I’d love to hear them!