Be Real and Be Yourself: Inspirations from AgChat

A few of my inspirations last week: a comfy pair of jeans that feel like a million bucks (but only cost me $15 – seriously), leopard print heels that are completely walkable (hello there!) and Jay Baer’s New York Times bestseller, Youtility.

And all collided at the wonderful world of AgChat in Charlotte, North Carolina.

You may have read my previous blog post about the AgChat Foundation (here), which is an amazing grassroots organization that brings together farmers and ranchers of all types (conventional and organic production, big and small, crop and livestock) along with people like myself who work for agricultural organizations and businesses with the aim of working together for the betterment of agriculture. That sounds like a pretty lofty goal, but really, the focus is hands-on training in social media tools (such as Facebook, Twitter, blogging, etc.) so that we all do a better job of telling our farm stories.

Last week, AgChat’s annual “Agvocacy 2.0 Conference” convened in Charlotte and gave me a chance to get my AgNerd on.

And it also gave me many inspirations to take back home with me:

• Hearing Jay Baer, a social media marketing guru, talk about the unprecedented melding of our personal and commercial lives and how companies and organizations are competing with EVERYTHING for attention. His advice? Be useful, not amazing. Provide information, which builds relationships in our social media world, and be insightful. (Oh and did I mention, I met Jay, too, and he signed his book for me? Yep. Pretty excited about that.)

• Re-connecting with my friend and fellow cute shoe enthusiast, Michele Payn-Knoper, a speaker, trainer and author, who believes that positive conversations around food and farm can – and must happen. She told us, “The best agvocates serve a greater purpose than their own.” Amen, sister.

• Meeting what I call my “social media friends” in person!  There’s a reason social media is “social” … and it’s absolutely true that you can meet people online, form connections and friendships and even communities before ever meeting them in person. Meeting in person, though, is truly the icing on the cake! I especially enjoyed connecting with Wanda Patsche (her blog is http://www.minnesotafarmer.net/), Sara Borchert Hewitt (her blog is http://hewittfarmsinc.wordpress.com/), Nicole Small (her blog is http://talesofakansasfarmmom.blogspot.com/), Emily Meredith who coordinates communications for the Animal Agriculture Alliance, and Lorna Greenfield Wilson, who I have emailed back and forth with information on eggs many times. All of these women are inspiring to me – not to mention some of the nicest folks on the planet!

• Co-leading a roundtable on “Becoming a Pinner” on Pinterest with AgChat’s Jenny Schweigert. At the last minute, I was asked to fill in for someone who couldn’t make the conference and I immediately agreed. I am not, by any means, an expert on Pinterest, but it was great fun to listen to all the questions, answer when I could, and learn from others in the room, as well. That’s the power of AgChat and my AgNerd network. Now I’ve got some new ideas for my own Pinterest boards, which you can check out here if you are into pinning like I am.

• Closing keynote speaker Laura Daniels’ heart-felt look at her agvocating life as a dairy farmer … and she reminded me of why I love how my own personal and work lives often collide in this blog and on Facebook and Twitter.

• “Remember, it’s not just about metrics, it’s about the individual connection.“ Wise words that really made me think from Carrie Mess – aka “Dairy Carrie” whose blog about her Wisconsin dairy farm life has reached near rock star status amongst AgNerds. Now, let me tell you straight up that Dairy Carrie gets a lot of hits on her blog. And she’s done some amazing agvocating with her writing – even making Panera Bread take notice. (#PluckEZChicken, anyone?) But despite all that traffic, I know she firmly believes that she owes her success today to being her real, authentic self and making individual, people-focused connections.

The social media numbers, while important, aren’t the whole picture.

Even in this age of Facebook and Twitter and YouTube and (insert any other social media platform here), farmers and those of us who communicate on behalf of farmers (like me), need to make personal connections, one by one.

The organization I work for often wants to see “the numbers” for our social media activity. I get that and I absolutely understand why they should see the analytics, but I also want to convey Dairy Carrie’s message – that individual connections (which may not show up on the radar of Google Analytics) can often lead to a larger impact down the road. And these connections will almost certainly help us spread our food and farm messages so much farther.

Social media isn’t just about the number of fans or followers you have, and it’s definitely not about spitting out public relations “message points” that sound contrived and forced. (Jay Baer put it this way – “Don’t use social media as the world’s shortest press release.” I think I am in love with this quote.) Social media is about the people. It’s about connecting, communicating and providing useful information. It’s about being real and being yourself. If we do this, the fans and followers will be here with us because they truly want to be.

Thanks, AgChat, for letting me get my AgNerd on this week – it was a blast!