Here are some tips for farmers to use social media effectively:

• Be Active, Be Consistent: One of the most important factors for a successful social media presence is timely, consistent activity. If there is too little activity, not many people see your page or your posts. Too much activity and you run the risk of being seen as similar to spam, and people may tune out your message. Most of the time, there is plenty of activity on a farm to post about. Often, sites will allow you to draft a post and save it for later when you would like to make it public. This is a great way to create several posts at a time and spread them out so that you are timely and consistent.

• Use Effective Visuals: People love to see beautiful photographs and engaging videos. Baby animal pictures, educational videos, and cooking demonstrations are great attention-getters.

• Be Real: Very few posts should be a hard sell. Instead, distinguish yourself from other, more sterile accounts by sharing wry observations and raw mistakes. Customers will naturally want to follow you if they believe in your story.

• Spark Conversation: Pose meaningful questions to generate engagement. Asking for opinions works best for me, as our followers often have diverse views that act as a catalyst for thought-provoking dialogue.