Over the last couple of years we have seen more and more organisations using social media websites to promote sustainable agriculture. Social media websites facilitate global conversations that reach new audiences and spread important messages on a daily basis. In this article we will discuss how social media can aid the promotion of sustainable agriculture campaigns.

What is sustainable Agriculture?

Sustainable agriculture is all about preserving, maintaining and enhancing natural resources for long term use. It is about meeting the needs of those living in the present without compromising the ability for future generations to meet their own needs. Many social responsible companies are now doing things to promote sustainable agriculture by putting something back into the environment every time they take something from it.

Using Social Media to gather Advocates

Companies can use social media to aid their sustainable agricultural values, but it only works for those that have been able to build up a following. Gathering advocates is essential as their opinions will often be more influential and authentic than those of any large business. When gathering advocates via social media to aid your sustainable agricultural work, you will need to ensure that you target users that share similar interests and beliefs to your own.

You can identify potential advocates by doing a little research into who is already talking about your company or topics of interest. It is then in your power to engage and communicate with them in order to build up a relationship. This will encourage them to follow your on various social media platforms.

Facebook is a great social media platform that can aid sustainable agriculture. Not only can you raise awareness by sharing content, but you can also build a movement through creating pages and groups for your organisation. Twitter is also very popular as it enables companies to reach a broad audience of followers interested in things like farming, agriculture and food.

Creating and sustaining conversations

Social media platforms enable companies and organisations to set up camp in a corner of the internet. There they can create sustained conversations and spread important messages using hash tags on Twitter, Facebook groups and Google Plus hangouts.  It is important to keep conversations going about the sustainable agricultural work your company is doing in order to remain relevant and in the interest of the public. A great way to do this is by hosting weekly Twitter chats using hash tags unique to your organisation. You could also think about connecting with other experts in the industry using Google Plus hangouts.

Showing a different side to your Company

One of the many great things about social media platforms are that they allow companies and organisations to show a less formal and more personal side to themselves. Social media is designed for two-way conversations and is not a place for companies to simply bombard their followers with content. By being conversational and responding to your followers you can show that you care about their opinions and value their support. Simply retweeting the odd tweet or liking their status on Facebook will show others that you are approachable and friendly.

How to measure the effectiveness of your Campaigns

Social media analytics can be used to track the performance of your tweets, posts and messages that make up the promotion of your campaigns. Facebook has its own insights that you can use, but there are also websites like Hootsuite which enable you to monitor your keywords and manage a number of social media accounts at the same time.

It is essential that you use your analytics to get to know your followers and their habits. You need to find out if there is a particular social media platform that your advocates use the most. For some organisations this will be Twitter, but for others it may be Facebook or Google Plus. Knowing this information will help you to build your social media strategy so you can aid the promotion of your company’s sustainable agricultural campaigns.

An article by Oaklands, who offer a range of land and agricultural based study courses.