Make the most of your time and energy spent on social media.
For thousands of years, anthropologists have studied different societies and cultures and how people within them function. Early anthropologists, and even anthropologists from 20 years ago, would likely never have suspected that cultures are now being created in a place where people do not actually know each other in person. How can a society with hierarchies, unspoken rules to obey, and differing economic statuses exist without the people of that society ever meeting face-to-face? That is the authority social media platforms carry today – creating cultures that dictate shopping, decorating, fashion, cooking, politics and more, in a space humanity only created less than 30 years ago.
If that makes it sound like social media is an all-powerful wizard that rules us from behind a curtain, that is because it’s not too far off from that. Social media is a beast that cannot be stopped, or tamed for that matter, but it can be understood. In a world where we have access to see inside people’s lives we do not even know, where influencers dictate what is socially acceptable, and TikTok Shop decides what products sink or swim, understanding how to optimize these platforms for your message is vital.
Agriculture is the industry that brings us food and fashion. Two ever-popular subjects that virtually every person on the planet consumes (in increasingly interesting ways) and talks about. We’ve established that agriculture has to have a voice online and that you are an important part of making that happen (read here). Now we can dive into individual platforms, who you will find where, how to talk, and listen, on each one, and how to make them work for you. While there are many platforms online today – and more coming all the time – right now, agriculture has the most potential to make the most impact on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
Follow the Yellow Brick Road
Before I dive into each platform, it is important to get an overview of who is on each platform. The “who” is your yellow brick road, so to speak. Decide who you want your target audience to be and follow them to whatever platforms they spend time on to give yourself the best shot to share your message with the biggest impact. I like to keep tabs on the Pew Research Center for social media user data.
Pull Back the Curtain
Let’s dive into each platform to learn tips and tricks to optimize your time spent and messages shared.
Facebook was created for connections and can be credited for the start of the takeover of modern-day social media. I like to say that Facebook is the place to collect people that you know authentically. Think high school friends, new coworkers, great aunts, and your mom’s friends. It’s the go-to platform to text heavy updates and sharing the newest photo of your dog or baby with people in your circle.
Facebook Reels do exist but more often than they are created for a different social platform and then shared to Facebook later. Something to note is that Facebook Lives and Stories are great performers here. Both take place in Stories and disappear within 24 hours. Lives give you the option to save it as a Reel to your main page, but Stories are short-lived. Those options both provide direct engagement with followers in a way that doesn’t make them scroll through their feed to find you.
Facebook does provide a unique opportunity to engage with the biggest audience. As seen above, about 71% of all adults use Facebook. Even if younger generations won’t admit to it, they’re there. Sharing the story of agriculture on Facebook means that you can post a variety of different content (text-heavy, photos, Reels, Lives, Stories) to reach a diverse group.
TL;DR (too long; didn’t read): To get the most out of Facebook, create short-form video in other places and share as a Reel later, utilize Stories and Lives, use language that you’d feel comfortable talking to your mom’s friend in, and use it to influence those in your circle. People on Facebook want to see news and life updates first, so use this to your advantage and share why agriculture and your message matters to your life.
Instagram:
Instagram was born out of the desire to easily share photos directly from your smartphone. With the goal of letting photos do all the talking, Instagram still stays true to that today. Video has taken over as king, however. Short-form videos, or Reels, dominate the platform along with Stories. Stories disappear after 24 hours and are a great way to drive interaction shared blurbs that don’t seem worthy of their own post or share day-to-day updates. If you’re still looking to post single photos, carousels are the popular way to do so. This allows you to post several photos in a row that tell a story on their own. This can always be accompanied by captions, but Instagram will favor posts that are short, sweet, and to the point.
Instagram is a mix between following people you know and following people you want to know (influencers or celebrities). The app is designed to feel informal, and its users are great at giving inside looks into places that were previously off-limits, like their houses, workplaces, farms, etc. Because of all of this, it provides a great space for agriculture to come along for the ride and get in front of people. Instagram has become a search engine all on its own so if you have a topic people want to know about (which you do: farming!), they will find you. To become a trusted source of information, make sure you lean into authentic content about what you do.
TL;DR: To get the most out of Instagram, share short Reels, post frequently in your stories, share your life authentically (really get down in the dirt, literally), use hashtags and weave search terms into your captions like it’s your job so that you can easily be found.
TikTok:
Fast forward to the era of fast-moving instant gratification and enters TikTok. It’s a place where you can connect with a global community that you likely have never met. TikTok is the home for short, fast-paced videos. Content types are very diverse, usually including humor, music, trends, and more. There is a unique opportunity to intertwine the funny entertainment elements with education and engagement – especially in agriculture. If there is one thing the younger generations on TikTok are all about, it’s focusing on what’s right in front of them, and what’s in front of them will be whatever entertains them. Therefore, whenever you share on TikTok, it’s important to do it in a fun, trendy way that keeps followers coming back to be entertained and educated along the way.
A good way to ensure your content is being found is to include hashtags and captions. TikTok historically allowed short captions but has recently increased their allowed character count, which gives opportunity to share more of the story. Hashtags are necessary to use here, too. Using keywords, both as hashtags and within the caption, ensures followers can find your content through search features and “for you” pages (which is why you sometimes see #FYP).
TikTok thrives on unpolished, real-life videos edited with trendy filters or audio. It’s a great chance to share short clips from on the farm, of cute animals, a tractor tour, or anything else you do each day that followers may be interested in (hint: it’s a lot). TikTok is unique in that it hugely influences purchasing decisions of people on the platform. In a way, the app is full of the early adopters – people who make products popular…or sink them. With an industry so rooted in consumer food and clothing products like agriculture is, it’s vital that it shows up on apps like TikTok to share the truth about how those products are made. Voices against modern agriculture are already there, and we don’t want false information to be the reason a food product sinks or is cancelled.
TL;DR: To get the most out of TikTok, edit short videos using the easy to use editing app, CapCut, follow trends and use that to attract a following, use cute and short clips that tell a story, keep it light but educational, use hashtags on every post so you can be found in the search engine.
Whether you’re posting on one, two, or three of these platforms or even other social media platforms and regardless of who makes up your audience, be sure to do it in a way that best represents who you are. Authenticity will draw followers in and give you the opportunity to become a trusted voice for agriculture
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