Glacier FarmMedia — Farmers who want to use social media should just be themselves.
That was a main takeaway from a Jan. 17 social media panel discussion at AgDays in Brandon.
The discussion, moderated by Filmore, Sask., grain farmer Sarah Leguee, featured three Canadian farmers with a serious social media game. Social media puts the farmer in touch with a huge audience to promote both the farm and agriculture in general, if they do it right.
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Manitoba dairy farmer Amy Smith sees Instagram as her go-to platform and goes by “_that.farming.mama_.” She posts about life in agriculture from a female perspective.
John Kowalchuk is an Alberta grain farmer who prefers X (formerly Twitter) for his posts. He attributes his large following to “bad jokes and sunset pictures featuring farm equipment.”
Andy Pasztor is a farmer from Tillsonburg, Ont. Known for posting squeaky-clean pictures of his (mostly John Deere) farm equipment, he became associated with the hashtag #andyclean on Twitter. He since turned that hashtag into his own brand of soap.
The three panellists agreed that prospective social media users should be fearless and be true to themselves, but Pasztor added a caveat.
“Whatever is pressing you, don’t be afraid to speak it. But also remember, don’t tweet when you’re drunk. There are people who are out there who are watching you, who may impact you in the future.”
Kowalchuk had some sage advice in the form of a pithy aphorism.
“Don’t compare your Monday mornings to someone else’s Saturday nights,” he said, drawing on a hypothetical example to make his point.
“You might see some guy out there where everything’s running smooth on his combine, while I’m out here banging away on my combine, whether the pulley went, or wherever. But you’re comparing one of the tougher times in your life to all this peaches and cream. But it’s not reality.”
Feeling self-conscious is one hurdle often faced when pondering a social media post. The panellists had simple advice.
“Just got to do what’s comfortable for you. Don’t be uncomfortable being yourself on film,” said Pasztor, while acknowledging he still feels a bit silly during the creative process.
“When I make a video, I’ll try to do it when my dad or my brother are not around, because that’s super embarrassing.”
However, at 42, Pasztor sees his embarrassment as a generational thing and points out that younger social media content producers seem to have no problem with it.
“They’re always walking around with a camera, it seems very common now.”
Kowalchuk said the awkwardness eventually goes away.
“Just keep doing it more and more. If you do something enough times, you’ll get better at it and you feel more comfortable.”
Farmers are always thinking about return on investment. And if time is money, many wonder how to turn a social media hobby into something that helps pay the bills.
Smith was recently approached by equipment manufacturer Claas, who asked if they could partner with her to develop content.
“I assume it was because I tagged them in reels throughout the last few years. I like to tag the equipment brands in my posts,” she said.
“They wanted kind of a day in the life of me as a woman in ag, as a dairy farmer and as a mom, during corn silage. So I created a reel for them and a story series. It was a really cool opportunity.”
Pasztor says he didn’t get into social media for the money. It was mainly about making connections. But his Andyclean brand soap did arise from a hashtag, so monetization sort of fell into his lap.
Kowalchuk says he doesn’t think much about monetization. For him, social media remains a hobby.
“I don’t really have much time for that kind of stuff,” he said. “I’ve been asked a few times, and I always just say, ‘if you want me to use your product, I take hoodies and trips to farm shows.’”
Of course, there’s the negative side of social media: the trolls. All panellists had some experience with trolls, especially the two who prefer X, which is known for being a somewhat combative platform.
Kowalchuk advises X users to always take the high road.
“You get it every once in a while, for sure. If you choose to respond, try to be positive. So if someone was looking from the outside and they would say, ‘OK, this guy’s making sense.’”
Pasztor said it’s important to put things into perspective when someone attacks on social media.
“It’s really easy to get really mad at a comment, but ask yourself what kind of person is going to take their time to put you down? Just don’t worry about people coming in and saying things. They’re probably living in their basement of their parents’ house.”
