How Your Farm Can Master Organic Social Media

As an Independent Farmer, building a social media presence can often be overlooked as you’re focused on delivering high-quality offerings to Buyers. However, establishing a loyal customer base requires more than just the occasional holiday post; it takes an effective strategy. Learn the organic social strategies to spend your valuable time wisely, create eye-catching content, and make more money.

Why social media? Social channels are free tools (e.g., Facebook, Instagram) to expand your audience reach and grow your business, where the average person spends 2+ hours a day perusing content! Social media channels create organic ‘word of mouth’ in your local community, increasing your Brand’s visibility, while staying top of mind with Buyers.

Reclaim Time by Scheduling Social Media Posts

You have endless responsibilities on the Farm that consume your attention, which can make efforts to assemble and share digital posts feel overwhelming and time-consuming. But don’t let social media become another chore. Rather, save yourself valuable time by getting ahead of your workload and scheduling your social media posts. With Meta Business Suite, your Farm can schedule posts up to 75 days in advance!

Throughout the year, you can share a wide variety of Farm updates, projects, and new products. By scheduling posts on these topics well in advance, your Farm can focus less on getting the word out and more on in-field work. Delivering your high-quality products to Buyers while capturing their attention online.

Building Quality over Quantity

You don’t need to post multiple times every day to gain organic social traction. While consistency is important, establishing high-quality content on social channels is essential to reach the ideal audience. Focus on providing educational insights that emphasize Buyer benefits and features, such as product health benefits, current Farm certifications, and organic Farming practices. Also, consider sharing entertaining Farm updates (a calf just born, new chicken flock, etc.) and showcase your “Day in the Life of a Farmer” to highlight more of your Farm story. A narrated, user-generated video on the Farm is an easy avenue to convey information to potential Buyers with short attention spans.

By sharing content with a clear purpose, your audience will grow a connection to your Farm. Building their trust and growing your Brand's online visibility among potential Buyers.

Creating Urgency With PROMOS

Every Buyer wants to feel valued by your Farm, and using promotional content is a powerful tactic to reinforce demand. Implement constraints, such as “limited time” or “limited quantities”, within your social media posts. This will instill the fear of missing out (FOMO), boosting your Buyers’ desire to purchase quickly and fostering a sense of exclusivity.

A good best practice is to keep promotions narrow - to specific products, time frames, and events (e.g., holiday weekend). To accelerate your sales, consider posting promotional urgency with new Farm products and implementing an automated “count-down” on the remaining available products (e.g., “Only 12 Seasonal Produce Bundles Left”). This exciting content will highlight the high-value benefits, effectively reduce any purchase hesitation, and attract new Buyers. 

Engaging With Your Audience

The most important factor for growing your social reach organically is building a loyal audience that engages regularly. To foster loyalty, prioritize online engagement by responding promptly to comments, DMs, and emails. Ask your audience for their input and/or feedback to be shared in the comments (e.g., what is your favorite cut of meat?). Alternatively, provide a voting poll to gain insights into their favorite Farm products or limited value-added products (e.g., regular, chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry milk?). Re-engage your audience by posting at least three separate times about new Farm offerings (e.g., delivery service, subscriptions, herd shares) to keep them top of mind. Proactively engage with your social media community to naturally build your Brand’s online presence and strengthen audience relationships.

If your Farm leverages a local business, church, or school to help facilitate pickups of your products (or all the above), then consider a “joint-post” to help drive more cross-foot traffic to each other’s respective followers on social media. A shout-out to a local partner increases goodwill and curries the favor of their audience, which may also lend to your Farm’s credibility, too.

To complete the purchasing loop and increase sales, always include a call to action (CTA) in your social media content. A CTA encourages the audience to interact directly with your Farm Brand and provides a clear next step. Increase engagement with distinct prompts - include product specifics (e.g., “Order your CSA Box”) or more general invitations (e.g., “Shop Now”). 

Ready to take your social presence to the next level? 

Watch this short clip from our Social Media Academy that walks you through, step by step, how to enhance your Farm's digital presence with Instagram stories.

Conclusion

By leveraging your social media presence, you can effectively create organic ‘word of mouth’ in your local community to keep your Farm top of mind with Buyers. From creating user-generated videos to proactively engaging your audience through a survey, the strategies outlined above can help your Farm grow its social media audience organically and sell more products. With a few simple steps, you can save valuable time, reach a wider audience, and look like a pro.

Barn2Door offers software for Independent Farmers to make more money, ditch the office work, and look like a pro. If you’re curious to learn more, watch this 5-minute video.