The Key to Instagram Reels: Educating your Audience
In this episode of the Direct Farm Podcast, we continue with the Social Media Tactics Series with Alex Russell, from Chucktown Acres.
Alex shares his approach to social media – to educate his audience, grow local brand awareness, and drive Subscription sales.
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Rachele: Welcome to the Direct Farm Podcast. I'm Rachele, your host for today's episode. We have a great conversation for you today with one of our farm advisors, Alex Russell from Chucktown Acres in South Carolina. Welcome, Alex.
Alex Russell: Hey, thanks for having me.
Stoked to be here.
Rachele: This is another episode in a mini-series on the Direct Farm Podcast, the Barn2Door Social Media Tactic series. So in this series, we'll hear from barn to door team members, as well as farm leaders and experts like Alex to hear tips and tricks to save time, grow your social media following [00:01:00] and drive sales.
So today we're talking with Alex about the importance of using social media to educate your followers and your audience. And Alex also uses reels to communicate with his followers. And I'm hoping you can dive in how you approach social media cuz it's such a big platform for you too.
Alex Russell: Yeah. Yep. Absolutely.
Rachele: But before we dive in, why don't you reintroduce yourself to the audience and give an overview of your farm and your background.
Alex Russell: Yeah, you bet. , Alex Russell here, head farmer at Chucktown Acres. We are a grass-based farm, pasture-based farm , just outside of Charleston, South Carolina. started our farm business three years ago and it's been a wild ride ever since. But we do grass fed beef, forest raised pork, pasture raised chicken and eggs and turkeys. And we also do some, you pick, no spray strawberries as well. A little bit about my background is I did not grow up in an agriculture [00:02:00] family.
Grew up a city boy and then got inspired by. No one other than Joel Salatin, of course. so I ended up actually getting to join Joel Salatin's Farm in Virginia, Polyface Farms, and I got to be an intern there, which was a real pleasure and an honor. And then I actually got to work for Polyface for a few years and, kind of hone in my skills even more as far as, livestock management goes.
So I was really, really fortunate to have, at least a foundation of knowing how to take care of animals well, which I always encourage people that's the most important thing to start with. And then once we started Chucktown, I had to learn on the road how to be a business owner. And that's been the most wild part.
You know, crazy things do happen when you have live animals, but most of the adventure has been trying to figure out how [00:03:00] to run a dang business and do it well and have it grow and do sales and then the social media part of it is, is the most wild part for me. I was antisocial media. I was, it wasn't like, I wasn't just apathetic. I was against it. I didn't have any personally, I, I didn't care about it.
I didn't understand why people really had social media. It didn't really make a lot of sense to me. I just saw people wasting a lot of time on there. So, me being a purist, I, I was like, I'm not gonna do something silly like that. And then lo and behold, I start a farm business and all of a sudden I'm, putting pictures of myself holding up chicken breast and, standing out in a field talking about grass and, putting it online.
So, I kind of, got over , my feelings about social media and saw it as a very important tool. And now today, it's one of my most important tools that I [00:04:00] use, , especially on the educational front, with my customers. And then we've just recently started reaching people across the country , with a different, , different messages and different thoughts that I have.
And then I also get to use the social media to show my direct customers what does it look like on the farm, you know, when you're not here on a Wednesday, this is what the chickens are doing today. And, it's been really interesting to see that people really like to kind of live their farm dream vicariously through the farmer.
And, I always thought that was, when I first heard of that, I, I thought that was the silliest idea ever. And, and then the amount of people that say that they love when we just do updates about, you know, even like particular animals that we have, like , our mama cows or something, if a mama cow gets hurt, they want to follow a storyline of us, get making sure she gets better and.
I even did a whole series on [00:05:00] ragweed last year, which I thought no one would give a crap about at all. And it turns out like ton of people were asking me later, like, how'd it go with the ragweed? ? So, I've come around, I've realized that, especially with Instagram, it's a really, really awesome tool, especially as a business owner.
Rachele: Mm-hmm.
Alex Russell: With a message. I didn't get into regenerative agriculture to sell chicken breast. I got into it because I believed in this movement and I wanted to spread , the message of wholesome food, healing land and all that. So now I'm kind of able to use instagram and Facebook as a way to spread my message for free.
And, to really reach, a decent amount of people, so, I'm a fan now all of a sudden, and I never thought I'd come around to that conclusion, so.
Rachele: Yeah. I love that. If that wasn't a pitch on why farmers should get on social [00:06:00] media, I don't know what would be better, to be honest.
Alex Russell: Yeah.
Rachele: when did you, I guess when did you have that realization? Like, was it like one of your first videos that, you posted and people were like, who is this guy? What's going on? And you really grew your following or how did you build it up and when did you have that realization?
Alex Russell: Yeah, great question. , I don't, don't know if it was one moment in particular, but I do remember the first video that we actually put up with me on camera, because most of our social media leading up to. This one video we did, which was about following the chickens, , during the grass growing season and just seeing the progression of how the nitrogen affects the soil.
And, , all of our pictures were just of animals or of meat or of eggs. I didn't want to put myself on there, but we had a friend that was begging me and basically commanding me to put myself on camera because I would go on these rants and we'd have meetings and stuff and we'd be talking to people [00:07:00] and I'd go on these rants about grass and soil and nutrients and healthy food, and there were so many times that they were like, dude, we need a camera to capture your passion and to tell people this kind of stuff.
Because you would be amazed at the amount of people that don't know about how food's grown. Especially the way regenerative food has grown and then it's, you know, even more than that, the way really bad food is grown, they really don't know about that because that's been purposefully hidden from consumers.
Rachele: Right.
Alex Russell: So kicking and screaming, I finally agreed to do a video and I was standing beside some grass that was like two feet tall and the grass I was standing in was like four inches tall. And the difference was the grass that was two feet tall was where the broilers had been like two weeks prior.
And so I just described, Hey, look what happens when you have chickens [00:08:00] and you move them, isn't this great? You know, and it's a one minute video. And, most of our social media interactions had been very minimal, 10, 12 likes, whatever, people just locally. And then, that video got like, I don't, it probably got like a hundred likes in, a thousand views or whatever.
And I was shocked, I could not believe that people wanted to watch in me talking about grass and, , that they were like sharing it with their friends. I thought that was like the weirdest thing. I'm a fan boy of, of tall grass, but I didn't know that other people were, I thought I was just like a total weirdo
So then, I had a realization, you know, like, people really wanna learn about this stuff. And so I started mixing some more videos in, but I would mostly like type out my content, my thoughts on the [00:09:00] description of a certain post.
Rachele: Okay.
Alex Russell: and I would really get into it, spend a lot of time type, type, type away, and I'm typing on my phone, so it's like two thumbs, you know, taking forever to type stuff out.
And then, sometimes Instagram will just like delete your post while you're doing it and I'd get really frustrated. But I would notice that, there was a huge difference in the amount of interaction we got between posts where I would talk to the camera about what we're doing and what my like thoughts are versus me typing them out on a picture of, some grass next to some picture of some not great grass, you know?
Rachele: Yeah.
Alex Russell: The amount of interaction we got was crazy. And then one of my friends who's kind of a guru with social media and software and stuff, he said, they have designed the algorithms so that if you put your face on there, they're gonna blast it out.
The gods of Instagram are gonna blast it out to [00:10:00] way more people, than pictures of meat, especially.
Rachele: Yeah.
Alex Russell: And pictures of animals, especially, those are two things that get like, blacklisted on the algorithm. Meat and animals.
Rachele: Yes.
Alex Russell: And I'm like, well, that sucks because the farm is about the meat and the animals. It's not about me, you know? But, we have to kind of play with the cards that were dealt so, I kind of had to just get over it and decide to put myself on the screen , and literally like a doofus, just stand out in the middle of a field with my phone pointed at my face. And I just felt so silly.
Just ridiculous. And I thought, if anyone pulls up right now and they see me standing in the middle of a field with my a phone and my arm extended and the phone's pointing back at me, I'm gonna be so embarrassed.
Rachele: that's better than a selfie stick, I guess.
Alex Russell: Yes, right. At least it wasn't a selfie stick.
Rachele: Yeah.
Alex Russell: Yeah. [00:11:00] I haven't, I haven't gotten there yet.
That's so funny. I even remember when I bought a little tripod for my phone with the little flexible arms and the little remote control to start it.
And I just, I was like, I feel so ridiculous. I have nerdy friends that are into this kind of stuff and they love it. , but I'm a farmer. I'm covered in mud and manure. I stink. I drive a pickup truck and a tractor. I'm not supposed to be having these little tripods and stuff. This just, the dichotomy was just hilarious to me.
So, it was one initial video that really woke me up, and then it was a series of comparison between posts and pictures of animals and meat versus me doing a video. It was night and day. The difference, especially when we're talking about people interacting with your posts and with people sharing your message to other people, so, it was a punch, an initial punch, and then I just got death by a thousand cuts after that.
Rachele: Yeah. [00:12:00] Well I would love to hear, cuz again, I mean it's obviously working for you and like you were saying, Instagram prioritizes videos and prioritizes your face and everything else.
So you understand what works and you kind of have an idea of what your followers wanna see because you obviously don't do the same thing over and over.
So how do you keep it fresh and how do you keep your followers engaged?
Alex Russell: Yeah, that's something I have to keep asking myself because I'm still learning. I feel like I, just started and then this whole reels thing came up and I was like, ah, this freaking reels thing's so stupid.
And then I noticed, you know, the powers that be were just only showing reels to people. Yeah, that's it. You got a picture, screw you. You got a video, screw you, you got a reel. You're a superstar all of a sudden. You can try to fight it or you can just jump in this dream and just go along with it.
And that's kind of what I've decided to do along with everyone else., now I've noticed that some people really get into to reels and put a bunch of pictures on there [00:13:00] and they can make a reel look like something that you had to work on all day. And I do not have time for that. Yeah, I, I really, I hardly have time to look at the phone at all, let alone like try to line up the pictures with the music and stuff.
I just tried it so hilarious. It would literally take me all day to make a 30 second reel where I lined the pictures up with the music. Like, that's insane. I know some people are just really good at it. It's probably software that does it for you now, but I still just, I wanted to tell people about what we were doing and so I just decided I'm gonna go with the flow.
They want reels, let's give them reels. That's fine. Early on into the whole reels thing, I noticed that when I was scrolling through Instagram, I would stop for a video that would have captions. Subtitles and I wouldn't have to turn on , the noise the speaker thing, whatever.
I could just see what they were saying on the [00:14:00] screen and read it and their mouth is going. And I'm like, , this is such a silly way to communicate with people, but I noticed it worked on me and I would watch way longer videos if they had captions.
And even more so if they had like a title for the caption on the reel.
Cows eat grass, stick that up there. And then you have captions of, you know, Joel South and being like, cows eat grass. Grass is good. And I would pay way more attention to that. So I started doing that. I just, I wouldn't even get into, I wouldn't even put pictures on my reels. I would just do like a video like I used to, but push the reel button instead.
Rachele: Yeah.
Alex Russell: And so I wanted to get more and more messages across, I'm out there doing chores, moving the chickens, and I have a thought about , [00:15:00] isn't it weird that people say that chickens are vegetarian fed? I'm just thinking of that while I'm moving the chickens with the tractor, right?
So I'm like, okay, I'm gonna turn the tractor off. I'm gonna stand out here in the middle of this field with all these chickens around me, and I'm gonna talk about why chickens should not be vegetarian fed. I do that. I make it a reel. I just add the captions to it. I, and I'm like a caveman, and I could figure it out.
It took me about five minutes, but I figured it out. And then, like tons of people loved the video. They were all about it. Oh yeah. We know the whole vegetarian fed thing is garbage anyway. And just a ton of people feeding back, sharing it with their friends, posting, reposting it, whatever.
So most of my content is me in the moment. I'm out there doing something. And I have a thought about why, , what we're doing is really great , and I want to tell people about it and I just make it, my goal to keep [00:16:00] it one minute or under is better, but one minute max and I put a title and captions on it and that's it.
That's it. I know like, if you talk to Tom Bennett, that dude has got reels, like under control. He's got the whole most hilarious farm reels ever. And I like, am so like, inspired by him, but I I don't know how he does it. But that's been my model has been I'm just gonna make a post. I'm gonna turn it into a reel and I'm gonna put captions on it.
And I'm just gonna tell him, cuz we have, as farmers, we have lots of stuff that's on our mind that we want to say, but we're so busy that we forget to say it. And so it's actually been a really cool tool to use while you're in the field. You know, like, I've got this really cool thought about this kind of plant and so I'm want to tell people about it.
And it seems to be really effective. , we just had , our [00:17:00] biggest reel ever, , this weekend. And, got like a, normally our post, like if I'm doing a post or a reel, we'll get between like 50 to a hundred likes. Okay. And I don't even know how many views, whatever the views would be, 300 or whatever, this thing I put up on Saturday, what got a thousand likes, and over like 400 shares in 24 hours.
Rachele: Wow.
Alex Russell: And it was about why we are not an organic farm, just literally standing out there with the chickens because we feed an organic feed to our layers and we do like an organic corn free fancy thing.
And I just literally had a thought, like I feed this really great feed, but we're not organic because of ABC. I should tell people about it. And now I can. And now I have this outlet to be able to tell people I don't have to be on stage with a microphone [00:18:00] to be able to tell people about it.
I don't have to write a book. I don't write, I have to be in a magazine. I don't even have to be in a podcast to do it. I can just tell 'em right now what I'm thinking. And, to be honest with you, I haven't gotten into like scheduled posting. That's something I wanna get better into, but it kind of, my free spirited hippie side is able to express itself by spontaneously thinking of something and just taking in it to record a video.
And so that's, I guess it's kind of how we've, I've been able to keep it fresh is, I hate saying the same thing twice and just tell people what's on your mind and some messages you get will get to a hundred people and some messages you put out there will get to a thousand people.
And, and you have to poke around the Instagram universe to find out like what resonates with people and what's really hitting home with people. And [00:19:00] don't be afraid to put up a silly thing because you gotta do some poking around to find out what works..
Rachele: Yeah, absolutely. And like you just said it, but this works for you.
Like while many people might preach. Yeah. Like, oh, it's all about this scheduled post, and like having your content schedule and planning and using tools, et cetera, to make sure you have a post every day while that works for many people and that's Yes. The traditional way to go about it. You found that this works for you, this works for how you like to operate, and so that's what's most important and it's obviously reaching the audience and growing your followers the way you want it to and accomplishing the things that you want it to do.
So yeah, that's what matters at the end of day.
Alex Russell: Yeah. Uh, you know, part of my theory in life and in farming and in podcasting and in Instagramming and all that, is just do something.
And, you know, don't, don't sit around and wait for it to be perfect. and then post it out. Or don't wait until you have the [00:20:00] perfect cows before you go buy cows.
Yeah. Or don't wait until it's perfectly all polished and beautiful before you go into it. And so I have mad props for the people that get the software to schedule out your posting and they'll set aside four hours on a Monday to get all their posts lined up. It's like, I hope that someday I can hire somebody to do that for me.
But right now it's just me and my guy Matt, and we're rolling on this together and I'm in charge of the social media. And so I, instead of me, expecting myself to get perfect at like, planning out my posts and stuff, for now, I'm just going rogue and I'm gonna post when I get inspired and I'm gonna play this message over and over and over again in my head.
Just do something. Just, say something. And it doesn't mean I post every day. I even took off like two months between Thanksgiving and New Year's [00:21:00] and I needed a break from it for a while. But, as long as I tell myself every day, just go do something. Oh, 50% of the time I'll put up an Instagram post.
Yeah. And that really, really helps me, just having that message, like, don't make, it doesn't have to be perfect. Just put it out there. I mean, people can't remember what they had for breakfast. So if you say something stupid, they're probably not gonna remember. Yeah.
Um,
Rachele: yeah. Well, and I think a lot of farmers too, like they get like hung up on the, like, it has to be perfect, or I have to have everything like Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
So just giving them like a starting point. Yeah. Or understanding that, like you said, like consistency is key. Just get it up there. It doesn't need to be perfect. And that makes it more approachable and less intimidating too, I feel like.
Alex Russell: Yeah, absolutely. We're so busy as farmers. Yeah. That like, this is not the, this is not the main thing that we're worried about.
, we're not worried about Instagram likes, like we're worried about making sure the pigs are alive tomorrow and the [00:22:00] chickens are fat when they go to the processor. Like, yeah, that's what we're worried about. We're worried about making sure we make payroll and that, you know, everyone's fed.
The Instagram thing is so far to the side that we can forget about it, but if you make it this big magnanimous thing and you're, and taking up a bunch of bandwidth in your brain, you're gonna start to slack off other places , and you'll be so worried, and overthinking what you put online that , you end up just, you just won't do it.
Yeah. You know, or put up one perfect little post every week and Instagram rewards you for being consistent and for posting a lot. We, like, we know this somewhere in the magical algorithms, if you're an interactive person on Instagram and if you put up a bunch of, you're consistently putting stuff up, they're gonna blast you out to more people than if you're just a, once a weeker.
So I try to get at least [00:23:00] three, three of 'em out there a week. At least three or four is great. And at least that's a reasonable goal for me to try to hit.
Rachele: So you use, you create reels to educate your customers about the practices you use, why you're not organic or, and teaching them about the grass and stuff.
But I also know that you post too about like what's included in your subscription boxes and your account. Uh, yes. So tell me about that. And, and cuz you are a direct to market business after all. So how does that play into your social media strategy?
Alex Russell: Yeah, I totally forgot about that. I'm supposed to be putting up a picture of our CSA Box every week and I, I forget like half the time. We've had a great winter.
this year for subscriptions. , we've had a lot of people sign up and it's been really great. The winners in the past, the last two winners have been really tough on us, as far as sales go, cuz there's no farmer's market and you're just relying on getting in front of people online to make your sales for your home [00:24:00] delivery stuff.
And so what I did, which I believe got a lot of people inspired to sign up for our CSA box. For those that don't know, we do a meat and eggs box. It's about three pound, three to four pounds of meat, two dozen eggs. And people can pick once a week, once every other week or once a month. And what I've found is that people, that idea of like, oh, we get meat and eggs, it sounds like a cool idea.
It stopped there for people and what I found out is that they wanted to see it first. And so I started putting up pictures online of the CSA boxes. You know, I just lay it out. You got the eggs there, opened up so people can see 'em. You got the chicken breasts, the, sausages and the ground beef for the steaks.
And what I noticed is that I had to do it, consistently, but [00:25:00] after a few times of me putting stuff like that online, all of a sudden outta nowhere, people just started signing up like crazy. You know? It was like, the idea was cool.
That was step one. Step two was you gotta show it to 'em. Step three is you gotta show it to 'em a lot of times, and then they decide to go to the website and sign up.
You know, you gotta hit people a bunch to get them to, cuz online marketing is everything now. And so people are getting bombarded with online, marketing tactics from every angle.
So if you wanna be making sales, you need to jump into the fray and just bombard people. Not at an annoying level, but at a thing where you realizing people probably didn't see your last four posts. Okay. They probably didn't see your last 10 posts. So every time you post something, you're gonna be reaching new people.
So I just started hammering people with these pictures of meat and eggs and [00:26:00] even though Instagram. Is kind of against meat and animals and stuff. They don't show it to as many people. They still show it to some people. And it was enough people for us to start getting these CSA boxes, purchased on our website and people will be signing up for this subscription.
And then one of the most powerful things we had happen was our customers would then share, the stuff on their countertop or a video of them unboxing the CSA and being all excited about it. And I really owe a lot of our success in our sales this winter to the last two years of me putting up pictures of this is what it looks like.
This is what you can expect if you sign up. And subscriptions are like 85% of our business now. I mean, we were a la carte for the first two years. And so we were only accessing like 15% of the sales that we could have been accessing, that we are accessing [00:27:00] now in year three.
Imagine what they're gonna be in year five or year six or seven. So I had to realize that people want to see the stuff if you want them to purchase it. And just a picture on your website is not gonna be enough for your fringe customers. You know, you've got your really hardcore people that don't need a picture at all.
They just want to know you have grass finished beef. That's, you got your center core of customers there, but you've got this massive amount of fringy people that are interested, that think local farms are cool, but they're not, gonna go online and purchase something every week. They're gonna go to Publix, they're gonna go to Costco, they're gonna go to Whole Foods because it's close to them and they don't have to think about it.
They just go and they can do it. But I think I was able to suck in a bunch of fringe, questioning customers [00:28:00] that were on the lines. And then I made it really easy for them using Barn2Door by making it a subscription. And they just have to sign in, put their card in once, and it's done.
And I'm gonna bring that meat to you, let's say every other week. And, yeah, it's just been, it's just been a massive boost for our business overall. And I think that the, putting up the pictures of the CSA box was like the catalyst for getting us off the ground.
Rachele: I love to hear that. And I've read that it's like, it takes seven impressions for someone to remember that like your brand exists or that your product exists, and
Alex Russell: Yes.
Rachele: And then it's also like that hard routine of if someone's used to going to the grocery store, that's in their daily routine. So breaking that cycle and continuously reminding them is key. And like it, I said this earlier, like as a direct to market business, you have to remind people that you exist online.
Alex Russell: Absolutely, yes. And I've heard one in seven for them to remember you, and I've heard one in 16 to make a [00:29:00] sale. Oh, wow. Okay. So think about that when you're trying to make sales. I would get really frustrated if I would put up like an Instagram post being, saying something like, oh, we got bacon on sale this week.
And we'd get like one order and I'd get, I would get so bummed. But then I had a friend that's, Really into investing and helping other businesses thrive. And he said, you gotta call 16 people to make one sale. And that rocked me. Cause I was like, oh, well I'm just trying to like put a one Instagram post, which is not even like a personal invite to anyone.
It's just out to this space land out there. And I was getting bummed that I wasn't making enough sales. And so, you are absolutely right. People are going to forget that you exist. You're an online business. You're not in front of them. You're not standing out in front of Whole Foods with a cooler full of beef, you know?
You don't even have a brick and mortar most of the time. I don't have a farm store. [00:30:00] We're just all completely online. I have people asking me all the time if they can come out and shop at our store. And I'm like, what store? I don't have a store. We're just online.
So, people forget we exist all the time and you can't hold it against them. They got kids and they got soccer practice and they're trying to make sure their family eats good food and Whole Foods is just down the street. You know, it's like, you gotta remember Whole Foods is just down the street, you gotta be okay with being a little bit annoying and putting stuff up, repetitive repetitively, doing your newsletter and remembering that you're not on the top of people's minds on a Wednesday, you know?
Rachele: Right, right.
Yeah, exactly. Because like even it's your business, so of course it's top of mind for you 24 7, but it's not gonna be for them. Yes. They have a million other things going on. So, yes. Back to that, like consistency is key, like posting regularly, like you said, sending newsletters [00:31:00] regularly, et cetera.
Alex Russell: Yes, absolutely. Yeah. One newsletter is like five Instagram, 10 Instagram posts put together, the newsletter's super powerful. But I think now, we have to kind of go for the shotgun spray, , tactic with let's hit 'em with newsletters, let's do Instagram reels, let's do Facebook groups, let's do all sorts of stuff to try to get in front of people because they are looking at their phones all day.
But you don't, your stuff is probably not getting in front of them. You're gonna have to just be blasting out there to get in front of people. And that's, it's, I tried to fight it, but I lost. And I feel like that's the kind of world we live in now is you're gonna have to shotgun blast.
I mean, really, you're gonna have to do a lot of different stuff to, to get in front of people. There's a lot of farms now too, and there's other online meat businesses that have a much bigger budget than you do too.
Yeah. that can get, that can [00:32:00] pay to get in front of people, , that can pay a lot more money than you can and their meat is cheaper than yours too. It's important just to be vigilant and to, and just to remember like, it's okay to be a little bit annoying because. people probably didn't see what you put up last time and that's okay.
Rachele: Yeah. Yeah. What would you say is like your number one piece of advice if someone's just like looking to get started, spread the word, grow their following on Instagram, what would be your just number one piece of advice?
Alex Russell: Oh gosh. Good question. I would say just do it. Just put something up that was the most powerful tool for me is I wrote it on the fridge, just put something up. And it doesn't have to be perfect, but you know, most of us regenerative, sustainable farmers got into this world because we're passionate about it.
We're so passionate about it that [00:33:00] we decided to quit our jobs. And not just buy from local farmers, but be the local farmer. You gotta be a lunatic to be the local farmer. So you know that you have tons of passion inside of you that's thrust you into doing this. So you have great things to say.
Don't be afraid. If it's not perfect, just put it up there. And if I'm allowed a second one, I would say, be consistent. Do it and do it consistently. And, I'll take a third one, you're not gonna see results right away. So you, have to be willing to do this for like years maybe before you actually get some really good traction online.
And who knows what Instagram's gonna look like in three years. Yeah. But we do know that whatever Instagram is, like in three years, they're gonna be rewarding to people who are consistent on it. Absolutely. So get yourself into that reward system.[00:34:00] Play the game and, it doesn't have to be perfect.
Rachele: Yeah. And it's the long game, like you said, long term.
Alex Russell: Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. We've seen, we've gotten way more traction this year in year three than years one and two combined. So it's gonna have to ramp, it's gonna have to ramp up. Same thing, if I may add for your local customers, if you're a new farm starting out, your local customers don't know that you're there and you're, and just because you're the new farm on the block doesn't mean that they're gonna be really stoked about you being there.
Some customers may be waiting for you to be there for three years before they start buying. They may be looking at you out of the corner of their eye at the farmer's market thinking, we'll see if, we'll see if Mr. Hype over there is there in three years.
So yeah, not just online traction, but also in sales, in, in your traction in your local places, in your farmer's markets [00:35:00] as well. Be consistent. Show up every week and be ready for it to take a while, and that's okay. But don't get bombed if you don't get a thousand likes on your first Instagram.
Rachele: Yeah, and like word of mouth and user-generated content, like you touched on that really briefly earlier. Like those are huge. Like when you have loyal customers and they can tout how much they love your products and you can hit repost, like that's the ultimate goal there too, cuz they can almost speak better than you can about your products and and people trust other people.
Alex Russell: Yeah. It's validating to what you're doing. And it feels really good too. It's a, you know, the farmers need a good encouraging boost every now and then to make sure that they're like, ground beef doesn't suck. And so if you can have customers giving their feedback, they're cooking the meatballs and they love 'em and that is a huge motivating boost for you.
And it also validates you to new customers. Cuz I can say the ground beef's great all [00:36:00] day, but I'm also the one who made it, you know, it's al it's my product. And so when you have word of mouth, it is way more powerful than the person who produces the product. So I absolutely agree with you.
It's, that's super important and it's even worth asking your customers to do, pick out your really hardcore. Fans that are like with you for life, cuz we all have 'em. Ask them to be willing to share stuff online too. And, and boy that really does a lot of good for your following and and for your message and then for your sales as well.
Rachele: Yeah. And you do have to ask cuz people are just they're going along, they're enjoying your subscription, they're getting your products. They forget to share those reviews, to share how they're feeling, how they're enjoying the products. And so, and it's usually like the loud ones or like those one-offs that they'll leave those reviews.
So when you can engage, you know, the people who actually enjoy your products, like just ask cuz more often than not, they will actually share how [00:37:00] they're enjoying your products.
Alex Russell: Yes. Yeah. It's, it's, you're absolutely right. You, the people who are. Sharing stuff. They're really rare and, but you do have people that love you and love, love your stuff.
And you never know if you were to ask 10 of 'em to share, you're probably gonna get, if you're asking that hardcore group, you're probably gonna get eight people sharing and you're gonna see, all of a sudden you got 40 new followers that day, or a hundred new followers that day just because you had eight people sharing a video of them unboxing some meat out of a bag.
Yeah. and bam, you got a hundred more people that are looking at you now. So, totally worth the ask. The worst thing they can say is no. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Rachele: Absolutely. Okay, what are your goals for Chucktown Acres social media? What are you trying to accomplish in 2023? Oh man, social media specifically.
Alex Russell: Okay. Yeah, I was gonna say you got 45 more minutes. As far as [00:38:00] social media goals go, you know, it's, what's funny is I'm so new to this. I haven't set goals yet, but I can make up some good ones right now. I just feel like I, we finally like caught some traction and people are actually starting to pay attention now.
And so now I'm waking up to the idea that it's a tool worth investing in and investing some even just bandwidth in my mind. So we're at 3000 followers. Would be really cool if, I'm a realistic goals kind of guy. I'm not really like a shoot for the moon kind of guy, , so I would say, 6,000 by the end of the year would be really cool.
And, I want to get, I want to get better at being more funny on with reels, because I can be serious all day on, because I take this work seriously, but I'm a goofball too. And so [00:39:00] most of my humor comes out in conversation, so I don't really make myself crack up while I'm moving the, egg mobile.
So that's something that I see Tom Bennett doing really well, with Bennett Farms, Michigan. And so I really want to, like, he's inspired me a lot, so, Tom, you're doing great stuff, man. And I wanna be like you when I grow up, and, so I'm gonna try to be funny on there. And I'm gonna aim for 6,000 by the end of the year.
Rachele: I think those are very realistic and it even goes back to the three E's that we're constantly preaching here at Barn2Door, which is you have the education down, you have the e-commerce down, so like amping up the entertainment portion. But just making sure that it's like more variety, more consistency, et cetera.
Alex Russell: Yeah. Yeah. I think I could reach those goals. I try not to be a, a crazy goals kind of person, so I love making easy goals to hit, cuz then once you hit 'em, it makes you feel good too.
Rachele: Yeah. Realistic goals.
Alex Russell: Mm-hmm. Yeah, exactly.
Rachele: I wanna thank Alex for joining us on this week's podcast episode. Join us next time as we continue the Social Media Tactic Series on the Direct Farm [00:40:00] Podcast.
Here at Barn2Door, we are humbled to support thousands of farms across the country, including Chucktown Acres. If you wanna connect with Alex and other Farm advisors, attend Barn2Door Connect. You can register for weekly sessions at barn2door.com/connect.
And, for more information on Chucktown Acres, you can give them a follow on Instagram @chucktownacres.
Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next time.