The American Farm Bureau Federation is having its annual Council of Presidents meeting in Boston, MA and I’m on location to do a presentation about social media this afternoon. During the lunch break I spoke with AFBF President, Bob Stallman, to get his perspective on the use of social media for an organization like his.
Bob says, “We’ve always been involved in the public domain. We’ve always tried to make our case to citizens and the public. Communications mechanisms have changed. It’s become very evident that this new concept and implementation of social media is going to influence people and that’s our goal, to influence people so we have to be involved. Now it does involve changing a lot of old mindset but it’s clear that we have to be engaged.” In my interview with Bob I also got an update on their current priorities which include regulation and in particular those surrounding the climate.
You can listen to my interview with Bob here: afbf-stallman-6-8-09.mp3
Earlier today I solicited some comments from the Twitterverse with the request, “If anybody has anything they’d like #AFBF Council of Presidents to know today please use the hashtag in your tweet. Thanks.” Thank you to everyone who has already posted a comment. You can find them by searching the #AFBF hashtag. Here are a few of them:
skinnyhorse: @AgriBlogger I found it helpful to follow people like lobbyists at the State Cap. for breaking news on legislation, amendments etc. #AFBF
RayLinDairy: .@AgriBlogger #AFBF Time to join SM was yesterday don’t waste anymore time thinking about it.
AFBFMace: @AgriBlogger #AFBF Farm Bureau and ag are well represented in SM and we are growing the army every day. Sevrl state FBs are taking the lead
mpaynknoper: My comments for #AFBF are on FB – it’s critical more in #ag engage. Some producers prefer SM to give #farm facts vs. speaking to groups.
whitwallace: @AgriBlogger SM is influencing perceptions as we speak. When we aren’t part of the convo, our story is told for us, minus the facts. #AFBF
This request and response from a widespread audience is a perfect example of the power of a social media channel like Twitter. Literally within moments of my posting that request, responses were coming in and as I post this I’m seeing more pop up so please feel free to see how today’s Twitter “chat” turns out.