I ran across this article, Planting Cyber Seeds, written by Jeffrey Tomich for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and I thought I would share it will all of you. The article is about how Monsanto has worked to tackle big issues through Twitter, the social networking tool that answers the question, What are you doing?

Because environmentalists were constantly trying to derail Monsanto in the media, the company quickly realized that they needed to address some big issues in the news for themselves. The group uses Twitter to discuss controversial topics like food labeling and genetically modified foods. Like many agriculture groups, Monsanto has realized that this is the best outlet to interacting with the nation’s food consumers. I know a lot of people utilize Twitter to share basic information, (i.e. location, dinner plans, random thoughts…) but I’m quickly discovering it’s a great tool to share press releases, studies, great websites and even photos. Do you use Twitter, and how do you utilize it in your professional career? “Planting cyber seeds” proves that Twitter is a social networking tool worth considering…

Monsanto’s presence on the Web has evolved during the last few years. But only last year did the company decide to delve into social media as it witnessed the upheaval of traditional media and realized that its existing outreach vehicle — news releases — wasn’t enough.

“We asked ourselves, ‘Is this a space we should be participating in?’ The answer was ‘yes.'”

While some consumer companies have used blogs and Twitter to promote their products, Monsanto views social media as a forum to discuss key issues with critics, investors and customers. The company and its critics agreed on one thing: Food is an emotional issue. Knowing that, Monsanto hopes using social media will help put a human face on the company and connect with people who might perceive it as a monolith trying to dominate global agriculture.