During the last couple weeks I’ve seen more growth in agricultural interests using Twitter than ever. I’m talking companies, agencies, farmers, ag media. This is a great sign. One of my favorite posts on Twitter yesterday started out, “Tweeting from tractor . . . ” Yes folks, your customers and members are there. Are you? If not, why not? I’d encourage you to go ahead and create an account even if you don’t want to start using it right away. If you don’t know how, email me and I’ll create it for you. Why get one now? You don’t want your competition or someone else to get your ID, kind of like protecting your domain.

Twitter has developed into a great online communications tool. Yes, there’s a small learning curve. Yes, it will take time to build connections (followers). You can of course stick your head in the sand and let other people talk about you without your participation. I don’t recommend it.

So, why should you participate in the online discussion? For one thing you’ll be helping tell agriculture’s story in an environment where you’re more likely to interact with consumers who are having a say in how you run your business (think legislation). How many times do we see companies and groups lament that “our story isn’t being told.” That’s because you’re depending on others to do it for you. With today’s social media tools you no longer have that excuse. Additionally, by interacting with your customers, members and the public you can make sure your side of any story is told – by you!

I’ve written about our weekly #AgChat session a couple of times where people interested in agriculture are participating in a live Twitter discussion on Tuesday evenings. We’ve been reaching out to all interests, including those not involved in production agriculture. This past week we saw a growing amount of non-ag participation. Some of them are extremely vocal opponents of animal agriculture or farming as we know it. It was interesting to see how cordial some of them were and how antagonistic some were. Now we’ve just learned that the most antagonistic one has started an alternative #AgChat called #SustAgChat which will be a live Twitter discussion on Sunday evening from 5-8pm Pacific time. Of course the focus is “sustainability.” Something that most farmers are very familiar with and practice with growing effectiveness. We learned last week that many people have extremely different definitions of sustainability. I dare say that some consider it a backyard garden and a meatless diet. I would recommend looking at how USDA defines it as a more reasonable place to start. I like Cindy’s point that “we’ve been farming for how long?”

My point in bringing this up is to show how we’ve made a difference. We’ve touched a nerve with the public sufficient to cause them to take action in response. And this has been done by a small but growing group of people who are taking a few minutes out of their week to use the tools at our disposal. Something to think about, eh?