It was a rainy, cloudy day today in Mitchell, S.D., and like the weather, I wasn’t feeling a little cheerful. For the life of me, I couldn’t concentrate and get my writing assignments done. So, like any procrastinator, instead of dealing with the problem, I logged onto Facebook. On my status update, I wrote, “Writer’s block…” Soon after, I had a slew of suggestions and ideas for stories on agriculture. Ideas included: college kids not getting enough meat, beef demand, milk industry crisis, hi-tech beef communication efforts of the beef ambassadors, National Farm Safety and Health Week, and how agriculture has collided with social media sites.

Of course (thanks to my dear Facebook friends), my mind was full of ideas to pursue at that point, but the one I thought would make a great discussion on AgWired is the topic of how agriculture is adapting to social media and networking. Many of us in agriculture are already tuned into blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., but do we look to see how they have impacted our communication efforts? We have gone from snail-mail to instant connections online. How has that changed us as a society? How can we reach out to consumers across the globe with the positive messages on agriculture that they need to hear? What are your success stories, and what lessons have you learned through your own social media efforts?

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