Social Media: “The New Coffee Shop” wait….

Ever since I got involved in social media, I’ve felt at times like a fish out of water and the issue of how much of an introvert I am is very debatable.  But it’s time to come clean with one of the dark little secrets in my life…

For any of my local friends and family, I’m embarrassed by the amount of attention ag social media, and in particular the AgChat Foundation and my involvement, has gotten in the agriculture press in the last year or so.  This blog was prompted by the latest one.  The September/October of The Furrow is just hitting mailboxes and it features a lead story on social media as “The New Coffee Shop” and I’m pictured on the front cover along with fellow Kansas agvocates Debbie Lyons Blythe and Tom Tibbits.

I very much appreciate the publicity that agvocacy is recieving, and hope it inspires many, many more farmers to take the time and effort to share their stories, to explain to a public far removed from the farm how their food is raised.

At a personal level it’s a little more complicated.  I don’t know that I have EVER been to the local coffee shop, much of the time that I do gather with a group of people I’m very content to just sit and listen.  I’m not active publicly in my local community.  The level of my introvertedness is surprising in it’s intensity at times.  I’ve often wondered what my neighboring farmers think when they’ve leafed through some of the farm magazines, see my pictured as an example of “speaking out for agriculture” and hardly know who I am.

And yet, I’m very passionate, I am very involved in agriculture social media, I’m proud to be one of the founding farmers of the AgChat Foundation.  If you look at my Facebook wall, my Twitter feed, my blog, Google Plus account, etc.  there’s not a lot of activity, especially about my farm.

The answer to this puzzle lies in a simple reality.  My interests, my passions, my focus, are all internal.  I’ve worked with some incredible people to build the AgChat Foundation, and focusing on the people involved, working together as a team, crunching the numbers, determining direction, that’s my interest.  It’s a very internal focus compared to the external focus that many agvocates have.  I first saw this on display incredibly well at last year’s Agvocacy 2.0 Training Conference.  I met a lot of farmers, all of which LOVED to talk about their farms, of course, they were agvocates, that’s what they were supposed to do!  Funny thing is, I seldom talk about my farm, unless specifically asked.

And yet, one of my most memorable recent experiences is sitting down with an ag contact I’ve known for some time.  She would like to write a book, telling the farm story, from several individual farmers perspectives.  I loved the couple of hours we spent brainstorming, I hope I gave her at least a bit of encouragement, and if she continues to pursue this book idea I’d love to spend even more time helping to make it a success.  That small little project is a perfect example of the agvocacy I like to work on.

Those one on ones, the trusted close connections, are where I have my impact on a daily basis with the AgChat Foundation. You may not see me much in the public social media world, but the passion for the industry I love and my belief in the people that are part of it, runs deep. And I think I am still making a real contribution to the agvocacy effort.

My message to you is this…  You have to find your own niche, you won’t do exactly what someone else does, you may focus on a specific service or tool, you may be very techno-literate or techno-challenged.  You may be articulate or struggle to express your true feelings, but in the end, I’m confident God gave each and every one of us a special skill set to use.  We just have to be comfortable going down a little different path than the over-rated “normal” at times!

My Top 10 List of AgChat Foundation Accomplishments

A few days ago marked the one year anniversary of the launch of the AgChat Foundation and I wanted to take a step back to reflect on some of my personal highlights of the last year.  This isn’t meant to be an official list, it’s a personal one.  It’s a bit heavy on data and the things I’m focused on, but I’ve also tried to be objective on some of the milestones I think really are most important. 

10.  #Foodthanks – I’ll start the list with this one, I did a blog post on the numbers from this effort and won’t add a lot here, other than this is probably the kind of Foundation activity I enjoy working on the most.  I just have a lot of fun planning things like this with a small group, figuring out how to most effectively get the word out,  watching the day unfold, and then trying to learn from the experience to improve our effectiveness the next time.

9. This one will surprise a few folks, but there was a specific Tuesday evening #agchat that stands out to me as a significant accomplishment of the Foundation this year.  Mike Haley was the moderator and “Humane Animal / Welfare” was the topic.  What makes this chat significant was the difficult topic involved, and the admirable way the community responded.  Animal welfare issues stir up strong emotions, discussing this kind of topic in a public forum, doing so in a non-confrontational way, where folks can just learn and share, to me represents a major accomplishment. 

Balancing the Many Agvocacy Needs

For those that don’t know me, once the farm work is taken care of, and family needs are met (sometimes those can be quite significant at our house – they’ll grow up someday!), my passion is online agriculture advocacy.  I love everything about rural America, the people, the way of life, the wide open spaces, the values.  And to me, it’s under attack, for many ways and reasons.

The best way I know to deal with that is to encourage those who live the lifestyle I love every day to speak up, to share with a voting public far removed from modern agriculture that although the tools and sometimes the methods have changed, the core values of honesty, integrity, hardwork and taking care of one another through the good and bad times still remain.

Bridging Cultural Differences

If you get past the silly picture, there’s some powerful concepts in a recent blog post by Janice Person (@JPlovescotton) I’ll try not to just regurgitate what she said, but I’d really like you to watch the two videos of  Chamillionaire and Jeff Fowle.  They are very, very insightful.

So, to start out, let me make it very clear that I have little or no connection to this Chamillionaire fellow.  I don’t like his music style, would even admit to stereotyping rappers at times.  But he has some very good thoughts, and quite honestly, not that much unlike what those of us in ag often times face with being stereotyped in other ways.

But what’s significant to me.  Chamillionaire represents a very large demographic group that eat, vote, and quite frankly will be telling us how we can farm in the future.  So, if you believe in the goals of ag advocacy and an organization like AgChat Foundation, whatever our personal cultural/music preferences, this is a demographic we’re going to have to work with.