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Social Media Strategies for Producers

 

Social media can be a great tool to use to communicate and interact with current and potential customers. You can post farm updates in real-time with your followers and share what is available for purchase. About 1 in 4 social media users use social platforms to discover, learn, purchase or recommend products or brands, so it’s important to have an online presence.

Here’s our tips for best practices to keep your customers engaged online, with examples from area farms and food businesses in the north country.

Post with Consistency 

Be active on your account, your followers will notice when there have not been any updates in a while. Share current happenings on your farm or what projects you have been working on. Having a lack of posts or interaction on social media can be the reason your followers and other potential customers are not seeing your content. With consistent regular posting, you can have customers look forward to seeing you and your farm updates. Try setting goals on posting consistency each week, maybe aim for 2-3 posts to start and then adjust accordingly based on your available time.

Visuals Matter Read more Social Media Strategies for Producers

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Farm to Table Podcast

Students from the class, Seeding Hope, taught by Rebecca Rivers at St. Lawrence University had a unique assignment last fall. Their course goals included, “shining a spotlight on existing projects that successfully unite diverse groups of people in grassroots efforts to protect and restore natural resources. We will focus on what we can learn from them about protecting the environment, sustaining human communities and increasing social justice.”

Three first-year students, Lydia Fedorowich, Sergey Avery, and Enith Alejandra Altamirano Salazar took on the task of identifying nearby organizations that play an active role in the north country food system. Their assignment was to create a podcast episode that included interviews with area people engaged in agriculture and food at the local level.

Click on the bar below to hear this episode. The guests include:

  • Extension Educator Flip Filippi,  Local Food Program Leader
  • Will Trithart Owner and Chef at Big Spoon Kitchen
  • Andy Peet, the General Manager of the Potsdam Food Co-op

Lauren grew up in neighboring Vermont exploring and loving the green mountains and vast landscapes. Her undergraduate degree made her appreciate the communities that surround local foods and a Master’s Certificate in Food Studies from the University of Southern Maine made her want to pursue a career in the food system. In 2021 and 2022, she was the Local Foods Marketing and Development Educator for Cornell Cooperative Extension of St. Lawrence County.

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Our Little Grewve – A Regenerative flower farm in Hermon, NY

The CCE Local foods team recently visited Our Little Grewve, a new farm in Hermon. It was a pleasure to learn more about their operation and offer a free professional photo shoot as part of our Farm-to-Table Initiative. Catch a glimpse of the farm through the camera lens.

When visiting Our Little Grewve you might think the farm has been established for years. In reality, owners Elizabeth Seeley and John Anson are just in their second season of producing flowers and produce.

Their self-serve farmstand at 2202 county route 21 in Hermon greets you when arriving and is stocked with single stems, bouquets of flowers and fresh vegetables.

Garden beds with mulched pathways dot the property with flowers in full bloom or ones waiting for their turn to pop There is also a greenhouse that they added this past winter, which has helped with starting plants early and having a nice warm place to get their seedlings established. Read more Our Little Grewve – A Regenerative flower farm in Hermon, NY