Advocating is something more and more farmers are doing. Scroll through social media and you’ll see stories of farmers sharing how they care for their cattle, land and family to others who are farther removed from agriculture.
Dr. Marissa Hake is a veterinarian, wife and mother who shares about her life living in Rural America. She is passionate about being a bridge builder between consumers and agriculture, especially in the areas of animal welfare and sustainability. Dr. Hake currently serves as the director of animal welfare and sustainable farming for fairlife.
Dr. Hake offers the following tips to farmers who also want to advocate their farm life story.
- Make it personal. Build connection points beyond the farm. They have to feel like they “know you” before they can trust you.
- You have less than 5 seconds to catch their attention, make sure you have quality images and videos.
- You don’t have to have 100,000 followers to make an impact. It starts right in our local community!
- Stick to the platform(s) that you like best. You’re not ice cream- you can’t be everything to everyone!
“Remember you’re sharing to build consumer confidence in dairy, not for the opinion of other farmers,” she says.
Katie Dotterer, better known as AgvoKate, has been advocating for decades. She grew up on her family’s dairy farm in central Pennsylvania and co-owned a dairy farm for 13 years. Dotterer founded AgvoKate in 2020 and now is self-employed. Her tips to farmers wanting to share their stories with others is to be authentic.
“Everybody has a different story whether we want to admit that or not,” she says. “Even though you are all dairy farmers, we all farm a bit differently and that is okay. So be authentic when telling your story.”
Dotterer also says that everybody has a different voice and style when writing and doing videos.
“I would also say connect with people with common values,” she says. “Family is huge. So is food. Think about things that most people have in common and go from there.”
Dotterer says don’t hate and don’t interact with negativity online.
To learn more about how to develop a social media strategy, Penn State Dairy Extension has a guide to help farmers. A Guide to Developing a Social Media Strategy for Ag Entrepreneurs (psu.edu)
