Going for Gold: How the Ag Industry Can Harness Social Media Creators for Brand Success
Just as we cheer for our favorite medal heroes, ag brands can achieve their own winning moments by leveraging the power of social media creators.
I love the Olympic Games. I am fully invested from the opening ceremonies to the last wave from the medal podium. After these two weeks of watching the competitions, I feel like I should now be considered an expert on the perfect butterfly stroke or the wolf turn on the balance beam, and I’m here for any deep dive on Pommel Horse Clark Kent or Ilona Maher’s TikTok account.
There’s just something about these events. We all want to know what’s happening and to be a part of this communal experience—to see “our team” succeed. Psychologists call this idea “basking in reflected glory,” and it’s a phenomenon we see with all kinds of sporting events and other successes. Associating ourselves with a person, team or program that wins makes us feel confident and successful, too. It’s why we wear our favorite college’s sweatshirts, baseball team’s cap or any Team USA gear: we’ve found our community and want everyone to associate us with their success.
Finding Connection with Social Creators
It’s the same thing with social media content creators. We follow creators because we see something of ourselves – or our aspirational selves – in their shared persona. We want to be a part of their community, to be associated with what they do and how they succeed. In agriculture, it can look like a lot of things.
The farmer who’s been doing this his whole life and loves to talk about his equipment - new and “vintage.”
The new farm wife, who’s sharing her journey of learning every step of the operation so that she can take a more active role.
The dairy farmer who is bringing his family’s operation into the future and wants to share what that process looks like.
The recent college grad who just took over the family operation and is taking ownership of all the pieces she didn’t know about before.
The list goes on and on.
Social media is full of farmers and ag advocates who are finding new and interesting ways to tell their farm’s story across a variety of platforms, engaging with audiences who are new to the ag world while also creating communities of people who see themselves in the content and are interested in the products, practices and authentic experiences that these content creators share.
How Brands Can Leverage These Communities
With farmer creators building these engaged audiences of followers who want to know how they do what they do, now is a great time to engage with creator partners. It’s not just about finding a creator and paying them to mention or use your brand. It’s about finding a partner with the right audience and content type to impact and influence the customers you want to reach – and then creating a program and a plan that matches with and furthers your goals.
We can’t promise a gold medalist will be your brand’s perfect fit. But we can find the right social content creator partner who will give your current and prospective customers that same sense of shared connection and identity to bask in.