written by Amy Beeler Herman, Amy Beeler Herman Communications

Assigned the task of speaking to NAMA by Tim Brunelle, CEO of Hello Viking, Joseph Rueter prepared for his presentation to NAMA Trends in Agriculture attendees by tweeting his digital community for ideas. The resulting conversation centered around one of the responses he received: “the internet allowed us to start having conversations again.”

Social media provides spaces for online communities that companies can cultivate and market to. “Brands provide a shortcut to trust,” Rueter says. A successful brand web site acts as a digital front porch allowing a corporation to have conversations with online communities and market to each group according to needs and interests.

Instead of drafting a single strategy for social media, Rueter suggested that the newness of the internet (only 15-years-old!) allows for experimenting with the medium and letting the community determine brand direction. Rather than relying on one communications campaign with consistent messaging, Rueter advocated utilizing coherent messaging. “Companies don’t talk, people do,” he says. “Get the people in your organization to talk.”  Be genuine, he added, so your community remains open to your messages. He described crowd sourcing, being a content curator as opposed to a content creator and thinking about what the user wants.

In approaching social media for agriculture, Rueter encouraged the NAMA group to tell stories about making food. “You make food, I eat food, tell me some stories,” he said. “The Internet allows communities to have conversation. There are many angles for conversations about food. Be honest, authentic and engage your community.”