Don Schindler

Executive Reputation Coach & Digital Marketer

Category: do it yourself (page 1 of 14)

Six Reasons You Should Have A Farm Website

Remember when everyone used to tell you that having a farm blog was a priority – before social media was all the rage?

six-reasons-farm-website

So, are farm websites and blogs worth the time to build?

Yes, farm blogs are just as important as they were back before social media. In fact, they might be more important depending on how your customers are searching for information.

I know it’s much easier to just use social media to communicate compared to using a website tool such as WordPress, Wix, Webbly or SquareSpace (common website building content management systems).

But I’ll give you six good reasons why having a farm blog or website is still something every farm should have (not just the ones that are advocating for agriculture).

1. You own the domain and property.
You don’t own your Facebook page, Twitter profile, YouTube channel, Instagram profile, LinkedIn page, Snapchat, etc. … The company does and if they want to change the rules or if they feel like you violated them, then they can remove you and all your content from the system. With your own blog or website, you have full control.

2. A website can centralize all of your channels and content.
You are spending a lot of time creating content for these various social media channels, but does anyone go back and read an old Facebook post or Tweet? No. But if you put the text, photos and video on your website, people will be able to go back and read them (and it will get indexed properly by Google, so it can be found through searches).

3. Google will index it in the 1st position when people search for your farm.
Social media profiles rarely show up in the top position in Google’s search engine results page. If you want your farm name to show up when people search for it, then a website or blog is what Google will show first.

4. It will become the diary of the farm.
If you post content regularly to the website, then you will build a history of the farm through videos and photos that future generations can look back on for years and years. It will become the legacy of the farm. I wish my grandfather had a blog when he was building the farm from the ground up in the 1930’s. I would probably read it daily – over and over.

5. You can build an email list.
Email marketing is still very powerful and highly affordable (it’s practically free with Mailchimp and Constant Contact). By building an email list with your urban and local customers, you can reach out to them at any time to let them know what’s going on with the farm.

6. You could make money with it.
Many large brands use influencer marketing to get the word out about their new products. I have many farmer and urban blogger friends who make a living out of their blog by providing their large customer base with value through recipes and practical advice. The brands take notice of this and pay them to do sponsored posts (on social media as well) or through the Google Adsense Display network on their blog. All you have to do is set up Google Analytics on your blog to see how many people are visiting and what they are doing on the website.

Blogs and websites are still very important to agriculture and I would recommend that every farm have one. If you need help setting one up, please reach out to me at don.schindler@gmail.com.

Keep calm and blog on.

This was originally published on Hoard’s Dairyman.

How to use Instagram Stories For Your Farm or Business

Wait, Don, what’s Instagram? Go here to find out at Instagram for your farm. Then come back to this story.

Instagram Stories is simply just a way to add multiple photos/videos together to make a story. But here are three reasons I think you should be using it along with a quick tutorial.

1. It’s hot right now. Things don’t last too long in internet land and right now people are checking out the new feature. There are very few people posting a lot of Instagram Stories so you have a fighting chance to be up at the top of everyone’s feeds (that follow you).

Instagram Stories are hot!

 

2. It’s really simple to use and has almost all the same features as Snapchat without the confusion of Snapchat’s interface.

It's simple to use.

So how do you use it?

Open Instagram.

Click on the + sign at the top left.

add-instagram-stories

 

The big button in the bottom is for photos and video – just click once for a photo and hold for video.

record-button-instagram-stories

 

Once you are finished with the photo/video, it will let you edit the screen by writing with the pen, marker or glowing marker. Or you can add text and then move it around or make it larger/smaller by pinching and pulling the text.

edit-instagram-stories

add-doodle-instagram-stories

add-text-instagram-stories

 

After you finished adding text or doodles, then you can cancel or save (down arrow) or use the Check Box to add to your 24 hour story.

Easy as pie.

3. Stories don’t last forever on it (only 24 hours) so you can have fun and tell a quick story about the farm. Here’s some farms doing so cool stuff with it.

Only 24 hours

Now you can exclude some people from seeing your stories.

https://www.instagram.com/waymar_dairy/

https://www.instagram.com/idfa/

https://www.instagram.com/thelittlehouseonthedairy/

https://www.instagram.com/udayoungcooperators

https://www.instagram.com/nyfarmgirls

https://www.instagram.com/vetpracticevahs

Unfortunately you can’t like Stories yet but you can message people direct through Instagram and give them some love that way.

If you go to the three little dots as the bottom, you can do some cool things there as well.

You can Delete, Save Video, Share as Post or go into Story Settings.

adjust-settings-instagram-stories

Once there, you can Hide the Story from people or allow message replies from Everyone, People You Follow, or turn it Off.

hide-settings-instagram-stories

Have fun using it and let me know if you have any questions. You can hit up at don.schindler at dairy.org or  use Facebook/Twitter/Instagram.

14 Photo Apps That Help You Take Better Pictures

Created with Snapseed

Created this photo using Snapseed – so easy

Snapseed – FREE – 4.5 (iOS) / 4.5 (Android) stars
Perfect your photos in a snap with the new Snapseed 2. This app brings to your mobile device the power and control of professional photo editing software, previously only available on the desktop. Now with the tap of a finger you can retouch, adjust perspective, re-edit, and more.

Layout from Instagram – FREE – 4.5 (iOS) / 4.5 (Android) stars
Create fun, one-of-a-kind layouts by remixing your own photos and sharing them with your friends. Choose photos from your camera roll—or use the built-in Photo Booth to take spur-of-the-moment shots—and instantly see them laid out in various combinations. Pick the layout you like best, then edit it to make it your own.

Pixlr – FREE – 4 (iOS) / 4.5 (Android) stars
Unlock your creativity with Pixlr – the free photo editor! Capture any moment and make it beautiful with over 2 million combinations of free effects, overlays, and filters. Once you’re done, share your finished work directly to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or your other favorite social networks!

PicLab HD – FREE – 4.5 (iOS) / 4.5 (Android) stars
PicLab Studio is the go-to app for your design needs. Produce stunning images by combining text, artwork, graphics, effects & photos.

Qwik – FREE – 4 (iOS) / 3.5 (Android) stars
Qwik is the fastest and easiest way to make pretty photos and to share them with friends on your favorite social media. Take your photos further and easily add stunning Artwork, Typography & Effects to your photos. The app was designed to making it effortless to edit photos into great design pieces in no time and absolutely no experience!

VSCO – FREE – 2 (iOS) / 4.5 (Android) stars
Create, discover, and connect on VSCO®.
Shoot and edit your images with our superior mobile presets and advanced camera controls. Publish images and journals, or curate others to your VSCO profile. Explore content from the people you follow, curated work from the community, and exclusive editorial content from VSCO Originals.

Superimpose – $.99 – 5 (iOS) / 4 (Android) stars
Just with a few taps, create professional grade superimposed or juxtaposed photos on your iPhone! You don’t need a computers and expensive software to superimpose or blend/mix/combine/cut/copy/paste one photo on top of another any more.

Camera+ – $2.99 iOS / FREE Android – 4.5 (iOS) / 4 (Android) stars
It’s all about one thing… great photos! Whether you’re a seasoned photographer or someone who’s barely touched a camera, Camera+ will make you love taking photos.

Honorable Mentions
Camera MX
Procamera
Mixture
Enlight
Fotor
Faded
Lifecake

What questions would you like me to answer now? Just hit me up on socia l media or just email me at don.schindler at dairy.org.

Also what should you be taking photos of and how should you do it? Here’s a simple program.

How to host a virtual farm tour on your website or Facebook Page

As many of you know, most people have never visited a dairy farm, walked through a barn or met someone that works in agriculture. Right now their only experience with farming is from what they’ve seen on TV or on the Internet.  Even school farm tours are declining as schools have to do cut backs on trips or it may be too much of an insurance risk to bring kids to the farm.

virtual-farm-tour

So how can we get more people to the farm? We need to provide them with the right information – and in a form they want to see it. And right now, people would rather see the farm on their mobile device or laptop  than just read about it.

A virtual farm tour also allows for you to tell your story to them and build a human connection. While you might not think the farm is that exciting, to most consumers it’s an interesting place – very different than their urban or suburban lives. You can show them what you do, how you do it and why you do it – even if they never meet you face-to-face.

You have great stories to tell about your animals, your family, your business and your community involvement. A virtual tour can demonstrate your commitment to providing safe, wholesome products in a transparent and authentic way.

It builds trust in dairy and that’s what they need to feel good about consuming milk, cheese, yogurt and other products.

What is a virtual farm tour?

A virtual farm tour is a digital simulation of your farm. It uses a combination of videos or images to create an experience for the person watching online that is as close to in-person as possible.

arethusa dairy farm

Who should have a virtual farm tour?

I believe every farm should have a virtual tour.

Why?

Because then people can visit your farm (virtually) as many times as they like and, in fact, I would consider it one of your best advocates for spreading the good word about your dairy farm.

Another great thing about a virtual farm tour is that you can really control the shots and the questions you’ll answer. While you might be camera shy, it’s much easier to do a virtual farm tour then being in front of tens or even hundreds of people live.

What should be photographed or filmed for a virtual farm tour?

A virtual dairy farm tour is done a lot like a standard tour involving a live crowd except you’ll be writing, taking photos and filming the different parts.

It may take some time to do the tour but remember you’ll probably not have to do it again unless you’ve changed a lot on the farm.

And knowing how the farm is almost always on a plan for improvement, I would plan on doing a virtual farm tour every other year or so to keep it up to date.

Remember more people will probably visit your farm online then in person. It’s worth keeping it up to date as you improve the farm.

arethusa-video

Where should you put your virtual farm tour?

Whether it be on your website, your Facebook page, YouTube, or even on your local dairy checkoff’s digital properties. Why you might even get your farm tour on your cooperative or processor plant’s digital presence. The entire dairy community needs more virtual dairy farm tours.

Dairy Good Video Tour

How should you do a virtual farm tour?

Here’s a checklist of most everything you’ll need to complete your virtual dairy farm tour. I’ll list these out and then we’ll explain each piece of the tour.

Virtual Dairy Farm Tour Plan

  1. Write out your station stories.
  2. Get the correct equipment.
  3. Create any necessary station signage or graphics.
  4. Shoot photos or videos of the different stations.
  5. Edit the station stories.
  6. Place the station stories online.
  7. Monitor the virtual farm tour for comments and questions.

1. Write out your station stories.

Ok, what’s a station story?

Station stories are the stories you will tell at each station you set up on the farm.

Stations you should consider setting up:
Overall Introduction to the farm
Family Values and Employees
Calving area
Barn / Housing
Cow Feed
Milking Parlor
Maternity / Hospital Barn

You have an amazing story to tell whether you think so or not. Many consumers have never been to a dairy farm and you’ll be their first experience. Which brings us to this question:

Who is your audience?

I recommend that you visualize who your consumer is when writing down your station stories. Your consumer – the person you would like to influence – is young, inquisitive, bright (but might not get farmer lingo) and is genuinely interested in life on the farm. They could be a woman or man or you could think of both of them standing before you and they would like to engage in both the tour and a question and answer time.

When it comes to thinking of your audience also consider your role. You are going to be their tour guide but you are also their guide to good dairy farm practices. You are their mentor and teacher and they are your prized students because if they understand you and like what you are doing they will pass along your information to their friends.

This may seem overwhelming to you. Imaging yourself a guide with students and then having to write out your station stories but your virtual farm tour doesn’t have to be very long.

In fact, we would recommend that for each station’s story that you’ll only think about one or two stories to write out. You’ll want to make the virtual farm tour clear and easy to understand to ensure that your story will be remembered. You will also want to keep in mind that if you are filming the story so you’ll want to keep each station under three or four minutes.

Which stories / stations should you write out?

a. The overall introduction
While sometimes people think it’s easy to introduce yourself, it might be much harder on camera or writing it out. But if you stick to the basics of what people want to know then you should be ok.

The basics:
What’s your farm’s name?
Where is your farm?
What’s your name?
What kind of farm is it?
How long have you been a dairy farmer?
How long has your farm been around?
How many cows are on the farm?
Why did you become a farmer?
Answer some questions that you normally get from a live tour.
Where are we going next on the virtual farm tour?

Here’s some examples.
“Our farm is about more than our family. It’s about our cows — they feed us, just as we feed them. They are our livelihood, and so we treat them all with care and respect, and keep them calm and comfortable, so that they produce one of nature’s best foods – milk.
Our farm is also about our employees, who work hard so that all of us can make a living. Our farm is also about caring for our land, air and water – and our community.”

“I’m a dairy farmer who has been in the same business for 33 years with my husband. We both grew up on dairy farms, so we have almost 50 years of background experience in something we are truly passionate for. We are dedicated to producing the most wholesome dairy product for all people! …

True happiness comes from something we really enjoy doing, so I hope you can enjoy our products we work hard to provide for all.”

As you can see, this is pretty simple. You can add your own personal story – maybe talk about how a storm rolled through and you rebuilt the farm or why the farm has its name.

b. Family Values and Employees
You should   showcase your strong farmer values. It’s how you care for your employees and their families like you do the animals because it’s how you treat people that shows how you really care.

The basics:
Why do you farm?
How does the farm run?
How do you care for your employees?
What values do you share and act upon?

When you are doing your virtual farm tour, it’s important to emphasize how the farm has changed from the past. You should think about how you will mention what modern technology you use and why you use it as well as how your thoughts on environmental stewardship and sustainability. People want to know how you are caring for all aspects of your business – they know you need to make a profit but they don’t want that to happen at the expense of future generations.

c. Calving Area

People love calves and it’s always an engaging part of the tour. I would worry less about focusing the camera on you and more on the calves and your engagement with them. Remember to emphasize that everything you do is to benefit the animals and their care. Here’s some questions you can answer about the calves.

The basics:
How old are the calves?
Where are the mothers? (if you have separate housing)
Why are calves in that type of housing?
How long do they stay in the housing?
What does a calf eat and how often?
What happens to male calves on a dairy farm?

d. Barn and Housing
Many people believe that barns are supposed to be red and have those round sloped roofs. They may not understand all the benefits of the type of housing you provide for your cows.

The basics:
What type of housing do you provide for your cows and why?
What happens during a normal day for a cow?
What do your cows sleep on?
How often do they sleep?
How can you tell a cow is content?
What are the different sections of your barn?
Is there any technology you use that helps maintain the help of the cows?
Would probably answer questions about eating habits here.
How do you keep your cows cool?

e. Cow Feed
Many urban consumers are told myths about what dairy cows eat on a regular basis. Now you can show them what you feed your cattle and why you’ve selected this type of feed.

The basics:
What do cows eat?
How often do they eat?
What do cows drink and how much? (it’s always good to make comparisons to things that consumers normally use like cows drinking up to a bathtub of water a day)
What’s an animal nutritionist and how often do you talk to them?
Where does the feed come from?

f. Milking Parlor
The milking parlor is where the magic happens. Milking parlors come in all shapes and sizes so you should explain why you choose your parlor and how it works to milk the cows. There’s lots of moving parts within the parlor so it would be best to break down how the system works from the cows entering the parlor to the milk getting into the tanker.

The basics:
How does your milking parlor work?
– each step
Do the cows liked to be milked?
How much milk does each cow give?
How many times a day do the cows visit the milking parlor?
Where does your milk go?
Are there any antibiotics in the milk?
How do you test the milk?

g. Maternity / Hospital Barn
Basically you are showcasing animal care at its finest level as you explain how you care for cows that are in process of giving birth as well as cows that aren’t feeling well and how you take special care of both.

The basics:
How often does a cow give birth?
How long are cows pregnant?
How do you help the cows if they have any issues?
How long are cows in the maternity pens?
How do you treat sick cows?
Are sick cows still milked?
What happens to the milk?
What happens to cows after they get better?
Who is your veterinarian?
How long does it take for a calf to stand up on his/her own?
How much does a calf usually weigh?

2. Get the correct equipment.
To shoot and edit a virtual farm tour, you’ll need some equipment. Now there are lots of choices out there on the market but you don’t need Hollywood digital cameras to make a high end production. Many smartphones are excellent choices for filming your virtual farm tour.

For low cost production:
I recommend using an up-to-date smart phone and a tripod (an add-on microphone helps as well). Many phones can handle both the filming and editing of video clips. There are also excellent online video apps to help with special effects. Even YouTube allows for some editing. My personal use is an iPhone 6 with iMovie.

For mid level cost production:
I recommend a good video camera, tripod and mic and then transferring the files to a computer and using Adobe Premiere or Final Cut to edit the videos.

For high end production:
I recommend hiring professionals to do all of this for you. They can handle all the shooting, editing and final rendering of your videos. It will cost more but the production values should be outstanding.

Don’t ignore the tripod and microphone – both of these tools will come in very handy when shooting your own videos. There a lots of decent ones on Amazon.

For tips in creating good video and photos for your virtual tour, check out these posts.
7 Videography Tips for Farmers
10 Photography Tips for Farmers and Foodies

3. Create any necessary station signage or graphics.
While you don’t have to create anything to be used in a shot or photo, some farm tours have used signage to help people understand that talking points for that station. You could also add these in a graphic in a video if you understand how to add video graphics during editing. If you are looking for signage for your farm tour or examples of what others have used, please check out this link.

4. Shoot photos or videos of the different stations.
Again, it’s not necessary to put together your entire storyboard of everything you are going to shoot for your video before you film. But sometimes it’s helpful to think of different shots that you may want to take of the station.

For example, if you are filming the calves, you might want to have B-roll (extra footage that you can use to show different angles) of calves drinking milk from bucket or bottles, footage from inside the calf hutch, calves playing around in the barnyard, the vet checking vitals on a calf, or whatever else you want to talk about when showing your virtual tour. I recommend at least three or four different shots of the station you are shooting.

5. Edit the station stories.
My personal favorite video editing application/software is iMovie. It’s easy to understand and use but is limited. For larger projects, Adobe Premiere is an excellent choice. If you don’t have either at your disposal, then I recommend that you use the editing software that came with the smart phone or camera and try and make the videos shorter as lack of B-roll or multiple shots can sometimes cause a viewer’s attention to wander.

It is also smart to think about putting a watermark or text mark with your farm’s name on the video to keep others from stealing the footage and using it in ways you don’t want them to. In iMovie and other video  editing apps like Video Show, let you do this.

6. Place the station stories online.
The proper location for your virtual farm tour is important and should be geared to where your audience will most likely look for your videos or photos. Here are the locations I recommend.

  • YouTube – This is where the majority of consumers will look for videos. You can create your own channel for your farm or talk to your state/regional checkoff about using their channels.
  • Facebook Page – Having a Facebook Page is virtually a necessary in today’s communication. I recommend loading the videos onto your farm’s Facebook Page or you can talk to your state/regional checkoff about using their channels to host your videos.
  • Farm Website – I recommend that your virtual farm tour be hosted on your website on a single webpage – embedding the videos from YouTube or Facebook. If you do not have a farm website, then I would talk with your state/regional checkoff about hosting the videos on one of their webpages on their website.
  • There are many other video channels now available and I would view these as secondary to the ones listed above. You can upload videos to Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, etc…
  • When uploading videos make sure to turn the comments on but set the comments to be moderated so they don’t just automatically appear on the video platform. You can do this both on YouTube and Facebook.

7. Monitor the virtual farm tour for comments and questions.
After you have added your virtual farm tour videos to your website and social media channels, you’ll need to monitor them for comments and questions. It’s important that you answer them in a timely manner on social channels.

On YouTube, you may experience “trolls” or unanimous people that leave disparaging comments on your videos. The best course of action is to make sure the person is a troll or activist before deleting the comments. While it’s difficult to not get upset at these remarks, it’s important that you not get into an argument with these types of users.

If you have any questions about putting together your virtual farm tour, please feel free to reach out to me at don.schindler at dairy.org or your local state/regional checkoff.

How to stop the trolls – dealing with negative comments on the internet index

stop trolling

Trolls are definitely part of the dark side of sharing online

Recently I’ve noticed that extremists have kicked up their online bashing and trolling of some farmer pages. I really hate that – it’s a crappy tactic. But it does really show how the extremists are not interested in people having a  choice, they are interested in  people subscribing to only their choice. It makes them look like a crazy cult and that’s fine with me.

But because this is happening, I decided to re-release some of my past posts that deal with how to handle negative comments. Consider this kind of a quick index of negative links.

I will say though that you don’t have to read all of these to understand what I’m getting at. When handling negative comments or an online bashing by trolls, it’s pretty simple.

  1. If they aren’t attacking you in an obvious way, make sure to check their profile so you know they are a person and they seem normal. Usually extremists can’t hide the fact that they dislike your way of life and animal agriculture.
  2. If they are attacking – don’t answer them. Just delete the comment and block the person. Don’t feel bad about this. This is exactly the way they handle us when we question their logic or facts (at least what they consider facts).
  3. Answer only people who are asking questions in a normal way – respectful of opinions, curious, find the common ground, share your story kind of stuff, etc…

Here’s a bunch of pass posts dealing with negative comments.

You just received a negative comment online, now what do you do? – This post goes through the steps and also provides a quick social media response flowchart.

How To Handle Negative Comments On Your Facebook Profile – How to hide and unfriend people.

How To Handle Negative Comments On Your Facebook Page – How to  respond, block, delete, hide and just deal with the  trolls on your page.

How To Handle Negative Comments On Your Twitter Profile – How to respond and block if need be.

How Should You React to Cyberbullying – When Negative Comments Turn Ugly – How to dig in and find an attacker if things get real ugly. Also I never  recommend handling it yourself – there are law enforcement that handles these types of things. Let them deal with it.

If you  need help, don’t hesitate to reach out. I’ll do what I can.

 

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