September 5, 2017 at 3:32 p.m.
Posting dairy messages
Bremer, Glessing talk about social media experiences during panel at MDX
Janet Bremer (right), a dairy farmer from Hastings, Minn., talks about her experience with blogging during a producer panel in the breakout session, “Telling Your Story Through Social Media” on Nov. 27 during the Midwest Dairy Expo. Also on the producer panel was Seena Glessing (left) from Waverly, Minn. <br /><!-- 1upcrlf -->PHOTO BY KRISTA SHEEHAN
"Social media is an easy and quick way to engage in conversations, and share and gather information," Glessing said.
Glessing and Bremer were part of a producer panel in the breakout session, "Telling Your Story Through Social Media" on Nov. 27 during the Midwest Dairy Expo in St. Cloud, Minn. Both of these dairy farmers use different avenues to reach a specific audiences and tell their message.
Bremer, who dairy farms with her family near Hastings, Minn., always promoted dairy in her local area, but felt the need to do more. She became a blogger for the Dairy Farm Mom Network after attending a workshop sponsored by the Midwest Dairy Association earlier this year.
"I love talking the dairy story. We're all about dairy in our family. If dairy farmers aren't willing to tell our story, we can't wait for others to do it for us," she said.
Bremer chose blogging as her social media of choice because it fit her personality.
"I'm a talker. Blogging and writing was more my style and what I wanted to do," said Bremer, whose blog is mybarnyardview.blogspot.com.
A blog is like an online journal entry that can be shared with other people. Bremer's blog posts are geared towards adults, especially moms. She writes about general information about life on the farm and likes to include dairy recipes.
"I try to educate, inform and entertain," said Bremer, who posts a few blog entries each week. "I make it a point to talk about my family in relation to dairy."
Glessing, who farms with her husband and his parents on their farm near Waverly, Minn., reaches out to a different audience. As a part-time agriculture teacher and FFA instructor, Glessing uses Twitter to connect with students.
"I had one student tell me ... Facebook is for older people. Facebook has gone by the wayside so I use Twitter to connect with my students," said Glessing, who allows students to tweet in class when it is related to an agriculture project.
When tweeting, Glessing keeps her audience in mind.
"To make high school kids want to read [my tweets], I have to use hashtags that are silly or say funny things," Glessing said about Twitter, which allows people to share information with others in 140 characters or less. "That's what they like."
Glessing tweets about agriculture projects in school and life on her family's dairy farm.
Although being engaged in social media is another task to add to their busy farm schedules, Bremer and Glessing said it hasn't been a struggle to find time to share dairy messages.
"I'm a night owl. When my family is in bed, I'm still up writing," Bremer said.
She also said she saves time by writing drafts ahead of time, saving them and using them on days when she gets too busy for her blog.
"Coming up with [a topic] idea is the most difficult part. My family is supportive in giving me suggestions. One of my most recent posts was a suggestion given to me by my niece when we were talking about different types of milk around the Thanksgiving table," Bremer said.
Glessing does most of her tweeting on her smartphone during the day's downtime such as her walk from the barn to the house or while waiting for cows to finish milking during her evening shift.
"I multitask. It doesn't take much time to take out your phone and type 140 characters on Twitter," said Glessing, who also uses Facebook, but does most of her dairy promotion on Twitter.
To gain a wider readership of her blog, Bremer recently started using other social media avenues including Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. When she writes a blog post, she links them on her other social media sites.
"It was such a natural progression to use other social media. They all go hand in hand. All I have to do is push a button," Bremer said.
For other dairy producers who want to dip into social media, Bremer and Glessing give a few tips. Both said including pictures is a good way to tell a story. Bremer said she includes at least one picture in every blog post; however, they also said to make sure the pictures are a good, but accurate representation of the industry. When posting pictures with other people in them, Bremer and Glessing suggested getting people's permission.
Information about what or who you post about is also crucial to keep in mind.
"I choose my words wisely," Bremer said.
She thinks about how it might affect her family - her daughter who is an eighth grade English teacher and her son, who is a producer of a television show.
Glessing said she wants to keep her young family safe.
"I have to remember my family. What do I want out there about my kids? You can make it as private as possible," Glessing said.
Glessing tries not to post many pictures of her kids and only posts information about traveling when she returns. When using most social media sites, people don't need to include a last name, their town or their state, she said.
"There are ways you can somewhat safeguard your privacy," Glessing said.
Overall, both Bremer and Glessing said using social media is a fun and easy way to connect with others about dairy farming.
"We take so much on the farm for granted," Bremer said. "People need to understand what we're doing out here."
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