Hear All of the Farmers Going “Tweet, Tweet”
Posted: August 27, 2010
As social media continues to grow, it evolves. What was commonplace even five years ago can be passé and unheard of services can become the new norm. In this environment, twitter came to be the social networking tool of choice for many on-the-go people trying to communicate succinctly as possible.
Twitter is a micro-blogging service that allows users to share messages of 140 characters or less. Users simply search for and find anyone they wish to follow. The person who they follow knows that the relationship exists, and has the power to block the follower, but, either way, does not have to reciprocate and follow the other person’s posts.
This trend toward brief, highly mobile mass communication has taken off at record speed.
400,000 tweets, single twitter posts, were recorded per quarter in 2007. This grew to 100 million tweets per quarter in 2008. By the end of 2009, this ballooned to 2 billion tweets per quarter. In February 2010 that Twitter users were sending 50 million tweets per day and, in the first quarter of 2010, 4 billion tweets were posted. As of June 2010, about 65 million tweets are posted each day, equaling about 750 tweets sent each second, according to Twitter.
This represents a major, easy opportunity for growers to get their message out. In quick 140 character bursts, growers can directly tell the story of ag to an attractive demographic. While 47 percent of users are under 34, 31 percent are between 35 and 49 with a full 21 percent of users over 50. Additionally, 46 percent of twitter users are college grads, significantly above the 27 percent national average.
So take a moment to brush up on your twitter. Below you will find all the information you need to know getting started. After that, it becomes second nature to spend just a few minutes a day promoting agriculture and reinforcing the importance of farming to America.
To start your follow list, look for National Corn Growers Association President Darrin Ihnen at @corncobs1, and staffers at @national corn, @cornguy, @ken4corn and @cornycate.
