We’ve come a long way from the time — just a few years ago — when we relied on the postman to bring us our newsletters and magazines on the agriculture industry, and when “networking” consisted largely of attending conferences.
Now, many of our top ag journalists blog regularly and use social media (especially Twitter and Facebook) to point readers to their new items. Here are a few social media resources you may want to check:
- Facebook: There are numerous Facebook pages devoted to agriculture news and information exchange, including one operated by the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance, which has 57,688 followers. And of course I have to suggest the Murray Wise Associates page, though we’re just getting started with it. Be sure to search for any state-specific pages as well. Practically every state agriculture department has its own page.
- LinkedIn: LinkedIn groups are getting a lot of people and generating a lot of discussion. This one has more than 16,000 participants already. (How many conferences draw a crowd like that?)
- Twitter: I guess there are hundreds of people tweeting about agriculture now. I’m actually not using Twitter myself (yet), but my geeky friend suggests starting with a search on #agriculture and identifying people to follow from there.