Old Dogs, New Social Media Tricks
Down in Gainsville, VA, near the Manassas National Battlefield, you’ll find the Smith Family Farm. A fifth generation farming family, the farm has been owned and operated by the Smith’s for more than 100 years.
They’re a traditional farm in every sense. Their meat is all grass-fed, as is their dairy produce, and they’re also USDA-inspected (United States Department of Agriculture).
They pride themselves on their values – all beef under 24 months of age, humanely raised animals, and family-friendly prices on products delivered to your door. Much of their business is done directly on the farm.
So far, so good – a nice story about a nice way to do business. But what’s interesting about the Smith Family Farm is the way they’re using social media to help tell their story and grow their business.
Take a look at their website, and you’ll notice that it’s possibly not what you’d expect from a fifth generation farming family. On the home page is the Twitter feed for Smith Family Farm, as well as an email subscription form for updates and newsletters.
Take a look around their website and you’ll get more of an idea how the farm is integrating social media into their daily routine. Click on the Notebook tab on the navigation menu, for example, and this gives you a more in-depth look at their Twitter stream. You can even subscribe to their Twitter feed via RSS.
Move over to the Events tab, and you’ll see a full day-by-day breakdown of any events the farm’s part of. Not only that, but you can add any that you might be interested in to your own Google Calendar, thanks to the iCal option.
The Twitter stream itself is a nice mix of information, conversation and visualizations, and shows a business that’s at ease with how social media can be used. From information to where they’ll be next, to descriptions of rural life, it’s community news and involvement at its simplest and most effective.
What makes the Smith Family Farm website stand out (and thus, makes the business stand out) is the mix of old and new. They share plenty of their history, yet they offer PDF downloads of their products. They even offer the equivalent of Twitter’s #followfriday with their friend recommendations.
If social media really is about re-humanizing business, the Smith Family Farm is showing many bigger and more tech-oriented businesses how to play in this space. Who said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?
photo credit: Smith Family Farm
14 Responses to “Old Dogs, New Social Media Tricks”
Yep, that was one of the things that immediately caught my eye when visiting the site – really should have mentioned it, I guess.
Perhaps shipping may be an option they'd consider – they certainly seem the kind of folks that are very friendly and community-based. A little nudge on Twitter with a suggestion of shipping, perhaps?
I really enjoyed this post, Danny. I love seeing how small businesses (and farms, now) are using new media in ways that really set them apart from the competition. Sure, it took a bit of time, effort, and money on their part to *beef* up their website and social media presence, but now I am a hundred times more likely to remember their name compared to any other farm. In my eyes, that's a tremendous success for a business that would usually be so trivial that people wouldn't think twice about remembering their name. Yeehaw!
Ha, I love the way you “yeehaw” at the end, Jackie
And that's the beauty of it. Like you say, sure, there was the cost of getting their site up to scratch and the time put in for their Twitter feed and community-building. But compare that to the goodwill they're obviously generating and the buzz that folks hear about them online, and it's a no-brainer to go this route. Fair play to them, and here's to more success stories like theirs.
Love the mix of personalized, replies to other tweets and conversational, of-the of-the-moment comments: “watching bats flit across sky and feast on mosquitoes” (even makes me like the bats!), with business announcements, also humanized if not individualized: “We will be in Kingston tomorrow…come see us” instead of “SmithFamilyFarm will be in Kingston…”
I really enjoyed this post, Danny, and appreciate your sharing the Smith Family Farm example. This is one I will definitely pass on to others trying to get the hang of engaging as a business in social media. Cool!
I agree, Diane, and I think that's one of the things that attracted me to the farm so much. Sure, anyone can use social media tools and try bring themselves to the party; but at the minute not enough are really using them in a normal, conversational way that can still be business-like. And for that, I hope the Smith family have a long line of success.
Thanks for popping by and sharing your thoughts, Diane, always a pleasure.
Heh. @smithfamilyfarm is following me on Twitter, I see. Interesting story, Danny. I'm curious why their website is not e.g. smithfamilyfarm.com but beefandhayproducer.com and the only conclusion I fathom is to presume people searching for such keywords would, from a SEO perspective, have greater odds of visiting their website. If true, there's another tidbit setting them apart from other old dogs.
This is a perfect case study on how to maximize the use of social media in business ventures. Some of the strategies used are sophisticated, not to mention I applaud them for utilizing Twitter — their friendliness, humor.. all loud and clear. Seriously, I would appreciate a tweet like 'just saw a firefly. summer is quickly approaching!' sometimes. ^^ They've certainly made an impression, I, for one have not expected that from a family farm business. Perhaps in long term, they can even be the pioneer or as educator in their niche. They can go a long way.
@wchingya
Social/Blogging TrackerGood point, Ari. Looking at GoDaddy WhoIs info, it looks like “our” Smith family site was registered before the other one, so I'm guessing (as you say) it's a great SEO ploy. And if that's the case, then they're definitely leading the way in old dog smarts
I think that's one of the ways that makes them stand out a little bit more – the fact that they're not your typical profile of a social media user. But then again, maybe that's more our (my) fault for even thinking there's a typical user” – of course there isn't, and neither should there be.
I love the fact that such a “out in the middle of no where” and non techy type of company is using the web and social tools to do business. Impressive.
“Our Animals Don't Do Drugs”– and they're humorous to boot! Thanks for highlighting this Danny! Great example of a business in touch with the power of SM and community. However, I am a little disappointed that they don't offering shipping (at least I didn't find that option), though I understand the desire to maintain freshness. I would absolutely purchase from them in support of small, natural businesses if I was local.
Sara @ iGoMogul