"social Media - Friend Or Foe For Food And Farming Businesses?"

Everyone's talking about it, some are doing it, few really understand it - what are we talking about?


Social Media, or as Rob Ward from Food Marketing Network says, "It's actually two types, Social and Anti-Social media."

He discusses further, "I want to lift the lid on what is, and isn't, working for food businesses in what is known as 'Social Media'." It is a strange description, Social Media - but by using those words the reader immediately identifies what it is, many at that point pull up the white flag and run for the hills to avoid the inevitable truth that one day they will need to get their heads around what this is all about. Rob, has run his own food production and retail businesses for nearly 20 years, in that time he has seen a concoction of different systems or methods of communication. "I've had enough of all the nonsense out there about this social media stuff, it is time to let the food industry know what they should be doing in their internet business communications." The Food Marketing Network runs a monthly broadcasts on a range of topical subjects, written and presented by Rob Ward, who works with many 100's of food producers and retailers across the UK.

"Did you know, for instance, that Google has now changed its algorithm (which is how it works out what to search for), they now are 'listening' to dialogue in 'social media'."

"You can ask, so what?" Claiming, "Tweets are just full of trivial garbage...meaningless rubbish!" "Well its true," Rob explains, "a lot of it is, but I have had a keyword toolsearching for contentsince last September, looking for any Tweets about 'Farm Shops' (and many others as well like 'Delis' etc).

And, the fascinating thing is that the conservations about those businesses is growing substantially every month. At first there was very little, now there are loads of comments. Every time, a comment is made, these words are being analysed and followed by consumers (and Google).

What is happening is that your businesses reputation is being discussed, which could be good or bad for your business. Google even has a tool that is rating these comments into: Positive, neutral and negative.

Guess what's going to happen next? When someone searches for your one of your products or your type of business, assuming you want to be there at the top of the search results, you could be marked down if you have negative Tweets about your business." Interested now? 


You better had be!

This is only the start, there is and will always be an increasing amount of tools that are available to you to communicate with your market place, that's not important. What is important is that you need to understand this: Social media, is just media, a method of communication. Internet 'media' will be split into two types; 'micro blogs' (short messages of information) and 'content rich' information (unlimited messages with the option to include pictures, video etc).

How these are sent and received will change constantly, by using different systems and tools. It is not 'how' it is sent that is important, but the 'what' that content is and how the receiver engages with that point of contact.


Copyright (c) 2010 Robert Ward