Farmers use Twitter to connect with people off the farm GARDEN CITY KAN (hppr) - Debbie Lyons-Blythe owns a cattle ranch is White City, Kansas. She started using social media because her teenage kids were on Facebook, and she wanted to make sure they were being smart about being online. Then she started connecting with old high school friends.
"And at that time I realized that I could use this as an opportunity to tell them about what I do on the cattle ranch because they don't have any idea of what I do."
After that she started a blog to reach out to young mothers to talk about the safety of beef.
"Then in order to promote my blog I started a Twitter account," she said.

Lyons-Blythe uses posts to Facebook and Twitter while she is working on the ranch using her Blackberry.
"Specifically this summer when I am baling hay and I am sitting and waiting for the bale to wrap I will post a tweet saying how I am baling hay to store for the winter to feed my cows," she explains. "I will take a picture of the baler that is what I drive everyday and send that picture to Twitter and I get a lot of comments on my fancy ride for the day. I try to integrate it into my day and not make it yet another job I have to do during the day."
Not only does Lyons-Blythe use Twitter to update people on what she does during the day, but she also uses it to actively connect to people outside of the ranching community so she can share her story with them on her blog. She says she believes her blog and Twitter have raised awareness about cattle ranching.
"In fact I have a fella from California who is absolutely a city boy. He comments on my blog frequently and he really enjoys, he says it is a peak into small town America and he really enjoys the ability to see what my life is like."

Tom Tibbits works on a farm in north central Kansas. He also uses social media to connect with people outside of the agriculture industry.
"It helps urban people understand what rural life is, farm life and rural life in general," he says.

Anne Adrian works at Auburn University as a social media strategist for e-extension. She says farmers and ranchers are not just doing this on their own, but now thee is an organized forum on Twitter that they share their stories on.
"Then there is a movement that has been going on a little more than a year called AgChat. The idea behind AgChat is that they want farmers to tell their own story so there is a better understanding of the Ag community," she explains.
Adrian says social media not only helps farmers and ranchers connect with people outside the agriculture community, but to other farmers and ranchers.
"They are able to learn from each other, share stories, so there are a lot of benefits and the benefits mimic the other industries using these tools."

Lyons-Blythe says farmers and ranchers not only need to share these stories, but also try to connect with people on a personal level.
"It is a matter of listening and connecting not just talking or telling our stories. Like I said I am a mom and I try to connect with other moms. Maybe Dads might want to connect with other Dads. Maybe they coach a small town football team or baseball team and they can connect to other coaches and then through that connection they can integrate information on what they do everyday on a farm or ranch."
Lyons-Blythe says social media is a way to reach out to people to get information out about farming and ranching that she wouldn't otherwise be able to reach.
"Social media is a unique way for me to reach into the city of Denver or Seattle or any of these other large cities that these people would have no opportunity to see what happens on a Kansas cattle ranch," she explains.






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