About the Farmers for the Future social network
In the beginning
By October 2008, we recognized the demand in a key demographic for our website and magazine for a social network. So was born the Farmers for the Future social network on October 13, 2008. The Farmers for the Future is a social network for young and beginning farmers in the U.S. and worldwide. It’s a network that provides the ability for members to connect with one another through member pages, forums, blogs, photo-sharing and video.
We have had a series of feature articles in our magazine, Successful Farming, as well as web features on our website, www.agriculture.com, for some time. We recognized the young and beginning farmer group as both a key target demographic for existing features and assets, as well as one that would be the most web-savvy of our entire readership and viewership.
We chose the Ning social network platform for two reasons: It is simple to use, yet has the range of basic features we were looking for in building a social network like this; and it allows for considerable manual page design manipulation and feature management.
Early returns/member numbers
We were pleasantly surprised by the results. We felt if we could have 100 or so members by the end of the ’08 calendar year, we’d consider the exercise a success. By the end of January ’09, we had more than 1,000 members. As of June 3, 2009, we have just over 1,700 members.
It’s a small number compared to many similar networks, but when you consider that our targeted demographic group on Facebook, for example, comprises just over 19,000 members (we know this because we also have a Facebook advertisement for the Farmers for the Future network), it’s a fairly large percentage of the overall total.
Member engagement
It’s not just the number of members that makes this network a success in serving our audience of young and beginning farmers. Through our analytics tracking, we’ve seen both a high level of user-initiated contact with the network as well as a high level of activity once the user reaches the network. To the former point: To date, 23.79% of our traffic to the network has come via organic Google searches, while 10.98% come from our primary website, Agriculture.com, and 5.02% come from Facebook. Direct traffic remains the leading source at 28.24% (Note: All figures via Google Analytics). This translates to between 40 and 70 new members each week.
Turning to user engagement on the network, here are a few numbers as of June 3, 2009:
- 6,182 user-submitted photos
- 93 user-submitted videos
- 377 forum topics
- 294 blog posts
- 26 events added to calendar
(NOTE: See more basic analytic information for the month of May 2009 here. See analytics for the life of the network up to June 2 here.
We’ve observed a high level of web use sophistication in our network members. With very little prompting or education, our members quickly learn how to best interact with fellow members once they arrive to the network.
Next steps
While we’ve been pleased with the number of members who have joined the network and the level of activity they’ve maintained since its inception, we’re looking at ways to improve the network further in the near future. This will likely come in “taking it full-circle” and fostering and promoting the face-to-face interaction among members whenever it helps serve the business interests of the young and beginning farmers and their operations. A big issue facing agriculture today is farm succession issues; the older generation is bowing out of the industry and leaving the younger generation with a basketful of challenges in getting a foothold in the industry. We hope to connect young and beginning farmers, first with one another in ways they can draw from one another’s strengths and work cooperatively, or with mentors who can help guide them in the right direction in getting into the business of agriculture. It’s a largely personal business, farming, and we want to make the Farmers for the Future social network a portal through which personal connections can be made and, ultimately, the business of farming can be strengthened.
Summary
In closing, we’re excited to see the level of engagement among members in the Farmers for the Future social network. The young and beginning farmer demographic represents the future reader of our magazine and future user of our website, and we feel we’re engaging them in a way that can foster a long-term relationship if maintained correctly. Most importantly, we’re giving the Farmers for the Future social network members ownership of the group. Once they feel a sense of ownership over their part in the network (whether as a “lurker” or a key stakeholder or motivator), we will continue to provide content that will engage member with one another, strengthening both the relationships among members and those between the members and our brand.
Go to Farmersforthefuture.com to become a member and network with young and beginning farmers today!
