Illinois Farm Families, the collaborative effort of Illinois Corn Marketing Board, Illinois Beef Association, Illinois Farm Bureau, Illinois Pork Producers Association, Illinois Soybean Association, and Midwest Dairy Association, recently undertook a retail promotion with Ultra Food. Ultra Food is a Chicago-area grocery store. The effort garnered not only new likes on the Facebook page, but more awareness of Illinois Farm Families in general.

The promotion generated positive results with a 40 percent increase in new ‘likes’ on the Illinois Farm Families Facebook page, helping to bring the total number of fans to more than 5,000.

Illinois Farm Families also advertised with Chicago Parent on their social media pages. The advertisements generated more than 200,000 impressions for the grocery giveaway contest on the Illinois Farm Families Facebook page.

More than 190 Facebook fans were eligible for the grocery giveaway and the average number of comments on the Facebook page increase from four during June to 19 during the promotion period.

Additionally, Illinois Farm Families asked SMART Force and other individual farmers to respond to questions from fans 15 times throughout the promotion. Questions ranged from GMOs used on Illinois farms and farmers markets to gardening help and recipe requests.

Finally, year-over-year session on WatchUsGrow.org were up 415 percent and 80 percent of visitors were first-time readers.