SOCIAL MEDIA: THE WORLD'S ONLINE COFFEE SHOP

Dec 22, 2011  |  Today's News

Although what actually defines social media remains a mystery to at least half of the farmers in Illinois, the Illinois Corn Marketing Board has a significant investment in social media.  What is social media exactly?  It is THE way to influence consumer opinion and the fastest growing technology in the history of the world.  Your check-off dollars have you there.

Social media is Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, blogs, and any other sort of online meeting place where information is shared.  The opinions/information/ideas are trusted because it is coming from someone that you have a relationship with.  If your “friend” on Facebook says that they don’t like corn farmers, you are more likely to trust them because you know them personally.

Social media is about relationships.  It is about people.  It is a significant tool for your association and your check off board to influence the public and the way they view farming.

This new video outlines the powerful force that social media is becoming in our world.  Things like:

  • If Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s third largest.
  • The Ford Explorer launch on Facebook generated more traffic than a super bowl ad.
  • Social gamers will buy $6 million in virtual goods by 2013.  Movie goers buy only $2.5 billion in real goods.
  • YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world.
  • Every minute, 24 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube.
  • 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations; only 14% trust advertisements.

ICMB offers social media internships every semester to capitalize on this trend.  Our college interns work with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs to publish positive information about farmers, to create relationships between farmers and non-farmers and to motivate farmers to talk about themselves to others.

If you have a college student in your life that would be interested in a social media internship for the benefit of their career and Illinois agriculture, click here to learn more.