| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
Janice Person 662.347-2297 |
| Michele Payn-Knoper 765.427.4426 | |
TWITTER USER OF THE YEAR NOMINEES INCLUDES #AGCHAT FOUNDER
Agricultural Community Captures Attention in Social Media
Agricultural Community Captures Attention in Social Media
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18th – A Brazilian pop star, Hollywood celebrities and an agricultural speaker are side-by-side in the race for an internationally-recognized social media award. Mashable, The Social Media Guide, announced the nominees for the 2009 Open Web Awards today and Certified Speaking Professional Michele Payn-Knoper was one of the top five nominees for Twitter User of the Year. There are over two million "tweets" sent daily on the micro-blogging site Twitter and celebrities attract the largest number of followers, so agriculture's representation on this list is an exciting opportunity for the agrifood business. Payn-Knoper was nominated by members of an agricultural community, “#AgChat”, which Payn-Knoper founded in April.
Professional speaker colleague Eliz Greene voted in the Open Web Awards last year and knew that Payn-Knoper’s contributions deserved attention. “Her devotion to her cause – agriculture – is inspirational. She tirelessly champions the agricultural community and empowers farmers to tell their own stories. Her orchestration of AgChat and FoodChat as streaming conversations on Twitter provides rich environments for the exchange of ideas and information. It is amazing to watch unfold.”
AgChat is a weekly moderated conversation on Twitter for people in the business of raising food, feed, fuel, fiber. It is a virtual venue for participants on Twitter to discuss issues impacting agriculture, such as mainstream media coverage, sustainability, communications, agronomy, animal welfare, USDA programs and perceptions of farming. Payn-Knoper and the group also created the monthly FoodChat designed to provide farmers and consumers with a forum to discuss issues in which they connect. In fact, supermarket guru Phil Lempert participated as a special guest in FoodChat on November 17.
Greene connected with a few people from the #AgChat community and found quickly that the group propelled the idea with a campaign approach.
“Eliz was so passionate about what she had seen as someone who was new to production agriculture, so we immediately realized we needed to be involved. With some effort, we thought we could introduce AgChat to more people,” said Janice Person, who guest moderated the FoodChat session on food insecurity that week. “It made sense that Michele would be the person we put out front. Her efforts early on gave many in the agriculture community confidence to try more ideas. It seemed like the creation of AgChat and the community that grew out of that concept has made such great strides in social media. What really motivates us is to see farmers telling their own story with efforts like Farm2U on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. We have definitely had an impact within Twitter. Since that started with Michele’s one idea, we knew she was best to carry the torch for us.”
Payn-Knoper admits that she thought her community could better focus efforts elsewhere, but realized quickly how committed they were. As days passed and votes mounted, some of the people participating posted their stories of support. Blog entries by dairy farmer Ray Prock, rancher Jeff Fowle and precision agriculture rep Nate Taylor and others provided personal connections encouraging followers on Twitter to cast votes in the viral contest. It was a bit overwhelming, Payn-Knoper admits. “I thought I understood the power of our community until they decided to do this...it's a good lesson in the determination of agriculturists,” she said. “Most importantly, it’s an opportunity to build connections between the farm gate and consumer plate.”
Mashable is hosting voting through December 13 and Person says there is a lot of excitement in the AgChat community. “There are millions of registered users on Twitter and people likely would have said there would be no way we could get an agricultural representative in the top five, but we did it. And with this success, we have incredible energy to continue reaching out to other groups and making connections to AgChat. We have a lot of people we will be voting everyday to keep Michele in the running but more importantly, we will continue telling our stories and building the presence of agriculture online.”
AgChat is held weekly on Tuesday evenings from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. eastern via a “streaming” Twitter feed. A sister chat, known as “FoodChat,” takes place on the third Tuesday of each month, in lieu of AgChat, and is tailored more specifically to the interests of consumers, nutrition professionals, foodies and influencers of food choices. FoodChat gives its followers an opportunity to "meet a farmer" or ask questions of those in agriculture.
Chats begin with 15 minutes of networking, followed by 4-7 questions the community sends to the moderator in advance on the topic of the week. The chat is fast-paced, insightful and, often, colorful. The final 5 minutes is reserved for “pitching.” Participants can plug their blog, site, product or ask for feedback on a business related idea.
Anyone with an interest in agriculture or food is invited to participate in AgChat and FoodChat. See the guidelines for assistance in how to get started or visit Payn-Knoper’s Gate to Plate blog for tips on social media and agriculture.
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EDITOR’S RESOURCES: |
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Cause Matters Corp (Michele Payn-Knoper’s website) | |
| - | #AgChat FAQs | |
| - | #AgChat Guidelines | |
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Eliz Greene | |
| - | More Than A Speaker! Why You Should Vote Michele Payn-Knoper Mashable’s Twitter User of the Year | |
| - | Twitter’s Role In Grass Roots Advocacy: A Lesson Learned from Agchat and MPKbest | |
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Janice Person | |
| - | Nothing like having #agchat tweeps | |
| - | The How & Why of #MPKbest | |
| - | Social Media Revolution | |
| - | A top 10 list to remember | |
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Dairy Farmer Ray Prock | |
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Nate Taylor | |
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Rancher Jeff Fowle | |
| "Connect with Michele using Web 2.0 tools to follow her work" |
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