A Year In Redwood

I am willing to admit to being a bit of a nerd, and enjoying most social media platforms.  The latest addition – Snapchat, has left me a bit cold – I just can’t seem to get into it at all…..

However, I do enjoy Twitter and Instagram immensely.  Do you have favourite ones?

For my sins over the past 18 months I’ve volunteered and acted as ‘curator’ on some national accounts. Have you ever done this?  It is all a bit daunting initially but then once you get into the swing of it, it can be lots of fun.  And you do get to ‘meet’ lots of generally nice people.

The first account I was curator on was ‘TweetingFarmers’, which subsequently evolved into @IrelandsFarmers.  ‘TweetingFarmers” was a fun account.  It’s purpose was to introduce the customer to what farming is all about, so that they would know how much work goes into producing the food that is going into their weekly shopping cart.  I think I was among the first to curate on that account.  I really hadn’t a clue what to expect. I needn’t have worried.  It went really well.

Last year I also did a week tweeting on @IrelandsFarmers account.  That was best described as ‘interesting’.  When I brought up the subject of Genetically Modified Organisms, I opened such a can of worms!  Let’s just say that the majority of the followers on the account (mostly farmers) did not agree with my stance against gmo’s.  It would seem that most farmers believe gmo’s will save the planet!  A bit scary really.

Possibly the hardest curating was doing a week in December on the Instagram account of @FarmsnotFactories. As you know Instagram is very visual and all photographs.  The only reason it was difficult was the weather!  Oh my lord, the weather.  It was wet and muddy and not really conducive to taking photographs!  I got through the week, but had to be creative and use some old photos.

Smallholders Ireland

The latest week I did was on @SmallholderIrl.  This is a very new account, and I was privileged to be the first to curate on the account.  Again, it was great to ‘meet’ some new people, most of whom were again really nice and chatty – there was just one exception – but we shall not go there.

Curating on each of these accounts has definitely increased our own profile.  We have picked up new followers every time.  Of course, there are rules – or more ‘dos and don’ts’ – when you are running the account.  It is not about self-promotion.  It is acceptable to promote your product, but a ‘hard sell’ would not be appropriate.

The folks at Smallholders Ireland are actively seeking people to commit to a week. They would love to have artisan food producers; those who aspire to be self-sufficiency; in fact anyone who is passionate about doing what they can to grow their own food.   You don’t have to have huge acreage… just a passion for growing and talking 🙂

Go on give them a shout – the email address is in the photo above, or at the very least give them a follow.