Connecting with new audiences: the power of social media

Social media has provided a new way for young farmers to talk to people about their roles, the countryside and important issues in the industry, says Camilla Swift in this article from My Countryside magazine.

I think it's safe to assume that most of us will have seen Jeremy Clarkson's Netflix farming programme, Clarkson's Farm – or if not, then you will at least have heard about it. The show has been lauded as having done "more for farmers in one TV series than Countryfile managed in 30 years". But it's the Diddly Squat contractor, Kaleb Cooper, who is arguably the stand-out star of the programme. He has harnessed his stardom and amassed 1.1million followers on his Instagram account which he uses, in part, as a platform for encouraging others to get into farming. On International Women's Day he discussed women in farming, for example. "Agriculture as an industry needs you just as it needs everyone", he wrote. "I get lots of messages from women asking if they can get into farming, and the answer is 100 per cent YES!" In another post, he reads out a letter from a young farmer he had helped organise an apprenticeship for.

His straight talking provided Cooper with a solid fanbase from the moment the series was broadcast – but there are many other farmers and agricultural workers whose informative TikToks and Instagram accounts have earned them a loyal following. Zoë Colville, who goes by the name "The Chief Shepherdess" and her other half Kriss Woodhead (aka "The Super Serious Farmer") could be described as Instagram's farming power couple. Zoë – who was a hairdresser in London – and Kriss, who comes from a farming family, decided to make farming their lives six years ago, and now have around 700 sheep as well as 50 or so Boer goats and some cattle.

The "chief shepherdess" title is a joke – Kriss also calls her 'Slowie' because she takes so long to get things done. But while Kriss takes the mickey out of the 'influencer' nametag, he also does a good line in explaining his views on serious topics – post Brexit trade deals and the direct effect on UK agriculture, for example. Zoë, on the other hand, shows her followers the highs, and the lows, of running a small agricultural business. "I didn't have a clue about the process or anything to do with farming or where my food came from before I started doing it," she has told the Farmer's Guardian in the past. "I thought I could come at it from an angle that those following the account could learn with me."

Technology is the future

While Zoë hopes that her followers learn with her, others hail from more traditional farming families. Becky Houzé, who goes by the alias "Jersey Cow Girl", is a fourth generation farmer from Jersey. Slowly taking over the family farm, Becky believes that "technology is the future of farming"; a viewpoint that extends to her social media output. When she appeared on Countryfile recently, Becky explained that while at university, she quickly realised that her farming pictures, posted in the holidays, attracted more attention than "me out drinking with friends".

"My target audience would be 16- 20 year olds, because with farming it's so important that we find the next generation," she explained. Some of her videos can have up to eight million views, meaning that her reach must extend far beyond the UK farming community. "It's a new way of learning how to farm through your social media pages," she told Countryfile.

What this generation of young farmers shares is an appetite for teaching people about their work: what they do, and why they do it. Their success shows that there's an appetite for learning about agriculture, and social media enables farmers and agricultural workers to share their daily views – the highs, and the lows – with anyone who has a phone and even a vague interest in farming.

Behind the scenes

Georgie Carlisle grew up on her family farm – Rowles Farm – in West Berkshire, but had moved to London while her twin brothers and cousin stayed on the farm. But a few years ago she moved back with ambitions of planting a vineyard (which is now, finally, in the ground). A family friend who works in marketing advised her to start up a social media presence to be able to sell the wine in future. "I used to get really angry with the boys because they would never keep me updated with what was happening on the farm when I was at work… I always felt like I was missing out." She encouraged her brothers to send her videos of what they were doing on the farm to put up on their Instagram account – and things took off from there.

"Weirdly it's not just the agricultural community who follow us. There is a good old mix. Some of it is locals; they see us drive past in tractors and wonder what we're up to. Parents love following us for educational purposes, especially around lambing time. We also have a lot of children who check our account to see what we are doing every morning. For us the most important thing is education, so people know about where their food comes from, and to open up a conversation between farmers and the public."

A recent 'story' from Rowles Farm includes videos of them harvesting rape at 4am, followed by text explaining why they are doing this at night. They explain that the seed needs to be harvested and stored at between 6-9 per cent moisture, and the current heatwave means that to harvest the crop at this moisture level, it needs to be done first thing in the morning, before the sun has come up.

Will Mann, who works at his family's organic farm enterprise on the Oxfordshire/Gloucestershire border, explains that he started his farming and environmental Instagram platform because he was "fed up by how farmers were being portrayed" and wanted "to put my story across. Too often, there will be an episode of Countryfile on during the huge price increases (as an example), and they are talking about hill-walking in Scafell Pike. I have long given up writing letters to the BBC, and decided to tell my own story." His Instagram is "normally about cows; sometimes I share some sort of environmental pearl of wisdom, but it is normally about what I do on a day-today basis."

Spreading the message

As well as the educational aspect of social media, many of those with large follower numbers work with organisations such as Yellow Wellies, the Farm Safety Foundation, which raises awareness of the dangers of farming (in the UK, farming accounts for 1 per cent of the working population but an alarming 18 per cent of all workplace deaths.)

Mental health is another hugely important topic of conversation, with poor mental health being one of the biggest battles faced in the industry. A recent survey by the Farm Safety Foundation revealed that 92 per cent of farmers under 40 believe poor mental health is the biggest hidden problem they face, up from 82 per cent in 2018.

"We posted quite a few conversations with a doctor friend of ours during Agricultural Mental Health Week," says Georgie of Rowles Farm. "It's one of those things where you just have to speak out about it and open up so that others do the same – especially those that are struggling." She explains that they have had a number of people get in touch with the page to say that they're finding life tough, but that following the page and seeing the banter on the farm helps them through. "For a lot of those lonely and isolated farmers out there, social media has shown them that there are many others in the same situation; that they're not the only ones feeling that way."

Social media often gets a bad rap for having a negative impact on mental health. But the experience of many younger farmers shows that, used in the right way, it can also be a hugely useful tool for changing perceptions of the industry, for promoting the positive sides of agriculture, and showing the public exactly how their food arrives on their plate.