Social Media Battle of the Farms
Last fall two Connecticut farms decided to grow interactive communities with their seasonal crops in a friendly social media-based fundraising competition that had some serious bragging rights on the line.
The challenge – Grow a larger Facebook fan page than the opponent in one month’s time
The competitors – Jones Family Farms of Shelton vs. Bishop’s Orchards of Guilford
The fundraiser – For each new fan added, the respective farm would donate $1 to their nonprofit organization of choice
The nonprofit organizations involved – Valley United Way would be the recipient of Jones Family Farms and the Guilford Community Fund would be the recipient of Bishop’s Orchards
This friendly competition ran from the end of October until November 27. While both farms knew they were competing for a good cause, the price for defeat was a hard day’s work on the opposing farm. In what was initially a close fight, Jones Family Farms was the decisive winner.
But like many charitable events, there is no loser. Money was contributed to nonprofit organizations, both having solid reputations for making considerable changes in their communities. Both Jones and Bishop, the owners of the farms, were able to engage their communities and connect with them on another level. And most importantly, the farms were able to energize their audiences, motivating them to get involved for a cause. Both farms were also able to benefit from the publicity generated from the competition, which included media coverage, word of mouth, and a dramatic jump in social media participation.
The authors of Groundswell, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, discuss the topic of “Energizing the groundswell” in chapter 7 of their book, specifically page 134. The authors list three basic techniques for connecting with brand enthusiasts, which include tap into customers’ enthusiasm, create a community to energize your customers, participate in and energize online communities of your brand enthusiasts.
How did these farms energize their customers? Well, both Jones and Bishop’s did it quite well. While building a community of loyal brand enthusiasts, there continues to be an omnipresent sense of nostalgia. Families openly tell stories about how they visited the farm as kids and now bring their children as tradition. They talk about the wineries, pumpkin picking, Christmas tree traditions, orchards filled with fruit ready for the picking, hiking trails, hayrides, and other fun activates that families can do when visiting the farm. Both Jones Family Farms and Bishop’s Orchards Facebook pages are still not only active, but continue to grow and develop. It will be interesting to see if either of the farms will return to social media to steer any future events.
Do you think energizing a community of brand enthusiasts may be limited to specific businesses or can any business find brand loyalists and motivate them to engage in online communities?
The PR Purview 
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