My Top 10 Farm-Related Hashtags in 2009

I’ve seen enough blogs on twitter’s top hashtags or topics for 2009 to never want to see another.  However, I couldn’t help but notice that agriculture seems to get left off the list!  Fine then (as a friend of mine would say)!  I’ll just make my own list and I’ll open it up for discussion & debate.  I may have missed something!

10.  #onthefarm — My coworker Nick Weber came up with a great idea based on some things he had seen in social media circles.  The weekly conversation provides an hour’s worth of tweeting insight into a farm or other efforts very clearly farm-related.  He keeps transcripts on the discussions on his blog and I’ve learned a lot from the chats.  He even let me guest host one week!

9.  #AgMS — It has to be on my list!  It’s the Ag Media Summit and there was a lot of information that interests PR people and journalists thrown around.  It was the place I experienced my first tweetup for aggies — and I think the first for agchatters.  I know, it’s goofy but we had so much fun meeting a bunch of people for the first time!  We made the tweetup fairly casual, just getting together in the trade show at the Monsanto booth, but it was fun for those of us there.  Also, I think that was one of the first times I decided to tweet out a video — we did it since Chuck Zimmerman wasn’t able to join us due to a health issue. Who I remember being there?   Jeff Jackson, Sara Uttech, Ian Nachreiner, Steve Drake, Bill Schuermann, Cindy Zimmerman and I know I’m missing some!  Interesting enough this was simultaneous to another tag on the list!

8.  #harvest / #hrvt09 — This would have ranked a lot higher had harvests been better.  As it was, watching people tweet about rain and snow, and all other things was just so painful.  It’s the painful reality that farmers were willing to share that I will remember but I’d like to remember a few of the folks who had an easier time of it too.  There were some areas with high yields, some that lucked out on weather… I hope everyone has that for 2010!  (If you dare to relive some of it, Nick posted a lot of tweets on his blog.)

7.  #pp1009 — Michael Pollan’s appearance on an October panel at Cal Poly certainly was a moment.  It was one of the first times that so many people in agriculture were watching a live video stream AND/OR tweets in real-time.  The controversy surrounding the event.  Ag tweeps Dino Giacomazzi and Annalisa Clarke were in the audience and Scott Vernon moderated.  The tweet transcript is available here if you’d like to walk down memory lane.

6.   #farm / #ag — We still use there but the reason they are on my list is they are probably the first hashtags I used on my tweets and kept searches open on.  It was important as I started building my network early on.  #AgChat has done a better job since it was created but man, I owe a lot to these tags!  Great way to tag everyday tweets though and #ag is one of the shortest so you can almost always get it in there!

5.   #foodchat — This is the sister to #AgChat and gave us a chance, once the ag conversation was going so well, to do some broadening of the community.  The connection this brought between farmers and consumers and others in the food chain seems so obvious now, but wow.  It made an impact and continues to help foster conversation.  This hashtag also had a serious side for me and Shaun Haney as we guest moderated.  The pressure was clear for us — encourage lots of participation, be sure everyone feels welcome, keep the convo going the next time and more.  Hope the stress didn’t show — we had a great time!  (Transcript here)

4.  #oink — This one was about setting the record straight.  Helping the world of twitter understand the use of H1N1 versus swine flu and the negative impacts that this misnomer had on pork farmers.  I was only able to tweet into this trending stream a few times as I was overseas on vacation, but enjoyed the reports of it and seeing this galvanize the ag industry with repeated corrections to major news media for months to come.  Fastline blog did a short article on it.  It was a build on the previous trend as information was shared across audiences and things like twibbons were created!

3.  #thankafarmer — Okay, it didn’t trend, but not for a lack of trying!  A large number of individuals who came together around the holiday season to draw the attention to the effort of farmers as consumers enjoy such great holiday meals.  This was truly a broad social media effort, with people writing their thanks on blogs, websites, etc.  I really like the blog post the Farm Bureau put together on the topic.

2.  #moo — Talking about a rush!  This was the first time that I participated in an effort to get a hashtag to trend.  AND IT WORKED!  I still can’t believe the adrenaline rush it gave me and others.  Mike Haley was having a birthday and put out a wish… he wanted to get #moo to trend in oder to draw attention to the financial plight facing dairy farmers.  Dairy farmer Ray Prock took it to heart and spent his day replying to people who wondered why #moo was a trending topic.  I learned a lot out of that and became good friends with two of the best tweeps a girl could ever have!  Here’s a blog post Will Gilmer put out on the topic.  (I was tweeting this AND #AgMS the same day for a while!)

1.  #agchat — It was not even close.  Agchat has totally rocked the year for agriculture.  It’s gotten lots of ag tweeps focused on the topic of the week, some of which I was able to learn a lot others, I hope I contributed to others understanding more.  The fact that the discussion has moved us forward in understanding each other and the many different types of farms, farmers, production practices, etc.  It’s head and shoulders above any other ag hashtag I’ve used.  Not even close!  If you have been in a hole and aren’t familiar with it, check out the Facebook group or the blog of founder Michele Payn-Knoper.

Some that deserve honorable mention in no particular order:

#issue2 & #HSUS — Farmers in Ohio definitely took on the political arena by clearly speaking out on #issue2.  There were differences of opinion, but it was impressive to see farmers so engaged in the discussion that went on and clearly would impact farms.  Similarly, the efforts to educate people about HSUS and other organizations held a lot of

#FPS09 — 2009 Farm Progress Show and I was able to watch a lot from Mississippi & Memphis while I was working on some other projects.  Really hated to miss the tweetup there and the crowd that gathered for AgChat.  Still looking to meet some of those tweeps.

#chocolatemilk — Didn’t know why it trended but loved it.  And lots of dairy folks were willing to weigh in with nutritional info, etc.

#MPKbest –– Michele Payn-Knoper was up for the Mashable Twitter user of the year.  She totally rocked the twitterverse by taking agriculture’s message & voice to the top 5 — yes out of the millions of twitter users, an ag voice was in the top 5!  This hashtag was used some in the process of raising awareness about what was going on and why getting an aggie on the short list mattered.  (This tag is in no way endorsed by MPK herself… in fact, it’s cursed by her so please don’t tell her it’s even on here. LOL.)

#ag4all — This one is relatively new but shows what a big tent agriculture is.  Nathan Winters started this one showing that agriculture should work to knock down the fences we’ve built between groups within the industry.  He has a blog and other efforts to keep this one moving forward.  Fantastic use of social media to help as we look to feed our communities and the world.  This is a new hashtag and one to watch in 2010.

Now, what did I miss?

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Added after originally tweet went out.  Nobody even had to flag it…  As soon as I hit publish, I realized I had goofed!

#agvocate — Great word created by Mike Haley (I think) to combine agriculture and advocate, something he and a lot of farmers do incredibly well in their communities, on the net, through social media and everywhere else.

#NAILE — Really important in my learning cycle!  This was one to remember for sure as I had the chance to enter the world of livestock for a couple of days.  I wrote an entry for my blog as well as one for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association blog.

A HASHTAG WORKING IN THE UK!

#FarmFri — dovefarm caught the blog and gave me a heads up, “dont forget us UK farmers, raising profile of farming in the media w/ #farmfri.”  She says everyone associated with farming should join them in sending up special tweets on Friday with the #farmfri tag.  Points out we need to spread the word to non-farmers too – get farming noticed!