Farmers Edge Comprehensive Case

Farmers Tweet Too

Alberta farmers were getting a little antsy in the spring of 2015. Southern parts of the province hadn't received rain for 31 days; 39 wildfires were burning in various parts of the province, some out of control; and the Ministry of Agriculture had claimed a 24percent reduction in surface soil moisture. Amid the growing media frenzy, theFinancial Postchimed in with this June 9 headline: "Alberta's Creeping Disaster." In addition, the southern part of the province had been ravaged by record floods exactly two years earlier. And then, out of nowhere, came those good old-fashioned southern Alberta hailstormsproducing loads of immediate but inefficient and often damaging moisture. But then that's farming, right?

While Farmers Edge had been rapidly mobilizing its unique combination of precision agronomy tools across Canada, helping farmers reach peak efficiencies and profitability, it couldn't make rain, or stop rain. During times of prolonged abnormal weather patterns, all it could do was continue to coach, communicate, and empathize with its farmer partners. "There are lots of ways we can communicate with our farmers," says Marina Barnes, vice-president of marketing, "and social media has become an important part of our strategy."

Twitter, to be specific, became an especially effective tool as a form of communication from Farmers Edge to farmers both before and after a particular wave of hailstorms hit the southern region of the province. With over 5000 Twitter followers, many of whom were either farmers or connected to farmers, Farmers Edge tweeted a Global News hailstorm weather warning on June 12, 2015. "We thought we'd leverage our Twitter reach, not only to help warn farmers, but to provide some follow-up advice post-storm as well," recalls Barnes.

The follow-up consisted of a tweet directing followers to a blog post on the Farmers Edge website by one of its operational team members, Thom Weir. Once Twitter followers found themselves at the post, they could be better informed by a professional agronomist and certified crop adviser as to the effectiveness of applying fungicide and/or fertilizer as a way to prevent fungus from growing in wounded crops. "For the most part, the post cautioned growers about reacting to hail with immediate crop treatment," recalls Weir. "Thom had received inquiries from a few farmers, so we thought many others could benefit from sharing. We posted the blog, but also used Twitter to direct followers to it," Barnes explains. "If you're going to tout yourself as a technologically sophisticated company, you'd better be avid and skilled users of social media, too."

Questions

1. What are the benefits of social media for Farmers Edge?
2. Was it imperative that all Farmers Edge clients follow the company on Twitter in order to be exposed to its advice on recovering from hailstorms?
3. Aside from directly assisting farmers with advice through its social media feeds, what else does having a social media presence do for Farmers Edge?