Times have changed. People in different industries are now adapting to the use of technology and digital spaces to create communities for their brands and businesses. The question remains, how can farmers use digital spaces to build their businesses?
Before the Covid19 pandemic, most farming businesses in Kenya hadn’t recognized the online opportunities. Caught up unaware, one year later some are still figuring out how to maneuver the online spaces.
Here are tips on how farmers can build their business online and continue solving food and farming related problems as they make profits too.
1. Build brands both personal and corporate
Branding is very important to not only farming experts but also the companies you are building. When it comes to digital marketing, people connect people easily. This is why you need to think of personal branding as the owner of a business in farming. Personal branding makes you stand out, reach out to and be referred as the person of contact to the services or products your company offers.
Corporate branding should not be ignored too. Go ahead and set up social media accounts for your company. Keep sharing content to build a community of people who will love your brand and talk about it.
In order to achieve the best digital branding, below are platforms that can help you.
2. Social Media Communities
There are so many people who spend their time on social media searching for farming knowledge and experts to partner and connect with. You can be one of them. Join Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube among others. They are free.
In order to gain more on social media communities practice:
- Sharing relevant content
- Constantly engaging other people’s content.
- Being among the first to share news about your industry.
- Sharing your brand story to the community you are building.
3. Own a Website
It is necessary for your business to own a website. Most people love browsing on Google for websites to check more information about a brand.
Why you need a website as a farmer:
- Improves your business’ credibility.
- Helps you with sharing tips about farming through blogging.
- Creates a tool for sales generation.
- Expands your reach to the market.
- All in one business hub. People can browse your products or services pricing, subscribe to newsletters, location of business, team among others.
4. Register to E-commerce sites
E-commerce sites bring different related businesses to one platform where people can easily shop what they want. E-commerce sites help you share your products and services with their prices. You can choose to either create yours from scratch and incorporate it in your website or register to sites with related farming products and services. E-commerce sites such as Think Organic.
5. Join Conversations
There are so many ways you can join in conversations on digital spaces. Conversations help you be able to share your views, your opinions, collect ideas, build relationships with those taking part in them and even give your brand more visibility.
Types of conversations you can take part in:
You can choose to host them or be a guest or speaker in some.
- Podcasts such as Nourishing Africa
- Webinars
- Twitter Spaces
- Social Media Lives
- Clubhouse
- Tweet Chats such as #Agri4Value by Illuminum Greenhouses, #ChatAboutFarming by FarmHut Africa
If you find these tips on how can farmers use digital spaces to build their businesses helpful, please share. To learn more about digital marketing and branding, Janet Machuka as an expert has quite a number of tips in her blogs that can help you.