Maximizing Traditional and New Media to Cut Through the Clutter By Stephanie Metzinger, Senior Communications Manager Newspapers once reigned as king as the primary source of information for consumers, but with the introduction of social media in the late-‘90s, the communications landscape has rapidly transformed. According to a study by Backlinko, social networking platforms nearly tripled their total user base in the last decade—from 970 million in 2010 to 4.48 billion users in July 2021.
This dramatic increase of new social media users parallels the year-over-year increase in the number of social media platforms flooding the market. With nearly 300 social networking sites available globally, consumers are now receiving their information about current events from across the web. Beyond social media, news is being delivered through a multitude of other communications channels. This includes newspapers (print and online), e-mail, text messages, apps, podcasts and workplace messaging tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams. With stiff competition in the communications space, how does one cut through the clutter to elevate their news and reach their desired audience? By leveraging as many of those platforms as possible. For example, in the past six months, Western Growers has capitalized on both traditional and new media to expand its reach. Below are two campaigns WG recently executed to further its footprint beyond one platform, ultimately resulting in more impressions, reach, engagement and brand ambassadors. Farm Fresh Video Series WG produced and released a three-part video series on Facebook demonstrating the extraordinary skills and ingenuity of the farmers and farmworkers who work to bring food to America’s tables.
Main Platform: Facebook Subsequent Platforms: • Press Release: Once the videos started to gain traction on Facebook, a press release was distributed to alert the media (and public) about the series and draw even more attention to the videos posted on both Facebook and YouTube. • YouTube: To increase the videos’ organic traffic, the three videos were posted on WG’s YouTube channel. Posting the videos on YouTube also helped grow WG’s visibility on search engine results pages. Results: • The videos received a total of 15 million views • 392,000 people interacted with the video (comment, like, share) o WG garnered 15,000 new Facebook fans as a direct result of the videos o Six media outlets published information about the video series based on the press release, reaching more than 110,000 people “No Water = No Crops” Blitz To support federal advocacy efforts to invest in water infrastructure and shed light on the dire impacts of the drought on farms across California, WG released a “No Water = No Crops” video series on Facebook and YouTube. The series featured nine videos where four California farmers (Joe Del Bosque of Del Bosque Farms, Ross Franson of Woolf Farming, Jared Plumlee of Booth Ranches, Vincent Ricchiuti of ENZO Olive Oil Company) speak about the impact the drought is having on their operations and the cascading losses that result to farmworkers and their communities. Main Platform: Federal Advocacy Western Growers joined a national coalition of more than 200 agricultural organizations and urban and rural water districts to urge the federal government to invest in the nation’s aging water facilities. Since early 2020, the coalition sent letters to Congress and the
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NOVEMBER | DECEMBER 2021
Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com
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