By JANE HOUIN
Ohio Correspondent COLUMBUS, Ohio — One is high tech, the other is not. But the Ohio Corn Growers Association (OCGA) is bringing together two 21st century pastimes (Facebook and corn hole) to take their message straight to the consumer.
Since April of this year, nearly 300 Facebook users have signed on as fans of the “I support making the corn hole game the official hobby in Ohio” site. And OCGA is using that forum to share with corn hole fans from around the world news from corn producers.
“I don’t think many people would get on our page if it was just the Ohio Corn Growers Association,” said Natalie Lehner, director of communications for the OCGA. “Bringing in something fun, like corn hole, which is so popular here - and many say was invented in Cincinnati - makes it appealing to the non-farm audience on Facebook.”
Facebook is a privately owned and operated social networking website where users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school or region to connect and interact with other people. Users can add friends, send them messages, share personal profile information, join groups and become fans of products or people. It has overtaken MySpace as the largest social networking site and boasts more than 200 million active users worldwide.
Lehner came up with the idea of developing the corn hole Facebook page after attending a national conference for National Corn Growers Association state staffers.
“We heard from a public relations firm out of St. Louis about how to attract people to your organization, association or cause: get them in by something fun or something they enjoy and get your message out to them once you get them to be fans or ‘friends’ on your page,” Lehner said. “Since studies show most people check Facebook before their e-mail, we knew that getting a fun Facebook page was the way to go.”
Lehner says those nearly 300 fans are people who wouldn’t normally read about corn grower issues, which gives them access to an entirely new audience they were not reaching before. Of those fans, 25 are from urban centers like Chicago, with other fans coming from countries like Norway, Canada, the United Kingdom and France.
“The goal is to show the consumer audience the important facts about corn production and corn uses,” Lehner said. “We address farmers being stewards of the land, what corn is used for, etc.
We jokingly say that field corn’s “other use,” beyond corn hole bags, is for livestock feed, ethanol, sweeteners in food products, plastics and fiber.”
So far, Lehner says they’ve shared with their Facebook fans a press release about one of their Ohio growers addressing congress about the importance of including farmers in any climate change legislation because they are good stewards of the land and are capturing carbon.
They have also highlighted different growers to show that the more than 20,000 Ohio corn growers are primarily family farmers who live and raise their own families. And Lehner says she gets a lot of comments from their Facebook fans that they “like” the stories she’s sharing (Facebook users have the option of commenting specifically about each post by just clicking a like or dislike button on each post.)
So far, the social networking effort seems to be working. Facebook ranks the site with 7.2 out of 8 stars for effectiveness, and Lehner says their fan count just keeps growing. But what does the future hold for OCGA as far a social networking?
“I hope to teach our grower board members how to get on Facebook and become friends and post their own comments,” Lehner said, adding she hopes to make the site even more interactive. “Facebook is very new to a lot of people who aren’t teenagers, and it can be a very different world. But it is the future ... which goes with our tagline, “For the future of farming.”
To access the “I support making the corn hole game the official hobby in Ohio” site on Facebook, go to facebook.com and search for “Ohio corn hole” to find the page, or visit http://www.facebook.com/pages/I-support-making-the-Corn-Hole-game-the-official-hobby-in-Ohio/74238582235?ref=ts
The Ohio Corn Growers Association represents the interests of more than 20,000 corn growers in the state. OCGA works in Washington and at the Ohio Statehouse to ensure government participation in legislation is beneficial to Ohio’s growers. Farmers provide food, feed and fuel to power Ohio.
For more information, go to www.ohiocorn.org |
