Social Soil: Instagram

*Welcome to Social Soil - a series of social media posts for farmers. Whether you're a seasoned social media veteran or just trying to start, we want to help farmers with their "ag+advocacy" skills ("AGvocacy") so together we can promote Nebraska corn and agriculture.*


Instagram is one of the newer social media platforms that allows people to share their lives, businesses and causes through a series of pictures. And pictures where you can add filters to improve their visual aid. It’s a fun a quirky way to share your life using your mobile phone.

When Instagram came out, it was more of an app to simply edit your photos with filters that made your images look even better. But it has become a competing social media venue that allows people to communicate and share simply through this one site – and they encourage you to post as life happens. The pictures are featured on a chronological newsfeed so you can scroll through to view those you are following and what they are doing.

What is great about Instagram is that the uploading is fast and efficient and you can share your photos on multiple platforms instantly.

Getting Started

To get started is simple. You just need to download the app, create an account and start taking pictures/sharing pictures (and video!) you’ve already taken. To link your Instagram to other platforms (like Facebook and Twitter) you’ll have to give Instagram approval, but it’s pretty fast and easy.

Why share with Instagram?

Why should I share my pictures on Instagram when I can just post them on facebook or Twitter? Well, for one, Instagram makes your photos look really, really cool! Like going from this to this:

But, as someone in agriculture, if you’re going to share your pictures on Facebook or Twitter anyways, why not Instagram? It reaches more (and maybe even different) people than just FB or Twitter, and it gives you a new way to express yourself in agriculture and show what you do and why you do it. (Isn’t that our goal of why ag peeps want to share pictures of life on the farm?)

Who to Follow

Here are a few good aggie-Instagram accounts to follow:

hilljay45
Jay Hill New Mexico farmer. Proudly representing American agriculture with U.S Farmers and Ranchers Alliance. #hillfarmsnm

jplovescotton
Janice Person city girl, loves #cotton, biotech & pics, outreach for @MonsantoCo, loves #Memphis Tigers & #travel, #BlogChat fan, #FarmersROCK, views are mine

zjhunn
Zach Hunnicutt Farmer in south-central Nebraska, which means that you're going to mostly see pictures of the farm and the Huskers.

Of course….. necornfarmers.

And just for fun….. uglyfruitandveg.

Read other Social Soil posts here!