Social media can be a huge asset for a business but knowing the right way to use it is critical.

That’s the opinion of Heidi Wright, who runs the social media company Wright Social which has a mission to help those in agriculture connect to people using social media strategies.

Ms Wright said social media could be new for people and could look scary and uncomfortable.

“It is important to look at it through the right mindset and why we are doing something, as it can be really rewarding and profitable for businesses,” Ms Wright said.

She said while customers go away, advocates stayed.

And it was important to look at social media learnings, and how to increase reach and visibility to an ideal ram buyer.

“How do we take the attention we have earned through content, and through leaning into algorithms and convert it into prospects,” Ms Wright said.

“It’s not just more ram buyers we want but more repeat ram buyers.”

Ms Wright said it took work and investment to have social content do achieve connection with clients.

“The content needs to connect with the right person at the right time in their decision-making journey, then they become a customer, and if a repeat purchase, that’s a powerful place to be,” she said.

Ms Wright said there was a difference between strategy and tactics when it came to social media.

“Strategy is the destination and how you are going to get there while tactics are what specific actions are you going to take to help you reach your destination,” she said.

“We need tactics and we need strategy to show up to our ideal ram buyer and convert that to a sale.”

Ms Wright said in Australia, people spent about six hours on the internet every day, and 20 million of the 24.5 million internet users were on social media, with some users having up to six social media sites on their phones.

But as producers, it was important to know how to attract attention and how retain attention and covert it and mobilise people into action.

Analysis by Wright Social of the farming population sowed 86 per cent of the 35-54 age group had visited one or more social media sites in the past seven days, 78 per cent of the 25-34 age group and 80 per cent of the 18-24 age group.

On average farmers were spending an average of two hours and 23 minutes on social media each day.

Ms Wright said while initially people had used Facebook as a means of “killing time” and post used images and text to create connection, a different purpose had evolved.

“On Facebook, you get the attention of people and we can advertise,” she said.

“Businesses saw potential in Facebook and since then, businesses have had a big role to play.”

She said social media was now classed as a discovery platform, along with AI and google, to research brands and find solutions.

This purpose could be used by ram producers.

“When you think about ram sales, you will find in the lead up period, people searching and looking for information,” Ms Wright said.

“At that time, it is sensible to show up in a higher frequency manner.”

Ms Wright said it was helpful to look at how other businesses utilised social media.

“It is important to build trust with a brand and send a clear message that this is what we do, this is who we are, this is the value we offer, these are the results, this is how we can provide you with the outcomes you are looking for,” she said.

Some of the tips for social media include:

• Create value and share a story

• Be authentic and helpful, solve a problem

• Be helpful

• Build trust

• Establish networks

• Foster relationships

• Grow influence

In terms of posts, Ms Wright said videos were useful, with 60 per cent of people on Facebook spending time watching videos.

“Faces and voices stop people - people trust people,” she said.

Posts that do well lead with value and then educated.

“Posts that generate the high visibility on social media hook attention fast, lead with value before education, feature faces and people, lean into trending audio and storytelling formats and keep captions short and punchy,” Ms Wright said.

And while attracting attention was one thing, driving awareness to action was the next. This could be done by downloads of catalogues, direct signups like SMS or email, traffic to sites analysis or even event registrations.

Posts should also:

- Be clear and specific and tell the user what to do;

- Tell them what they can expect;

- Create a gentle nudge of urgency, and

- Have a call to action that was visually easy to spot.

“You need to build the brand first, and sales come later,” she said.

The different social media platforms could be used for different purposes:

Facebook - best for building brand awareness, building communities, Facebook groups, advertising events and capturing leads.

Instagram - best for visual storytelling, reaching the younger market and generating quick shares for content, and big for e commerce.

X (Twitter) - works well for live commentary, public conversations and brands that can engage consistently.

LinkedIn - remains the top platform for business-to-business marketing, thought leadership, employer branding and professional visibility.

YouTube - supports long term visibility, education, and trust through both short and long form video.

TikTok - popular social media platform that drives fast discovery and reach through short form, trend-based video content.