Advocacy is an art. There are moments I want to throw in the towel. Consumers and industry members alike can make you want to pull your hair out because it seems that around every corner someone is upset with your words.

The problem is, once we put our words out there, we no longer have control over them. Like songs or paintings, the entire world can interpret them the way they want to, and that is intimidating to a lot of people. Some of the smartest people I know are afraid to open up to social media about the ag industry because they don’t want the drama and don’t want people to harass them. Shoot, I want to crawl back into my shell sometimes.
Guys, I GET IT. And I want to say that I have had this happen many times. People who don’t understand the context, tone, YOU, or the situation in general. It’s easy to be keyboard warriors and jump into an argument. Instead of discussing ideas in the search of understanding, we argue to prove a point. Which never proves anything, honestly.
Advocacy requires a lot of hands-on experience and a lot less pride.

If you’re wanting to be a better advocate, please know that I am not the end-all, be-all to your advocacy education. This is your journey, and you must form it the way it works best for you. Seek out any and every source you can to help you; I hope these following points of advice are just your starting point!

• Play to your strengths. I say advocating is easy but forming a message might be easier for some and not for others. So, do what works best for you. If you get me on video, or even in person, I can’t form words as well as I can on paper. Know where you are talented, even if you’re in need of a little brush-up or experience, you still have strengths that you can home in on as you grow.

• Advocacy doesn’t need to be fancy. If you want to do a grand video production or delicious meal that only The Pioneer Woman would make for her cooking shows, that’s really really cool. I wish I had your talents and patience but know not everyone is expected to put on a show.  Advocating IS a form of entertainment. You have to engage your audience in order to make them listen. That doesn’t mean that you will fail as an advocate if you don’t have a film crew or snazzy photographs. One of my most popular posts was a free photo from Canva. If you have a compelling message, it almost doesn’t matter how you present it, because people resonate with the message you’re trying to relay. Don’t overthink a post because you feel like you don’t have a good visual. But, don’t underestimate a good visual, either.

• Don’t be Prideful. When you refuse to understand someone’s situation, that’s when you fail. Know that you don’t know everything about everything. Even farmers and ranchers are uneducated and when we block someone’s concerns, we build walls that won’t ever come down- especially with a stranger who only knows how to judge us by their online impression.

• Follow other advocates. If you like how someone advocates, or even if you don’t like how they advocate, follow them so you can learn from them. We all reach different people, and maybe the tactics someone else has is good material for you to shape into your own or avoid using in your messaging. Also, don’t be hateful to other advocates, we all have a space and a purpose. Plus, a different perspective keeps us open-minded.

• Get your MBA and BQA. Masters of Beef Advocacy and Beef Quality Assurance, that is. These will teach you a lot about the most common consumer questions, how to form a message, and will also give you many opportunities in the industry. I participated in the Top of the Class program through MBA and other beef industry leadership courses because I completed these two programs. I also made a lot of connections from these programs and can reference materials or my experience when speaking to consumers.

• Don’t always preach. We get so used to preaching to the choir and only reaching our current circle. Then we wonder why consumers are still demanding anti-ag. It’s because people don’t want to be lectured, or told they are wrong. Remember when I said not to be prideful? Well, a lot of consumers are just that. We have to be the bigger person and know that just because we provide food for the world, we aren’t Gods, and people don’t want to listen to our 5 pages-long rant about how much we do for the world and consumers should be grateful. I think everyone could use a lot more gratefulness in their lives, but no one likes the pompous, self-righteous person in the room. We must learn how to be more relatable. People still like to learn but on a much humbler level. Perhaps being goofy or talking about another aspect of your life that relates back to agriculture will do that trick.

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• Don’t go for likes. The algorithm gets us every. dang.time. We try our hardest to get the likes. Which can lead to pandering. You might post things just to get a reaction out of people, when that may not be in your best interest. I know that this is what social media has trained us to be about, but you walk a fine-line of preaching to the choir and not creating connections. Post what you’re passionate about, and market yourself well (share your page, be consistent in posting, interact with the people who engage with your page, join groups, etc.) and you’ll be able to reach people. Social media is a marathon, not a sprint, and growing your following should be the last priority. Defining your message and creating relationships should be the first. Likes and followers come with time.

• Define your platform. I wanted to reach women who loved beef but weren’t the classic face of the beef industry. The women who love eating meat over salad, and those who aren’t producers, don’t cook or are not amazing chefs, or aren’t fully familiar with the industry but want to represent it. I wanted it to empower women regardless of their background. I decided my name would be Girls Eat Beef Too. It’s great for content and consistency that you have this as well. An advocate page doesn’t have to be so formally planned out, but knowing what your voice is, who you’re wanting to target, and why, will help you form a clearer message.

• Recreate a meme. In an effort to break up the educational material with something funny and off-the-wall, I try to find popular memes and turn them into cattle memes. I used Enneagram types to match what kind of breed of cattle you are based on your Enneagram number, and I have other humorous posts that people might relate to in other ways.

• Don’t Shame. When someone eats steak with ketchup or likes it well-done. BE SO THANKFUL THAT THEY EAT BEEF. In a world where everyone is shaming everything, and meat is the evil in the diet, be glad they enjoy eating beef. It’s fun to joke about it, but we must keep consumers connected and if they feel like you think you’re better than them in all the ways, they won’t stick around. I won’t’ stick around for producers who think they are high and mighty either. ALWAYS SPREAD POSITIVITY. It never hurts anyone to be happy.

• Give Back. Giveaways are an easy way to get people to follow your page, but they are also expensive and sometimes it doesn’t work the way you want it to. However, giving your followers something that is useful, is a way to attract them to your page. This can be something that helps to create a relationship with your followers, which is the basis upon which all advocacy stands. If you are great at organization, give them some tips. If you love fashion, tell them which boutiques to shop during NFR. If you want to help someone learn a recipe, give an instructional video. There are ways to give back that also can help advocate indirectly. 

Remember, advocating is about creating connections with people. Not just spewing facts and rants out on a post. We are ALL trying to get better at it, and no one is perfect. Words are hard, reaching outside your tribe is hard, but advocating doesn’t need to be. Be true to your passions and always be willing to learn or be educated yourself. If we all were perfect advocates, the world wouldn’t be in such turmoil- so rest assured that doing the best you can, is the best anyone can do. And remember, consumers should always have a choice and you can be completely OK with alternatives to beef, but that doesn’t mean you can’t shout to the world about your support of real meat; just because we are less than 2%, doesn’t mean we aren’t worthy. Besides, we all need a little more passion and love in our lives rather than the hate we experience every day.