Facilitators of peer-to-peer farming groups came together this week to hone their social media skills in an interactive workshop delivered by Wombat Creative for the Queensland Department of Primary Industries.

In decades past, when extension officers worked with farmers to improve farming practices, trust would be built over “a hundred cups of tea”. Restricted resources and technology have driven changes to the way we deliver new knowledge and awareness with land managers, but what hasn’t changed is the need to build trust.

Social media is a useful tool for developing those relationships before facilitators or extension officers even meet a farmer face-to-face.

While nothing will ever replace the strength of an in-person relationship, social media can certainly help make those relationships easier to foster.

And that’s exactly what this workshop, which included participants from 4 regional NRM organisations and a range of farmer groups, focussed on. People who attended came from communities on Cape York, in the Burnett-Mary, Northern Gulf, Atherton Tablelands, Mareeba and even from Western Queensland.

After sharing their goals for social media use, attendees were guided through a 9-step process for social media success. The group covered off on the importance of having a clear purpose – whether long or short term, the need to define an audience, choosing the right platforms, and tools and apps to make the job easier.

Feedback was overwhelmingly positive with 100% of people saying they’d recommend the workshop to a colleague. One participant summarised the outcomes beautifully…

Thank you for giving me a great strategy plan and the reasons why we do things in social media. I feel so much more confident in creating posts and using social media effectively.

We’re working with Queensland Department of Primary Industries to support facilitators and oeer-to-peer farming groups through 2025-26. To find out more about what other training opportunities are available to people delivering outcomes for Reef water quality, check out the training options here: https://yourdata.com.au/reef-training/ (Note: you do need to create an account to access).

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Do you have a community training need? We deliver training services to local governments, NGOs, regional NRM organisations and peak bodies. Drop us a line to find out more.