National Cattlemen April 2025 | Page 6

From the CEO

Colin Woodall

Love it, hate it or tolerate it, social media platforms such as X, Facebook, Instagram and others have the unique ability to be both an effective tool and a tremendous liability to an organization like NCBA. Believe it or not, the average person spends 145 minutes on social media every day. No, that’ s not a typo; it’ s almost two and a half hours of daily posting, sharing, reading and scrolling. To be even more effective in promoting and defending our industry, we utilize a social media strategy to be the credible beef and cattle voice on these platforms.

Social media is a very effective tool in the work we do as a contractor to the national Beef Checkoff. With most Americans accessing social media on their mobile devices, our social media platforms provide us numerous opportunities to educate and inspire. Beef. It’ s What’ s For Dinner. utilizes Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest to engage with consumers. In Fiscal Year 2024, we had almost one million followers on Facebook, and the quality of the content we posted increased the number of times users clicked on a link to BeefItsWhatsForDinner. com by more than 160 %! In fact, we had more than 1.1 million clicks on the links we posted on social media that drove consumers to BeefItsWhatsForDinner. com where they could get more information on beef and access our treasure trove of great beef recipes.

Our team works to create content on these platforms that keeps people coming back for more. First, you have to grab their attention. That is hard to do with the short attention span most people have today. That means developing posts with graphics or messages that cause the user to pause and then click for more. A photo of a juicy hamburger is quite effective at this. Once you have their attention, then you need to pique their curiosity. Get them interested enough in what your post is about to have them click on a link to the Beef. It’ s What’ s For Dinner. website to learn more about nutrition, beef production or to find the recipe for that hamburger you are promoting. Finally, we want them to engage with us. Let’ s keep using the hamburger example. We want the user to like our post, click on the recipe, try the recipe and then share it on their own social media accounts. Now, that’ s a lot to ask for, so many times we’ ll settle for them liking our posts. When you get the consumer to engage with us on social media, you drive brand recognition, and you get others to help spread the word about beef.

Successful engagement is built on being authentic. While you will find Beef. It’ s What’ s For Dinner. branded campaign posts on our social media, many times you will find some very simple content such as asking them,“ How often do you use your cast iron skillet?” This simple approach is an easy way to get them to engage. It’ s also more than just the brand and the beef. Being authentic means posting stories about you, America’ s cattle producers, and the effort you put into making the beef they love.

Over the next several months, you will see our social media go on a restaurant and ranch tour where we will educate about regional beef dishes and cattle operations in those areas. A highly anticipated social media series will come during National BBQ Month in May. We are teaming up with pitmaster Erica Roby to explore regional BBQ styles across the country. Given how people feel about their regional BBQ, we expect a lot of engagement from consumers on these posts. We’ ve had tremendous success with Instagram Live events where we partner with local or home chefs who have built a following around their style of cooking. These live events allow you to follow along with our guest chefs and prepare a beef meal over the course of an hour-long live video event. As the chefs are cooking, they are also talking about beef and promoting the great work funded by the Beef Checkoff. In addition, social media posts on cooking beef allow our culinary team to provide expert instruction on how to cook recipes found on BeefItsWhatsForDinner. com. Examples like these show what an incredible tool social media can be.

Social media is also a great tool to showcase the policy work we do. On the NCBA social media accounts( social handles @ BeefUSA) you can find everything from the latest weather forecast to the highlights of NCBA President Buck Wehrbein’ s testimony in front of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry. The policy social media posts allow you to stay up to speed on all we are doing as your advocate on policy and industry issues. Again, another example of how social media can be a tool for good.

Social media can also be a hotbed for hate and vitriol. I’ m disappointed in what people write and say when they don’ t have to look the other side in the eye. Whether they identify themselves or hide behind a fake profile, there are a lot of users who want to tear down NCBA, the Checkoff and each other with their posts. With everybody having their own opinions, and in some cases their own facts, we have seen social media fights that are ridiculous and embarrassing. I had a Twitter account when I first took over as CEO, thinking it would be a great communication tool. The detractors found it quickly and used it to air all their grievances. Now, I’ ve been called worse things by better people in person, so the attacks didn’ t phase me. However, I had consumers, Members of Congress and other people outside our industry who also followed me, and I had more than one of them ask what in the world was wrong with the cattle industry when they would read some of these crazy posts. That’ s when I knew these tools could be a liability to our future.

Good, bad or ugly, social media is a part of life today and we will continue to find ways to use it in a responsible and positive manner to promote our product, defend our work, and help people learn more about cattle and beef production in the U. S.

6 APRIL 2025 www. NCBA. org