Morris Area Farmers Market

Project Overview

After communicating with our partner at the Morris Area Farmers Market, we realized that our main goal was to create a marketing campaign that attracted more students to the farmers market. Research and our own personal experience led us to the decision that a social media campaign would be the most effective way to do this. Through this campaign, we have created and updated social media sites for the Farmers Market. We have also created content to be posted by our client as they wish, which includes messages, pictures, and videos. Throughout this process, We had to address the public’s perception of the market. After some interviewing, we found two main reasons why people did not actively participate in the market: they did not know that it existed, or they were not content with what it provided. Many people said that they wanted to see more vendors and a wider variety of items, citing different farmers markets in the metropolitan area of the twin cities as examples of an ideal market. We were able to address the lack of knowledge about the Farmers Market through the use of social media.

Process

  1. After meeting with the MAFM Board Chair, we decided to create social media sites for their use. They already had a Facebook site that received good attention during the market season, but not as much during the off season, allowing people to forget that it was there. We reactivated an old Twitter account that had been dormant for three years, updating information along the way. Finally, we created an Instagram account tied to the Facebook.
  2. We took video interviews of students, customers, and vendors of the farmers market. Parts of these videos were included in some of the promotional materials that we made. The interviews also serve as informative interviews for the Morris Area Farmers Market to use to make changes, if necessary.
  3. Because of the lack of social media expertise of our partner, the MAFM Board Chair, we created a cheat sheet of information on how to post and how to do so efficiently. This spreadsheet includes information specific to each social media site, as well as some generic information for social media. It also includes some sample posts and key terms to use.

Outcome

We created social media posts, samples, images, and videos for the Morris Area Farmers Market to use as they choose. Along with this, we created notes that our partner can use to create effective posts.