A precedent to McDonald’s successful “Our Food, Your Questions” campaign, actually exists though on in a slightly different form and on a smaller scale. The core idea however is the same – explaining and answering questions from customers about the process of how their food is made.

Many farmers across Canada have become aware of Twitter as a tool to bridge the gap between farm and table. They use it to connect with Canadians wanting to know more, about where the food comes from. One farmer answered questions on pesticide use, which can be seen as a parallel to McDonald’s asking questions about whether their food is real beef.  This farmer also invited a consumer to come and walk in his soybean field. This “behind the scenes” experience can be viewed as a parallel to the McDonald’s video on YouTube, taking you behind the scenes of a photo shoot of a burger.

Tweeting farmer

As there were misconceptions about the McDonald’s food and the process of making it, farmers have been suffering from this as well. One farmer says: “There’s that misconception that there are hormones everywhere throughout the milk, and of course that’s definitely not the case”. This farmer has been able to accommodate questions about this on Twitter and, to some extent, dispel the misconception.

As McDonald’s sought to change the consumer perception of the quality of their food to the better, the farmers’ mission was the same. One said: “I think the big thing is you want to make sure that people are comfortable with the processes that you’re doing on your farm (…) and knowing where your food comes from”.

As my example shows, it is not only the big corporations, who do great social media campaigns. Social media is a tool that everyone can leverage. Normally when discussing “monitoring”, most of the focus is on listening to consumers in the category. However, I see no reason why large companies shouldn’t be monitoring the initiatives of smaller companies as well. These could turn out to be a great source of inspiration.