Minnesota Turkey Growers Association
The Project
In 2017, a Minnesota turkey farm was invited to present the National Thanksgiving Turkey to the President of the United States in Washington, DC. The presidential turkey flock was raised on Carl Wittenburg’s family farm in Alexandria, Minnesota. The Minnesota Turkey Growers Association (MTGA) wanted to invite prominent Minnesota food bloggers it had partnered with in the past year to visit the farm with their families to meet the turkeys and share their experiences on their blogs and on social media.
Three food bloggers were invited to the event in mid-October at the Wittenburg’s for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet the flock. It allowed those who have not been on a turkey farm to learn more about farming and meet farmers one-on-one and learn about turkey farming, nutrition and the presidential turkey tradition. During the event, the bloggers were encouraged to share updates via social media using official hashtags and tagging appropriate accounts.
The Results
- The bloggers shared photos of their experiences on Facebook and Instagram, including using Instagram Stories.
- The bloggers, including A Farmgirl’s Dabbles and A Kitchen Addiction, also shared more about their visits in posts on their sites, and they also incorporated information on Minnesota turkey farming, turkey safety, cooking, nutrition and the presidential turkey pardoning tradition.
- Each blogger shared a Thanksgiving recipe on her site with her event recap post, which helped to drive additional interest in the post and also helped to promote turkey consumption.
- The three posts shared by the bloggers have received about 8,100 views by 284,000 people and have been shared on social media 110 times.