Rachel LaCount was awarded a scholarship from Social Media Breakfast Madison to attend the 2025 Social Media Marketing World conference virtually. She recently shared highlights from what she learned and will be putting her new skills to work on the Gather Wisconsin Instagram page. Thank, you, Rachel!
Becoming an AI-Enhanced Agriculture Communicator
As an agricultural communicator, I have mixed feelings about AI—especially when it comes to images and videos. Authenticity matters in agriculture. AI can’t smell fresh-cut hay, stay up all night with a newborn calf or feel the pride of wrapping up a long harvest.
But we can.
We don’t have to choose between high-tech and high-touch. We can use AI to streamline our work while still centering emotion, authenticity and lived experience.
After attending Social Media Marketing World, one thing became clear: AI isn’t here to replace us. It’s here to enhance us. When used with purpose, AI allows us to create more efficiently, refine more thoughtfully and spend more time doing what we do best—telling real stories that connect people to the farmers producing the food at their family’s table.
I set out to explore how tools like ChatGPT can help me strengthen content for Wisconsin Farm Bureau without sacrificing heart or authenticity. Below are five AI-powered strategies I’m testing.
My preferred AI tool is ChatGPT, but these tips apply to most AI platforms.
1. AI Won’t Replace Creativity—It Will Supercharge It
AI isn’t replacing marketers—it’s enhancing us. Tools like ChatGPT are transforming how we brainstorm, create and analyze. The question isn’t if we should be using AI, it’s how to use it with strategy and intention.
Think of AI like a brilliant but clueless intern. It can produce amazing work but only if you give it clear direction, purpose and motivation. Be specific. Inject emotion. Tell it, “This post is vital to my mission,” or “You’re the world’s best food and farming strategist.” You’ll get better, more relevant results. Studies have shown that being polite and respectful to your chat bot leads to better outcomes so use your manners when you chat with ChatGPT.
TIP: Improve responses by editing prompts instead of continuing to chat. When the output isn’t what you wanted, revise the original prompt to be clearer. This keeps context tight and results sharp.
2. Perform an SEO Audit with Help from AI
Visitors on social media are bored, visitors on search are busy. Use AI to refresh the SEO of your old blog posts and suggest key phrases for new posts so your content ranks highly for busy searchers.
Example Prompt: Export your lifetime body of work from WordPress and upload to ChatGPT.
“Read the entire list of articles, analyze the topics and tell me which ones would be best to republish.”
Audit your content for missed keyword opportunities. AI can help you target the topic, not just the key phrase. Make a habit of asking AI to suggest SEO edits using closely related key phrases.
3. Create Thought-Leadership Content with Help from AI
Gather Wisconsin can lean into thought leadership in the food and farming space, offering curated favorites, behind-the-scenes peeks and explainer posts. AI can help brainstorm and execute all of it.
Example Prompt:
“I work in agriculture and want to create thought leadership content for Instagram. Can you suggest ten content ideas that are informative and emotionally engaging? Focus on connecting farmers and consumers.”
4. Use AI to Optimize Email Marketing
Subject lines and audience segmentation are key to a high performing e-newsletter. AI can help you improve both.
Try This Prompt:
“Here is a screenshot of my email inbox. Which subject lines are most likely to get opened, and why? Rank them.” Or “Here is a screenshot of an email draft. Suggest improvements to make the subject line more compelling and increase click-through.”
Bonus tip: Emails that use first-person CTAs (e.g., “Show me what’s new” or “Send me the recipe”) have 28% higher engagement. Make your subscribers the hero of the story!
5. Build a Data-Driven Content Calendar
AI can act as your content strategist, writer, designer and analyst all in one. The key is to use AI for insights, not just output. Letting the data guide your decisions leads to more engaging content that meets your audience’s needs.
Example Prompt: Export your social media analytics and upload them to ChatGPT.
“Analyze and identify best performing content, common themes and topics among highest performers, formats that generated the most engagement and content that consistently underperforms. Suggest a data driven strategy moving forward including content formats, themes and posting schedules that align with our audience preferences.”
TIP: Use Meta’s own free AI tools. Meta already knows your audience, so it’s like getting content suggestions from someone who lives inside the algorithm.
AI Is a Tool—You’re Still the Storyteller
Becoming an AI-enhanced agricultural communicator doesn’t mean abandoning authenticity—it means amplifying it. AI can help us work smarter, uncover insights faster and repurpose content more strategically. But the heart of our message still comes from lived experience, emotional connection and the stories only we can tell.
Whether we’re celebrating a newborn calf or demystifying food systems for consumers, our role is to bring humanity to the forefront. AI just helps us do it with greater reach and efficiency.
