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Influencers: Pork production methods not an audience priority

How much do pork production practices matter to consumers?  Not much according to two social media influencers. 

Eddie Zamora is known online and in the food industry as the “Yum Yum Foodie.”  He says his audience isn’t asking about animal care…

“If it is important, it’s not something that they share with me.”  He says, “They get excited about seeing a cool dish and something that looks delicious and they want to try, but I haven’t engaged nothing that I can think of question wise regarding that. I’m sure it’s out there, but I haven’t had any experience with.”

Ashley Sampson, a Chicago-based influencer, known online as “Life with Ashley Ann” tells Brownfield other factors seem to be more important…

“I actually don’t think my audience cares so much.”  She says, “My audience cares a lot more about convenience, price point, and I’m sure they do care about how it’s raised, but I don’t think that’s top of their mind.”

Bob Ruth, a Pennsylvania pork producer and chair of the National Pork Board, says they’ve teamed up with social media influencers as one way to help increase domestic demand for pork.

“That will be a very, very much directed marketing campaign towards the consumers that will buy our products and are interested in buying our products.”  He says, “Maybe we can get them to be new buyers in the marketplace.”

Zamora and Sampson shared their insights with pork producers this week at the National Pork Industry Forum.

Photo: Ashley Sampson