Social media for farms and farm shops: a practical guide for 2026

Farms have something most businesses envy: a story that changes every week and that people love to follow. Social media turns that story into visits, shop sales, box scheme sign-ups and bookings for events like pick your own or open days.

Instagram and Facebook carry the farm story and the shop. Facebook events and community groups bring families to seasonal days. A Google Business Profile is how visitors find your opening hours and directions; Google says you can post updates, offers and events with photos and a button. TikTok and YouTube suit longer farm life content if someone enjoys filming it.

Source: Google Business Profile Help: Create & manage posts on your Business Profile, checked 15 October 2026

Let the farm calendar lead. Three or four posts a week is plenty; in busy seasons, short stories from the field are enough. Tell people what is ready before it is ready, so they plan a visit.

• Spring: lambing, calving, planting and Easter in the shop.
• Summer: pick your own dates, strawberries, open days and barbecue boxes.
• Autumn: harvest, apples, pumpkins and Halloween events.
• Winter: Christmas trees, turkeys and hampers, with order cut-offs.
• Every week: what is new in the shop, with prices.
• Monthly: a person on the farm, a supplier you stock, or a job explained.

Captions about food need to match your labels and records. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, food prepacked on the premises before the customer selects it, such as pies, salads and sausages made in the farm kitchen, is prepacked for direct sale (PPDS). Since 1 October 2021, it needs the name of the food and a full ingredients list with allergens emphasised. The Food Standards Agency lists 14 allergens, and for online or phone orders says allergen information must be given before the purchase is completed and at delivery. In the US, the FDA lists nine major allergens.

Raw milk has its own rules. The FSA says raw cow's drinking milk can be sold in England, Wales and Northern Ireland only at the farm gate (including vending machines and direct online sales) or through farmhouse catering by a registered raw milk farm, at registered farmers' markets, or by distributors such as milk rounds, and must carry the appropriate health warning. It is illegal to sell it in any other setting, and sales of raw drinking milk and raw cream are completely banned in Scotland.

If you run a cafe or sell food, the Food Standards Agency encourages businesses to promote their Food Hygiene Rating Scheme rating on their website or social media pages.

• Do not post 'available in shops' for raw milk if you are in England, Wales or Northern Ireland; say where it is legally sold.
• Use 'organic', 'free range' or 'grass fed' only when your certification or records back it up.
• Update posts when a recipe, supplier or price changes.

Sources: Food Standards Agency: Introduction to allergen labelling for prepacked for direct sale (PPDS) food, checked 15 October 2026; Food Standards Agency: Allergen guidance for food businesses, checked 15 October 2026; US FDA: Food allergies, checked 15 October 2026; Food Standards Agency: Raw drinking milk, checked 15 October 2026; Food Standards Agency: Food Hygiene Rating Scheme guidance for businesses, checked 15 October 2026

Open farms, petting areas and school visits make some of your best content, and they come with real health risks. HSE guidance on animal contact at visitor attractions says washing facilities should have warm running water, soap and paper towels, that alcohol gels and wipes are not a substitute for hand washing on farms, and that you should not allow eating in parts of the farm where animals can be touched. Repeat that message in your posts about visits.

Photos of visiting children need care. The NSPCC advises getting written consent from the parent or carer and the child, not publishing children's names alongside images, avoiding identifying details such as school uniforms, and removing location data before uploading. For school trips, ask the school what it allows before you post anything.

1. Add a hand washing reminder to every visit or event post.
2. Show the hand washing station in a story on open days.
3. Photograph animals, food and adults by default.
4. Ask parents in writing before featuring a child, and never name them.
5. Keep the consent with the event records.

Sources: HSE: Preventing or controlling ill health from animal contact at visitor attractions, checked 15 October 2026; NSPCC Learning: Photography and sharing images, checked 15 October 2026

Comments on farm posts sometimes turn into debates about farming methods. Answer genuine questions with facts about how you work, and do not argue with people who are not customers. Ask every visitor for a review in the same way, for example on a sign at the shop till. Google's policy says merchants must not offer incentives for reviews, discourage negative reviews or ask only happy customers.

Disclosure: this guide is published by Zolyp, an AI social media manager. Zolyp plans a calendar around your content pillars, writes and designs each post, and schedules it to Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Business, X, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and Threads. You start in review-everything mode, so nothing goes live without your approval. You can add your own farm photos or pull from your brand gallery, so posts show your real fields, animals and shop. Plans start at $29/mo. Everything in this guide works just as well done by hand.

• Week 1: list what will be ready this month and any events, with dates.
• Week 2: take photos and short videos in one dry, bright session.
• Week 3: create Google and Facebook events for open days.
• Week 4: check which posts brought visitors or orders, and plan more like them.

Source: Maps User Generated Content Policy: Prohibited & restricted content, checked 15 October 2026