“Just two kids with a dream” is how Deep Roots Produce’s Liv McDaniels captioned the post. “We started our journey back in 2019 when we converted an old hay barn that sat on my family’s property into an open-air produce market. We quickly were overwhelmed by the support this community showed us and knew we wanted to pour everything we had into our farm to give people a place to get back to their roots. Our vision is simple: To grow local, homemade and fresh produce for our neighbors – and to provide a space that feels like home for everyone to create memories and start traditions on the farm.”

Liv and Stephen McDaniels, owners of Deep Roots Produce in Alto, MI, presented at the most recent Great Lakes Expo, focusing on their market’s journey on social media. The post cited encapsulates Liv’s approach to social media.

“Be yourself online. Prioritize honesty and authenticity. Share your story with consistency.” A simple approach – but Liv quickly stressed there is no “magic formula.” She doesn’t have a degree or higher training in social media but has chosen to self-educate, utilizing free online courses and educational YouTube videos as well as examining what has worked for other retailers.

The takeaway? Anyone can do this.

Both have history in the wholesale produce industry. They met while employed at Stephen’s parents’ tomato and strawberry farm in 2015. The land Stephen and Liv’s farm is located on was purchased by Liv’s grandfather back in the ‘60s. The name “Deep Roots” honors some of that history. They opened the produce stand in July 2019.

With a $0 advertising budget the first season, they relied on unpaid social media and word-of-mouth promotion. As of 2022, Liv described becoming more intentional with her social media posting and they have experienced good results the last few years.

Intentional consistency is key. While they hire out management of their Google and website presence, Liv handles Deep Roots’ Facebook and Instagram. She tries to post once daily during the season on her timelines and multiple times a day on her stories. Off season, she recommended posting at least once or twice a week.

While they acknowledge the value of paid advertising, organic promotion is still the most effective. Only 6% of the Deep Roots postings for 2024 were paid – “probably less than a few thousand dollars.” Organic posts can still produce great traffic, Liv maintained – just keep your messaging clear and diversify your content.

If advertising for a larger scale event, Liv will typically start promoting two to three months out; three to four weeks is adequate for smaller scale events.

When it comes to paid ads, she suggested keeping verbiage simple, clear and concise, sharing the example of a promotion for their sunflower field opening for the season. Make sure to include all the necessary touchpoints for the event or sale, like the address, pricing and more.

The couple utilizes paid ads to promote what’s new throughout the season – these ads boost and grow their market share outside of their regular customer base and target roughly 30 to 50 miles out from the produce market. They run paid advertisements on Facebook, Instagram and Google throughout the season.

Though it’s not for everyone, Liv mentioned influencer visits and collaborations with local businesses. There are a growing number of agricultural and horticultural influencers or digital advocates and leveraging their subscribers can be a great spark for an operation.

What tools are they using? Liv noted Canva Pro and Meta Business Suite (both industry favorites). It’s important to have a good creative platform. Canva makes that process accessible to those who might not have access to more technical platforms, like Adobe products. With a drag-and-drop interface and thousands of templates and assets for use, it more than meets the needs of the average small business. There are free and paid tiers, and Liv advocates for the paid, as it has much more available and is cost-effective. Meta’s Business Suite makes cross-posting between platforms very streamlined and allows for easy planning.

For video editing, Liv mentioned the app Vixer in her presentation, noting CapCut as a second favorite. Stephen talked briefly about drone video. Deep Roots uses it to promote their corn mazes each year and he believes drone usage is more accessible than many think. Stephen utilizes a DJI Mini 2 and said it’s easy to master. Drone usage recommendations and licensing varies by state, so be sure to look up local ordinances before taking a drone for a spin.

What kind of posts are working for Deep Roots? It’s all about that honest conversation in community, whether it’s navigating a hypothetical POS issue, expressing gratitude for their customers buying them out of stock at their donut launch or asking for the teens who vandalized their fence to come forward, they recommend talking about it all – “the good, the bad and the ugly.”

Engage with each comment, positive or negative, and respond to every message. (Your message response rate is visible to followers.) It can help you make things right and it can help you retain customers.

The duo gave an example of a disabled individual who had a poor experience and was not able to access their petting zoo. They were able to engage with this person online, invite them personally back to the property and help provide better access and a better experience on the return visit.

It’s a lot of fun as well: from her humorous “bump update” series keeping pace of her own pregnancy with their donkey’s, to humorous videos featuring Stephen in their recent foray into TikTok, they have found the “sweet spot” when it comes to sharing their life and staying relatable.

“I try to post as if the person is sitting across from me or sitting right next to me and we’re having a conversation,” Live said.

She does her best to alternate product promotion with market updates and family news. Creativity is key. She mentioned success with sharing everything from her and Stephen’s anniversary to various farm history tidbits – these types of posts can be an engagement goldmine in the slower season.

“Who knows what the future holds?” Liv said, but it’s bright for Deep Roots Produce. The McDanielses are just getting started.