The Hidden Cooking Connection

This past weekend I went to a charming place called Woodhaven Farm, the Cooking Connection, for a "surprise trip" with my scholars program. When I first arrived, I was greeted by a spunky, outgoing woman, named Tami Cecil, who I soon found out was our chef for the day. Her motto is that through cooking people can build a team and sure enough, the people I went with and I did. Coming from a partly Italian family, I know that food can bring a body of people together, especially when you take the time to mix the ingredients, wait for them to cook, and then finally indulge in the final product. I felt a true sense of camaraderie as everyone feasted on our homemade meal.

I had no idea Woodhaven Farm existed until I was surprised with the experience, but once I got home, I did a little research myself. Woodhaven farm has their own website and a Facebook account, however the two web pages are not linked together. The web page is a simple site that focuses on the basics of what the company is, where they are located, who they are looking to accommodate and other smaller details. The way they look to engage their customers through the website is their e-mail list and newsletter. Their Facebook was created in 2010 where they posted a couple times and then stopped posting completely for a year. Woodhaven Farm returned to Facebook in 2012 and has posted a few more times since then, although nothing has been seen in the year 2013.

Both their website and Facebook has much room for growth and plenty of potential. Through Facebook, I would recommend at least monthly posting (to start, but then definitely engage on a weekly basis after that) and through those posts show the experience the customers are having. Since food is appealing to the eye and people want to be like other happy people, Woodhaven Farm could greatly benefit from posting that on Facebook. Also, when hosting people of a younger generation, the chef could encourage them to invite their friends to like the page or post about the experience and link back to the Woodhaven Farm account.

Once they have established a secure Facebook presence, I would encourage Woodhaven Farm to look into Instagram. As I was looking into their social media presence, I came across a user who had posted about her experience at Woodhaven Farm using #woodhavenfarms on Instagram. If Woodhaven Farm had an account, they could suggest that all their customers tag them in a post to show their friends about the food they made or their overall experience. This would be a successful way to get their name out to the public, without having to do much advertising.

Although Woodhaven Farm is an all natural, country environment, they would benefit greatly by tapping into a modern resource to advertise the benefits of teambuilding through cooking.