FARMERS and landowners are being invited to get to grips with social media websites.

The Country Land and Business Association is hosting a special training session at Sixways Stadium, the home of Worcester Warriors, on Friday, March 14 with social media guru and agribusiness graduate Simon Haley.

Mr Haley co-founded the Twitter forum AgrichatUK, which is followed by 9,500 participants and the Twitter in the Farmyard workshop has been designed to help attendees find out about and start using social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Aimed at farmers, landowners and rural workers who have never used social media websites before, the seminar will include step-by-step instructions on how to set up accounts and get the most out of them.

Mr Haley said: “Social media is a revolutionary tool for the rural industry. Farmers can use online platforms to skip a number of links in the food chain and sell their products directly to consumers.

“The training session will cover all of the basics such as using apps to make business decisions, writing blogs, recording a YouTube video, and tweeting about activities to help share your story with a broader audience.”

Places cost £15 plus VAT and the session runs from 10.30am to 1.30pm.

For more information and to book a place, call 01785 337010, e-mail midlands@cla.org.uk f or go to cla.org.uk.