March 29, 2024

Insta-ham: Pork Board launches social media site

Social media has become an everyday part of people’s lives. Users share recipes on Pinterest, check-in on Facebook, give instant opinions on Twitter and express their creativity on Instagram.

The National Pork Board recognized these opportunities and, in February, launched “Pork Social” a social site dedicated to “the other white meat.”

Pork Social isn’t aiming to take over social media, but acts more as a complementary tool for the other sites and a way for pork consumers to engage each other.

Users can sign up for Pork Social with a new username or use their existing Twitter or Facebook accounts to create an account. Registration is incredibly quick, and once a user has a membership, you can start sharing recipes and photos.

Under the photo-sharing aspect, users can rate the submitted photos of other users on a scale of one to four stars. For example, “Twisted Pig Candy,” which consists of thick-cut hickory smoked bacon, brown sugar, barbecue rub and cayenne pepper had a rating of four stars.

Another aspect of the site is recipe swapping. The categories by which users can separate the recipes types are endless. The same four-star rating scale is used for user-submitted recipes, like the peanut butter bacon cookie recipe submitted by Raina Bien (which also garnered four starts).

Users can also save favorite recipes in a digital recipe box, add the ingredients to a shopping list and print off selections in one of four styles.

Pork Social has links to original blog posts via its sister site, “Pork, Knife and Spoon.” The posts range from promoting contests within the site, pork-centric restaurant reviews and links to other pork sites and blogs.

Users also can customize the content you see on the site via user settings. Options allow users to narrow down recipes by cuisine type, occasions, popularity, and type of dish, nutritional value and cooking method.

In her initial press release, Director of Consumer Communications for the National Pork Board Pamela Johnson summed up why the creation of this site was necessary.

“The pork-loving community never ceases to inspire us with their enthusiasm for celebrating and enjoying their favorite protein,” Johnson said. “Now more than ever, they’re looking online for recipes, tips and ideas as well as sharing their own favorites. We created Pork Social to provide an inspiring two-way dialogue between the National Pork Board and home cooks, streamlining their search for all things pork.”

Staff writer Ty Rushing may be contacted at (641)-792-3121, ext. 426, or at trushing@newtondailynews.com