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This article is co-authored by Libby McPhee and Carrie Williams Howe, founders of Homestead How-To
Homesteading is one of those lifestyles that thrives on the connections you make with others. These connections enable you to learn new skills, correct mistakes you’ve made, and simply connect with others who have chosen to live the homestead lifestyle. The term homestead can take on many forms: urban homesteaders, hobby homesteaders, and those who have thousands of acres and hundreds of animals. Whatever type of homestead you choose to have, it will only be enriched by including other people in your homestead circle.
In fact, as founders of Homestead How-To we met through Instagram, communicate regularly through Facebook messaging, and formed a blog together having never even met in person! Our desire to continue building relationships and put helpful content out for others inspired us to create this blog.
What is the Benefit of Connecting with other Homesteader’s Online?
Here’s the thing – our experiences in connecting with other homesteaders through social media have been 90% positive – how often can you say that about social media interactions? People we’ve met have a desire to help each other, are not competitive, and for the most part appreciate different viewpoints. We’ve connected with people who: come from very different parts of the world; have different cultural, religious, or moral traditions; and raise their families in all different ways. But we’ve rarely experienced the kind of trolling or insults you’ll frequently run into in other social media circles.
Yay for the positive potential of social media!
And of course, we’ve met people with different strengths and interests when it comes to homesteading – which offers even more learning for us. These are people we might not have come across in our daily lives or geographic locations (though its also been fun meeting people who live nearby who we otherwise wouldn’t have found!).
In addition to all of these positive opportunities for learning, our connections have also offered us the opportunity to bond over challenges and funny moments. We don’t always have family and friends who raise chickens or bees, but we sure do have social media friends who do – and they can commiserate with us and share our journey in a way that others just can’t.
5 Ways to Connect with other Homesteaders Online
The following is a list of groups, pages, and online strategies that we have found to connect with other homesteaders. If you have something to add to this list, please add it to the comments at the end of this article. We encourage readers to check those out too!
- The Homesteaders’ of Instagram Followers’ Loop helps to connect homesteaders on Instagram through loops, follower trains, and the “Homestead Fri-Yay Five” (moving soon into other social media follow trains too). Join the Facebook Group to get started with these connections.
- The Homesteaders’ Book Club was created by Carrie of The Happy Hive but is now also connected to this page, Homestead How-To. Carrie hosts quarterly book groups where members help to choose a book related to a given theme and read it together. They discuss their reactions and learning through Facebook posts. Each quarter also offers a giveaway for a free copy of the book from the publisher! Carrie also regularly posts links to great books and reading deals.
- Hashtags are a great way to find other homesteaders online – especially on Instagram. For example, search the hashtag #homesteadlife and you’ll see a ton of posts from folks who have used that hashtag in their descriptions or comments. You can follow them and follow the hashtag to regularly see these posts and find more homesteaders to follow. Remember that it is good form to follow those who follow you if your share common interests – and don’t follow just to get other followers; look for genuine connections.
- Facebook Groups are also another place to find support, ideas, and shared inspiration. A few that we belong to include: Farmish Folk Homesteading, Offgrid and Homesteading Ladies, and Homesteading. A quick search on Facebook will turn up a ton more, and you can find one that fits in your niche (like cooking, chickens, homeschooling, or natural remedies!).
- Homestead Bloggers Groups are a great option if you blog about your homestead, there are also a ton of opportunities to join blogging groups where you can support each other, learn about guest post opportunities, and share each other’s content. A few that we participate in include: The Homestead Bloggers Network, Homesteading & Sustainability Bloggers, and Homemaking & Homesteading Bloggers.
Remember to add more ideas in the comments below!!!
