Passing through Giltner, Neb. early last August, farmer Mike Haley used his Twitter account to post a message, or tweet, about a particularly robust corn crop.

“If I was @zjhunn or @cornfedfarmer I would be smiling, best corn iv seen is their area!”

What may have seemed like a passing compliment turned into a $200,000 profit.

The harvest belonged to brothers Zach and Brandon Hunnicutt—known on Twitter as “zjhunn” and “cornfedfarmer” respectively—fifth-generation south central Nebraska farmers who raise corn, soybeans, and popcorn on their 3,500 acres they share with their father and neighbor.

To Zach Hunnicutt, Haley’s tweet was a revelation. “We knew by that point that we weren’t going to have as high yield as we hoped for,” he said in a recent interview. “We knew that if ours might be the best out there,” he added, “that gave us the confidence to maybe hold out a little bit—for prices to go higher.”

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