How a $20 bet led to Hahndorf Farm Barn’s Liam Swiderski blowing up on TikTok
It was a $20 bet on a video of a buffalo named Bill – but it led to a massive social media following for this Adelaide Uni student.
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When 19-year-old Liam Swiderski from the Adelaide Hills posted a video to TikTok of him affectionately patting a buffalo named Bill at the farm where he worked after a bet with a friend, the last thing he expected was for it to go viral.
Three years later, that video has amassed more than 258,700 views and 60,000 likes, and Liam, now 22, is a full-time uni student and part-time social media star with 867,300 followers on TikTok and another 101,000 on Instagram.
He is known and loved for his posts documenting his antics with the animals he works with at Hahndorf’s Farm Barn – where he’s been employed since he was 17.
“It’s funny that it all stems from the Farm Barn and Buffalo Bill,” Liam said.
“This whole social media thing started off as a bet between my friend and I. I had a video of me and Bill the buffalo from the farm and she was telling me it would go viral if I posted it. I disagreed and we put $20 on it – she ended up winning.
“After that I had the thought, ‘hey, let’s see if I can replicate this,’ and one thing led to another and social media slowly became a thing.
“It’s opened up a lot of doors and opportunities for myself now including going across to Sydney and other places interstate pretty frequently for events and doing some modelling as well, which has been super fun.
“I feel super lucky to be able to do what I’m doing – it also offers me some financial stability while I’m in university which most uni students know can be hard to achieve while studying full-time.”
Since acquiring his large following, Liam said it’s not uncommon to be approached in public by people who recognise him from TikTok – or the Farm Barn.
“People will come up and say g’day because they’ve seen me on socials or at the Farm Barn before - which is always wholesome and nice. I did find it a bit confronting at first, I wasn’t too sure if I was comfortable with it, but most of the time people just wanna say a quick hello.”
In regards to hate or negative comments, Liam said he’s been pretty fortunate during his time online to have received very little.
“For any content creator, every time they hit the post button they’re always opening themselves up to criticism, backlash,” he said
“But fortunately - I think because my content is pretty lighthearted and not too serious - any backlash I’ve received has always been extremely minimal.
“On social media, obviously everyone has something to say and will make an opinion about you whether they know you or not but at the end of the day, if what I post is putting a smile on people’s faces I’m happy.”
He said everyone at the Farm Barn is right behind him and his videos.
“I’m very grateful for them and all their support,” he said.
“The head honcho at the barn – the boss man Michael Farme – he’s created something pretty special, we’re all just one big family.
“If I won the lottery tomorrow I would probably just volunteer there the rest of my life and call it happy days.”
Now as a full-time uni student studying wine making at the University of Adelaide, Liam said he’s had to “step away a little bit” from the Farm Barn and typically just does a shift on the weekends “every now and then”, which he still loves as much as when he first started five years ago.
“My favourite part of the job honestly is getting to spend time with the work crew – and the animals of course – the customers we get are usually very lovely too, overall it’s really just a really awesome environment,” he said.
“I love what I’m doing now, it’s very cool to be able to share some feel-good farm scenes with people – especially those who don’t have that kind of environment at their backdoor like others do.”
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