"We want information and we want it now": An Interview with Siân Ringrose from the Scottish Agricultural College

Recently, we’ve had the pleasure of meeting with Siân Ringrose of the SAC, an institution that strives to engage in innovation and knowledge-creation for the development of land-based industries and rural communities in Scotland.

Through her work as a policy analyst and researcher with the SAC, she has gained an extensive background in the effectiveness and barriers involved in knowledge transfer activities and communication strategies that promote innovation amongst farmers. In May 2012 Siân launched the Rural Policy Centre, SAC on the social media application Twitter (@RuralPolicySAC).

In order to gain a better understanding of why agricultural organizations adopt social media technologies and the strengths and weaknesses involved in social media use, we approached  Siân for a brief, informal interview. To our delight, she accepted.Siân discussed many different factors involved in the reason for her Twitter use, as well as the issue of organizational adoption of social media applications. Speaking with Siân provided an interesting glimpse into the organizational, political and social factors involved in the social media use of actors in the agriculture and rural sectors.

When asked why Twitter was chosen as the starting point for the SAC’s ease into social media, Siân stated that “knowledge mobilisation should be seen as more of a product...and we need to sell it. And how you sell it is by using Twitter”. She went on to describe how the short and real-time communication method employed on Twitter is ideal for sharing information quickly. Siân went on to say “We’ve gone from a three-second world to a one-second world. We want information and we want it now, and I think that’s one of the reasons people use Twitter”. 

Amongst the fast-paced feel on Twitter, Siân described other benefits of using Twitter in an organizational capacity. For instance, she discussed how Twitter is an efficient and easy way to network with other individuals and organizations that share similar interests, as well as keeping up with relevant issues that relate to the SAC’s work. For example, Siân discussed how she stayed informed about the dairy industry issues while away from Scotland through a movement on Twitter called “SOS Dairy”, a page dedicated to sharing information, news and events concerning dairy farmers and dairy prices in Scotland.Although Siân remained an avid supporter of Twitter, she did experience a few challenges on the route to social media adoption. “I think generally you find in research organizations that senior levels may not fully understand social media... Our senior levels were concerned about public image-whether or not you say the right thing- that goes back to being careful about what you say. But I think we kind of got over that by saying you can’t have this corporate look, you’ve got to just go for it! Just be human.” 

Siân also described the lack of multiple social media adoption (if any) by organizations as a “capacity issue”. She went on to discuss how she alone is spearheading the social media use in the Rural Policy Centre, along with her other responsibilities as a policy-analyst and researcher. Despite the challenge of finding the time and resources to use social media, Ringrose continues to support social media adoption in agricultural organizations.

“I think if you can disseminate your work and information in as many varieties and communication tools as possible, then great! Farmers and organizations are getting more and more social media-orientated...It [using technology] is coming through in the next generation. It’s the future.”