Social Media Possibilities for Farmers

Get Farming Australia looks at the future of farming and sees social media as major tool that can be used by all famers to grow their business and learn. The article states that “in the United States, 76 percent of farmers between the ages of 18 and 35 use social media to share knowledge, connect with consumers and promote their business”. Still in many countries the possibilities that social media has for farmers is still not fully realized, but with over 1 billion people on Facebook and 554 million people using Twitter worldwide the trend is certainly engagement, knowledge sharing, and customer outreach.
See the full article here.

Facebook is Getting the Conversation Going

Image source: http://goo.gl/2BDOVC

Facebook has recently announced that it will begin allowing its users to connect to broader conversations or trending topics using the hashtag, already in popular use on other social media platforms. An article in TechCrunch states that the hashtag on Facebook will involve capabilities such as “searching for hashtags, clicking on hashtags that come from other services, and writing posts directly from the hashtag feed”.

With the new hashtag feature introduced on Facebook its users may be able to use the social media site more like Twitter is used. On Twitter, using hashtags, you have the ability to begin conversations or even include yourself in conversations on topics far beyond your conventional social group. The result of this is, at the users discretion, they have a voice in either broad topics or niche topics where without the hashtag they would not have this option so easily available to them.

"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.”

"Ontarian Agri-food and Rural Development Stakeholders Want to See Social Media as a Communication Strategy":

Findings of a Recent Study Conducted by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs

It seems as though the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) is increasingly interested in understanding the social media use of stakeholders in the agriculture and rural sector; a curiosity that is shared by the researchers of the ongoing study presented on this blog. OMAFRA recently conducted an online survey, created by a leading Canadian marketing research corporation Ipsos Reid, regarding the web browsing and social media usages and attitudes of various actors in the agriculture sector. The online survey, hosted on the OMAFRA website between February 6 and March 5, 2012, was completed by a total of 439 individuals, many of whom identified as farmers, farm employees, agri-students, agri-business personnel, and members of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.  

The survey reveals an increasing trend of social media use as a communication strategy by the agri-food and rural development professionals in Ontario.  84% of the participants reported using social media in the past year and 73% of the participants found the social networking sites as important to their work. Twitter was the most commonly used social media application for agriculture-related purposes, such as the sharing and capturing of knowledge and information, professional networking and marketing. Following Twitter was YouTube, blogs, and agriculture-specific online social networks. Facebook was one of the least-used applications for agriculture-related purposes, but the most used for personal networking amongst the survey respondents. There is a potential scope for using these tools for business and entrepreneurship development as indicated by 87% of social media users that they would more likely to buy/use specific agri-product/service after a positive review on social media.    

The OMAFRA-supported survey also shed light on gaps in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the agriculture sector. For instance, 12 percent of respondents identified the lack of agriculture-specific “apps” as a significant drawback to their technology-use. The most significant drawback identified by the participants was the lack of social media use by governmental bodies, including the agriculture sector. With 89 percent of survey respondents in compliance, the report suggests that OMAFRA and service agencies should develop a policy to adopt ‘social media’ as a communication strategy.

The survey provides first-hand information about existing social media practices and depicts a very positive interest about social media by agri-food stakeholders. However, the study has not touched upon in-depth understanding of social media practices such as specific goals, benefits and challenges for networking, relationship building and learning by multiple stakeholders.  The findings urge to conduct in-depth analysis on these issues; a task that the ongoing study on agricultural innovation systems and social media applications by Dr. Chowdhury and Dr. Hambly Odame undertakes.