Many agricultural professionals eschew social media because they don’t understand what it is and how to engage with it and learn. Social media platforms provide agricultural institutions the ability to communicate directly to the farmers and consumers, informing them about various aspects of agriculture (Saravanan and Suchiradipta, 2016).

1. Dishant James
PALB 7025

4. Definition
• Social media are web based tools of electronic
communication that allow users to personally interact
with others individually or in groups for the purposes of
exchanging information, sharing thoughts and opinions,
influencing and facilitating decision-making by creating,
storing, retrieving and exchanging information in any
form (text, pictures, video, etc.) by anyone in the virtual
world
-(Suchiradipta and Saravanan, 2016).

5. Objectives
1. To understand the functional building blocks of social media
2. To know the global trends in social media for agricultural
development
3. To learn about the policy guidelines for using social media
4. To review International projects on Social Media in Agriculture and
their outcomes

6. Functional building blocks of
social media
Social media Honeycomb
Source: Kietzmann et al. (2011)
Implications of the FunctionalitySocial media Functionality

7. • Each block allows us to unpack and examine
(1) a specific facet of social media user experience, and
(2) its implications for firms.
• These building blocks are neither mutually exclusive, nor do
they all have to be present in a social media activity.
• They are constructs that allow us to make sense of how
different levels of social media functionality can be
configured.

8. Block I – IDENTITY
Source: YouTube: Social media? Get serious! (Elsevier Journals)

9. Block II – CONVERSATIONS

10. Block III – SHARING

11. Block IV – PRESENCE

12. Block V – RELATIONSHIPS

13. Block VI – REPUTATION

14. Block VII – GROUPSDunbar’s Number-
proposed by
anthropologist
Robin Dunbar
(1992), who
theorized that
people have a
cognitive limit
which restricts the
number of stable
social relationships
they can have with
other people to
about 150.

16. Global trends
in social media

20. Source:
Statista.com

21. Source: Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends

22. Sl.
No
Social media
Tasks that can be performed
Chat Comment Share
posts
Share
files
Share
location
Capture
and
share
photos
Capture
and
share
videos
Live
stream
Voice
Message
Voice
call
Video
call
Video
conference
Connect
with
people
online
1.
Facebook # # # # # #
2.
WhatsApp # # # # # # # # # #
3. YouTube # # # #
4. Instagram # # # # # # # # # # #
5. Twitter # # # # # #
6. Telegram # # # # # # # # #
7. LinkedIn # # # # # # # # #
8. Skype # # # # # # # # #
9.
Messenger # # # # # # # #
10. Quora # # # # #
11. ResearchGate # # # #

23. “Farmers now have another responsibility after harvesting the day’s
crops. They report about it on Twitter.”
- Lauren Nadeau
Global trends in Social media for
agricultural development

24. • Currently has over 2.5 billion monthly active users globally
• Allows to create individual profiles or institutional Pages and Groups of
like-minded professionals.
User profile/personal timeline
• Each registered user on Facebook has a personal profile that shows their
posts and content.
• Revamped in September 2011 as "Timeline", a chronological feed of a
user's stories.
Instant messaging
• Began as Facebook Chat in 2008 and eventually became a standalone
mobile app in August 2011.

25. Facebook in Agricultural development
• Facebook can help extension professionals to:
• Post videos/ photos of field level activities, demonstrations, interaction with
farmers and application of technologies
• Share/ highlight success stories of farmers
• Advertise events, exhibitions, conferences, seminars, training programmes
and meetings related to agriculture
• Create professional groups on a specific theme and share knowledge;
connect with other groups, organizations.
• Popularize Government schemes
• Send alerts in case of emergency, marketing opportunities for farmers,
consumer preferences
• Encourage farmers and FPOs to connect with AOs, other farmers and groups

26. Agricultural Organisations and Professionals on Facebook

29. My Job Depends on
Ag

30. • Two billion users worldwide
• Video-sharing platform/ search engine
• Watch and download videos and audio of videos
• Like, dislike, subscribe and comment on Videos
• You can learn almost everything such as English, Coding, Business
management and everything else that you think is possible.
• Upload your own videos
• Share useful videos with other people on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
• Earn money from your videos on YouTube.
• Live streaming

31. • Encourage scientists and extension personnel who work at the field
level to create YouTube accounts to share agricultural related videos
• Download useful agri-tech videos from YouTube and screen them on
pico projectors to small groups of farmers
• Encourage young entrepreneurs to produce their success stories and
best practices and upload them on YouTube
• Promote use of relevant YouTube videos in building capacities of
agricultural officers at the field level.
YouTube in Agricultural development

34. • 1.6 billion active users
• File attachments menu- photos, videos, audio, location
• Voice messaging
• Group (upto 256 users) and broadcast messages
• Free phone calls, video calls, group calls

35. • Encourage scientists, extension workers, progressive/ innovative
farmers to create WhatsApp accounts and groups to network and
share information
• KVKs and Departments can send/share alerts - release of new
varieties, meetings, office orders, details of Government Schemes,
visits of senior officers etc
• Commodity specific groups can be created and linked to input agencies
WhatsApp in Agricultural development

38. • Mainly used for professional interaction.
• 630 million registered users globally
• Individuals use LinkedIn for networking, job search, company
research, and connecting with alumni and exchanging information
and experiences.
• Institutions use LinkedIn for hiring and connecting with other
institutions.
• Network members are called connections (1o, 2o and 3o)
• Skills and endorsements/ recommendations

39. • Personnel in agricultural institutes can connect with others in their
fields
• Share knowledge and resources and exchange experiences with other
professionals
• Create groups and share developments in agriculture and allied
sectors
• Organisations can search for experts for involvement in specific
projects or programs
Linkedin in Agricultural development

42. Blogs
• A blog or web-log is an easy-to-publish web page where contributors can
post news, thoughts, comments etc.
• Also called online diary
• Can have one or many authors. Person who creates the blog- primary author
• Different types of blogs:
Personal blogs
Project blogs
Organizational blogs
Event blogs
• Some free blogging platforms : Blogger, Wordpress

43. • Regular blog posts can compliment agricultural newsletters
• Instead of sending emails to everyone in an organisation, one can
publish news to a blog
• Sharing and validating your work before finalisation. Security options
can ensure different users have different access rights
• Invite opinions and points of view on policy issues confronting
extension and advisory services
Blogs in Agricultural development

45. • A microblogging platform
• Allows users to send and receive short text messages (Tweets) in 280
characters
• Used for social reporting
• @ denotes particular user. Ex: @AgriGoI
• # used to identify keywords in tweets

46. • Follow individuals in agricultural sector who share their insights and
influence agricultural issues
• Tweet about Government announcements, farmers’ schemes, events
etc. with links to original sources
• Encourage farmers to tweet their issues, problems and post photos
from the field
• Farmers can publicize their products and other details for consumers
Twitter in Agricultural development

49. •Countless farmers across the United States, as well as
several in Canada and the United Kingdom are showcasing
their busy lives and doing their best to better educate
consumers on what they do and how they produce food
commodities.
•One such farmer is Katie Dotterer-Pyle of Cow Comfort
Inn Dairy in Maryland. Katie has several thousands of
followers on Instagram
•Topics covered: animal health, health benefits of milk etc.
Other social media in agricultural
development

50. Cow Comfort Inn
Dairy

52. Stories are set to surpass feeds as the
primary way people share things
Source: Social Media TodayCapitalize on fear of missing out (FOMO)

53. Policy guidelines for using social media
• Social media guidelines exist to guide the employees
affiliated to an organization to behave a certain way online
to maintain organization’s professionalism.
• They are not detailed instructions of behavior but some
general dos and don’ts for the employees to effectively
communicate online with clients and stakeholders.

54. 1. User engagement:
In many organizational groups, number of active participants are less.
Strategies needs to focus on increased user participation through
fast replies to queries posted,
commenting on posts made by others,
engaging in discussions,
mentioning clients in posts and comments, etc.
2. Maintaining professional courtesy:
• While posting online, one needs to be credible, respectable, honest,
authentic, and professional all the time.
• Accepting mistakes and being accurate with information posted are
very important.

55. 3.Personal social media footprints:
• Sharing personal opinion on own social media platforms by
employees are fine as long as they come with disclaimer of personal
endorsement and opinion.
• Since posting controversial opinions may reflect on the organization
too, opting for personal discretion is the best way.
4. Choice of social media tools:
• Choice of social media tools and platform depends completely on
preference of target user and not that of the organization or the
communication officer.
• Same goes for content too which should depend on the demand or
preference and interest of intended clients.

56. 5.Dealing with negativity:
• Social media attracts positive as well as negative statements and
there will always be some dissatisfied customers posting their
opinions on the platform.
• Handling negativity online with positive comments, assurances and
actually acting on the grievances and posting about the resolved
issues can be helpful ways of dealing with such situations.
6.Confidential and proprietary information:
• Social media increases transparency in system but then again, there
are confidential and proprietary information that may harm an
organization if made online for public access.
• So, information shared needs gatekeeping and some monitoring.

57. 7.Value measurement:
• Social media’s contribution to achieve organization’s effectiveness
should be studied.
• Website analytics tools can be used to measure the engagement
tracking number of referrals, amount of time spent on the site, etc.,
• Impact of the accounts can be measured by
number of followers of accounts/pages,
response from target audience to the posts, and
analysis of the comments made by the users.
• Help to better strategize future social media activities.

58. International projects
on
Social Media in Agriculture

59. ‘Social Media in Agriculture’
[Oct 2011- Sept 2013]
 An innovative project that explored the use of social media (You Tube,
Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter) as an extension tool.
 The project was part of Ag Excellence Alliance’s commitment to support
grower groups across Australia and was funded by Australian
Government.
 Through the project, short videos were produced and loaded onto
social media sites to assist with delivery of agricultural extension
around soil condition and landscape conservation in South Australia.
 The project shared information on new and innovative farm practices

60. The project targeted the 15 farming systems groups that had
an association with the Ag Excellence Alliance and its
network partners including advisers, agri-businesses,
relevant state and Australian government agencies and the
state’s eight natural resource management organisations.
Aim: To build the skills of groups and individuals in the use of
social media. In particular, the project supported the
production of 40 high quality short videos that were loaded
onto social media sites.

62.  Outcomes of the project:
 Advanced training provided to hundreds of farmers on use of
social media
 80 Small farmer groups were taught how to plan, produce, edit and
upload videos on social media using smart phones.
Integration of social media and utilising the products
(videos) of this project in campaigns that targeted specific issues
as they were occurring
Resulted in the adoption of improved practices that had long term
benefits for sustainable agriculture.

63. ‘Telling the Human Stories- Digital Storytelling’
• Ongoing social media project of FAO, Rome
• The focus is on first-person narratives to make the FAO story more
accessible and compelling - especially for younger audiences who are the
next generation of supporters and #ZeroHunger advocates.
• Talking about FAO’s work indirectly through the lens of an individual is very
powerful and often better resonates with more general audiences.
• It remains one of the most powerful ways for brands like FAO’s to connect
with the audience, build a relationship with them and highlight some of
the most pressing issues of our time, especially in today’s very competitive
digital environment.
• Content is key and human stories can translate into many digital products –
photo stories for the web, Instagram stories, along with shorter videos that
can be used in social media channels

64. Video Stories

65. Written Stories

66. Photo Stories

68. Results of Feed the Future Project

69. Why agriculture needs to take advantage of
social media
• Whether they’re conscious of it or not, farmers are going to form
their opinion of an agricultural company/ institute based on what
they see – or don’t see – on social media
• If we want them to have a positive impression of our brand, products
or services, then invest time in cultivating a healthy online community
and high-quality, valuable content.

70. Strategic approach to Social Media
• Content needs to be packaged for a platform. Each platform has its own
format and style.
• Authenticity is important
• Should be focused on user/ audience requirements
• Keep it short. Posts with less than 40 words get 60 % more engagement
• Posts with visuals capture more attention
• Answer and acknowledge questions and comments
• Maintain privacy by switching to private messages, emails or phone when
discussing personal information
• Operate in English and vernacular language

71. Agricultural method of promoting social media
I. Sow the seed
II. Irrigate it
III.Crop Rotation

72. Characteristics of social media preferred by users
Source: sproutsocial.com

73. Limitations of Social media for Agricultural
development
• Poor internet connectivity in rural areas of developing/ under-
developed countries
• Passive users: While many visit the group pages, only few share and
discuss ideas and issues.
• A lot of false/irrelevant information on agricultural practices is being
spread on social media.
• Mindset of users: Many users still believe that social media is "not for
serious business". It is for just to share personal photos and general
information.

74. The Way Forward
1. Keeping relevant:
• Social media facilitators should streamline the postings or discussions to make it
more relevant to users.
2. Awareness creation and capacity building:
• Social media is still not considered as an important medium for “agvocacy”
(advocating agriculture) by extension professionals, sometimes because of lack of
awareness and sometimes because they stereotype their traditional clientele.
• Creating awareness among extension professionals and building their capacities
to share more information through social media can address some of these issues.
3. Choosing suitable mix of social media and appropriate content:
• To reach large number of farmers and agricultural stakeholders, it is advisable to
use suitable mix of social media based on the type and form of the content.
4. Institutionalising social media:
• Institutionalising the culture of including social media in day to day activities is
important to sustain momentum and also for better sharing and networking.