1. Potential of Social
Media in Agriculture
Anne Mims Adrian, PhD
aadrian@auburn.edu
blog.anneadrian.com
twitter.com/aafromaa
slideshare.net/aafromaa
2. What is Social Media?
Any media connected to the Internet which
enables interaction between two or more
people.
3. Behind every profile, tweet or tag: real
people, genuine intentions, quality content
Source: Social media playbook,
2009 Eloqua Corporation
WHAT MAKES SOCIAL
NETWORKING WORK?
4. Farmers’ Use of Internet
47% spend 5+ hours per week online
62% have sent or received text messages
during the past year
85% indicated that they visit Web sites
related to their farm operation
76% check manufacturers' Web sites
2009 Agriculture New Media Usage Study (large corn and soybean growers, Nicholson
Kovac, Inc.) http://www.prweb.com/releases/Nicholson-Kovac/AgMedia-
Study/prweb2767974.htm
5. Farmers’ Most Popular Internet Uses
Email
Weather
Market reports
“Early adopters who are influencers in their
communities are already engaged in exploring
new media platforms."
2009 Agriculture New Media Usage Study (large corn and soybean growers, Nicholson
Kovac, Inc.) http://www.prweb.com/releases/Nicholson-Kovac/AgMedia-
Study/prweb2767974.htm
8. Twitter
Answer “What is happening?”
Share thoughts.
Share links.
Ask questions.
Answer questions.
…in 140 characters or less.
9. 15% US Internet
users
Twitter stats 18 million
11% US Internet
users
11 million
4% of US
Internet users
6 million
2008 2009 2010
10. Twitter stats
92.4% of Twitter users follow fewer
than 100 other Twitter users.
Inside Twitter An In-Depth Look Inside the Twitter World
emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007271
12. @FollowFarmer is a list of ag people who
use Twitter.
dataforag.com/followfarmer.a5w
13. YouTube
95.4 million videos (May 2009)
2 billion videos viewed each day (May
2010)
More video is uploaded in 60 days than all
three major U.S. networks created in 60
years.
24 hours of video uploaded every minute.
thefuturebuzz.com/2009/01/12/social-media-web-20-internet-numbers-stats/ &
thefuturebuzz.com/2009/07/10/future-marketing-trends/& http://www.website-
monitoring.com/blog/2010/05/17/youtube-facts-and-figures-history-statistics/
14. Farmers’ Videos
Will Gilmer Water n Poo ...a song about nutrient
management youtube.com/watch?v=SAUw9GO6tgE
Jeremy Freitas on cotton farming in the Central Valley
youtube.com/watch?v=A6V3gQNoJCQ
Stuck Sprayer youtube.com/watch?v=0I3HanCPMXg
Steve Chapman youtube.com/watch?v=CB87eeEXHD8
15. Farmers’ Videos
Kansas Wheat Harvest 09 Butler County, KS
youtube.com/watch?v=nU7XBkVNTKc
Stuck combine, St. John, Kan.
youtube.com/watch?v=_PEtVE02T5s&feature=related
2009 Picking Cotton - DEJ Turner Farms
youtube.com/watch?v=BHE82R4i2Vo
Cotton season 2009
youtube.com/watch?v=CJcdSuoS4AY
21. Ag Forums & Social Sites
Ag Talk www.newagtalk.com
Combine Forum combineforums.proboards.com/
Agriculture.com community.agriculture.com/
and agriculture.com/promotion/farmers-future_536-
pr6885
HayTalk: haytalk.com/
Ag Loop: agloop.com/
Tractor Focus: tractorfocus.com/content/
30. References
Brogan, Chris, Audience or Community
chrisbrogan.com/audience-or-community/
Hunt, Tara, The Whuffie Factor
Kleinschmidt, Andy, Agriculture in Van Wert
County, Ohio agvanwert.wordpress.com/
Scott, David Meerman, The New Rules of Marketing and PR
The Social Network Roadmap
globalhumancapital.org/?p=675
Why Are Marketers So Bad At Measuring Social Media?
blogs.forrester.com/marketing/2009/11/why-are-marketers-so-bad-at-measuring-
social-media.html?cm_mmc=Ask-_-twitter-_-twitter-_-8275664
31. Resources
Beginners Guide for Social Media
collaborate.extension.org/wiki/Beginners_Guide_to_Social_Media_i
n_Extension
Social Media Playbook: 2009 Eloqua Corporation
http://www.slideshare.net/Eloqua/eloqua-social-
mediaplaybookpublic-4525846
Ohio Farm Bureau Social Media Guide
ofbf.org/uploads/social-media-guide.pdf
Social Media Tips and Ideas: Put together for presentation for
Extension County Directors urbangarden.posterous.com/social-
media-tips-and-ideas
33. Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-
Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Potential of Social Media in Agriculture by
Anne Mims Adrian is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0
United States License. Based on a work at
www.slideshare.net/aafromaa .
Portions of this presentation were taken from Ag Social
Networking by Elaine Edwards is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share
Alike 3.0 United States License. Based on a work at
www.slideshare.net/elainecarol .
34. Anne Mims Adrian, PhD
aadrian@auburn.edu
blog.anneadrian.com
twitter.com/aafromaa
slideshare.net/aafromaa
Auburn University and eXtension
334 844 3507
35. Photo credits
Cotton: http://www.flickr.com/photos/houseofsims/1433238935/
Social media tools:
Smart phone: flickr.com/photos/liewcf/3547134847/
Landscape: Photo by Dan Donnert, Kansas State University, Copyright Kansas
State University, Aug. 10, 2010
Man & woman with smartphones: flickr.com/photos/yourdon/4049950966/
Two men talking: Photo by Dan Donnert, Kansas State University, copyright
Kansas State University, Aug 10, 2010.
Participation crowd: flickr.com/photos/davidkohlmeyer/3393520471/
Ferris Wheel: Photo by Dan Donnert, Kansas State University, copyright
Kansas State University
Newspaper: flickr.com/photos/mfobrien/3382977725
Irrigation: flickr.com/photos/judybaxter/20798810/in/set-766962
Before displaying the definition, let the audience define or tell what they know or don’t know what social media is.
The word SOCIAL makes social media different than technology. Technology enables social, but it is the use of the technology that makes social media work. The social interactions make social media useful. “Today, if you're not staying current with Web 2.0 technologies' impact on business, then you'rejust not staying current. Period.” Sarah Perez of ReadWriteWebYou realize that there is a plethora of information available, some that is accurate and some that may not be accurate, but nevertheless you want to keep up. You are a true professional, and you don’t want to get caught not knowing your industry, your area of expertise.flickr.com/photos/liewcf/3547134847/ Source: social media playbook, 2009 Eloqua CorporationPage 5Motivations for contributing to online communities:Anticipated Reciprocity: Contributing valuable information in order to receive useful info in returnIncreased Recognition: Sense of efficacy. Contributing information because the contributor has some effect on the environment.Communion. We are social beings. There is a motivation in receiving a direct response to their contributions.
2009 Agriculture New Media Usage Study (large corn and soybean growers, Nicholson Kovac, Inc.) http://www.prweb.com/releases/Nicholson-Kovac/AgMedia-Study/prweb2767974.htm
2009 Agriculture New Media Usage Study (large corn and soybean growers, Nicholson Kovac, Inc.) http://www.prweb.com/releases/Nicholson-Kovac/AgMedia-Study/prweb2767974.htm
EXAMPLE FACEBOOK PAGEhttp://www.facebook.com/GDFmilk?ref=ts
emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007271In 2010, eMarketer expects 15.5% of all US adult Web users to use the microblogging service via any platform. In April, eMarketer estimated that there would be just 12.1 million US adult Twitter users this year. The upward revision is due to growth in Q2 2009 even stronger than the huge gains seen by Twitter in Q1. More than one-half of all Twitter users (53%) are women, and the majority are young. Among users who disclose their age, 66% are under 25, and another 15% are ages 25 to 29. Most Twitter users are quiet: 85.37% tweet less than once per day. Only about 1.1% of users update their timeline an average of more than 10 times daily. This means a small group of users dominate the Twitter timeline—75% of all Twitter activity comes from just 5% of users. Not surprisingly, the more followers a user has, the more that person tweets. Sysomos reported that the average number of daily updates rises from three to six among users with more than 1,000 followers. But relatively few users are that popular. In fact, almost 94% of Twitter users have fewer than 100 followers. Just 0.68% reach the thousand-follower mark. The situation is very similar in the other direction. The vast majority of users (92.4%) follow fewer than 100 other microbloggers. Less than 1% subscribe to the feeds of at least 1,000 others. Among users who identified themselves as marketers, the numbers were significantly higher: 15% follow more than 2,000 people. http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007250
emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007271http://popacular.com/gigatweet/ Giga Tweetthefuturebuzz.com/2009/01/12/social-media-web-20-internet-numbers-stats/49 Amazing Social Media, Web 2.0 And Internet Statswww.mashable.comMore than one-half of all Twitter users (53%) are women, and the majority are young. Among users who disclose their age, 66% are under 25, and another 15% are ages 25 to 29. Most Twitter users are quiet: 85.37% tweet less than once per day. Only about 1.1% of users update their timeline an average of more than 10 times daily. This means a small group of users dominate the Twitter timeline—75% of all Twitter activity comes from just 5% of users. Not surprisingly, the more followers a user has, the more that person tweets. Sysomos reported that the average number of daily updates rises from three to six among users with more than 1,000 followers. But relatively few users are that popular. In fact, almost 94% of Twitter users have fewer than 100 followers. Just 0.68% reach the thousand-follower mark. The situation is very similar in the other direction. The vast majority of users (92.4%) follow fewer than 100 other microbloggers. Less than 1% subscribe to the feeds of at least 1,000 others. Among users who identified themselves as marketers, the numbers were significantly higher: 15% follow more than 2,000 people. http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007250
flickr.com/photos/yourdon/4049950966/
thefuturebuzz.com/2009/01/12/social-media-web-20-internet-numbers-stats/49 Amazing Social Media, Web 2.0 And Internet Stats& thefuturebuzz.com/2009/07/10/future-marketing-trends/Future Marketing Trends – By The Numbers
http://talk.newagtalk.com/
http://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=179328&DisplayType=threaded&setCookie=1Raysaid. “NAT has been a positive influence on a lot of lives.” referencing the friends he has made and the support he has received through the ag community here.
Share information and ideas with and learn from other farmers and ranchers and others associated with agriculture. Meet connect, interact and share with more and different people--people you'd probably never connect with otherwise.Provide quick, responsive networks and communities for farm use and important emerging issues.flickr.com/photos/judybaxter/20798810/in/set-766962Pressure for growers to change methods (economic, environmental, community)