A new Farm Credit Canada (FCC) survey shows about half of Canadian producers have caught the social media bug, using at least one network for personal and business use.
Although social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs and forums, are often used more heavily for personal use, farmers also use it for researching, for keeping up with industry news and for networking with other producers.
The survey showed that current social media usage will increase, although non-users will be slower to adopt it.
“We wanted to obtain information about the growing trend toward social media use – whether and how producers were incorporating it in their operations,” said Clem Samson, FCC vice president of Western operations. “Producers have always adopted new technology to grow their business, so it was interesting to find out how they were using this new information channel.”
Four in 10 producers who are online said they spent more time using social media this year compared to last year. Forty-three per cent of non-users said they don’t have time, while 30 per cent said they don’t see the value in using social media.
Usage is determined by age, as farmers under 40 are more likely to use social media applications for personal and business use. On an average day, producers who use the applications are online for 35 minutes. Of that time, seven minutes are spent on business.
The most commonly used application is Facebook.
“While the survey showed that producers who use social media are much more likely to use it for personal versus business reasons, there are opportunities to incorporate social media into a number of areas such as research, making business connections and promoting agriculture as an important part of society and the economy,” said Kellie Garrett, FCC senior vice president of strategy, knowledge and reputation.
The survey was sent to 1,636 panelists, including both primary producers and agriculture-related businesses across Canada. Of these, 883 completed the survey.
