According to a recent survey, more than half of farmers are now turning to social media to ‘communicate with customers and to flag-up farming-related issues’.
Now if anyone out there is raising a cynical eyebrow at this point, join the club. Most of those in the industry knows this is utter nonsense - other surveys show that it’s only recently that half of farmers have been able to start using the internet regularly.
With the average age of farmers in this country well into the 60s, many forced to live isolated lives thanks to reducing farm incomes and the continuing failure of broadband to reach remote areas, this figure simply doesn’t wash.
So it was clear where the problem lay when it became evident the survey was conducted online.
Now the press release – issued by JCB’s workwear division - is more carefully worded than its coverage would suggest, but nevertheless this is just misrepresentative. I don’t really care about yet another badly worded survey trying to sell plastic widgets, but this portrays the wrong picture of the farming industry and the challenges it faces.
Yes it’s great to promote the fact that Twitter use has undoubtedly risen in agricultural circles and there is a new generation of connected producer out there making the most of technology. It’s also good to have a positive story about farmers, who can all too often be portrayed as whingeing, subsidy-grabbing curmudgeons in the media. But do we really want consumers to think that all is so rosy and, quite frankly, ‘connected’ in the garden? Only recently we’ve heard again how promises to expand broadband in rural areas are failing to deliver.
I have long had big reservations about online surveys. They are cheap, quick and useful for some purposes, but they question a self-selecting group in which the elderly, isolated and those in manual work or with lower incomes are woefully under-represented. Ring a bell?
So using an online survey to ask a group that has, relatively, a very low uptake of the internet, about their use of internet-based technology, is just ridiculous.
So please, PR people, a plea – don’t sell out for the sake of a few headlines. Accuracy and long term credibility are surely more important than selling a few boilersuits?
