Evidence of impact and potential scalability

The impact of social media is mostly determined by the user base and level of participation. Continuous engagement and discussions, and creation and sharing of content can help to increase the membership subscription and enable feedback from members, as well as provide evidence of social media impact. Facilitation of social media platforms is key for achieving audience growth and scalability. A social media communication strategy is scalable across geography (local, regional, national, global), topics of interest (e.g. business, career, agronomic practices, crops, etc.), and type of clients (women, young people, smallholders, etc.). 

Issues of sustainability

Most social media platforms are available free of cost. Sustainability depends upon the ability of the members to feed the content, add value to content, and support purposeful online engagement. Social media sustainability depends on the capacity of the stakeholders (individuals, groups, and organisations) to address the dynamic information needs of clients and create networking opportunities that lead to agricultural enterprises. It may be possible to create operating revenue through various ‘information-on-demand’ services.