Social media platforms like Facebook offer farms a chance to reach larger audiences and gain connections through online engagement. Previous work demonstrates that online engagement can lead to increased sales. However, much work in tracking benchmarks for social media metrics has been outside of an agricultural context. This study aimed to benchmark the presence of fruit and vegetable farms on social media and the associated metrics (followers, likes, engagement rates, reactions, shares, etc.) to offer a standard of comparison for farms on social media. A quantitative content analysis was used to collect data from 117 farms for general analysis, and a sub-sample of 15 farms was used for a deeper analysis of 1,111 Facebook posts. Results indicate Facebook is the most used platform by Florida fruit and vegetable farms, and photos are the most used post type. Farms with the highest engagement rates posted less than farms with the lowest engagement rate, which indicates that posting more frequently may not increase engagement rates. Implications from this work are that farms may be unique in the social media space and may not need to post during the seasons when they do not have crops available for purchase.

This EDIS publication is the fifth of the Talking Local series, a six-part EDIS publication series about Florida consumers and their perceptions of local food. This series focuses on ways Extension agents can assist Florida farmers and ranchers in the labeling, sale, and promotion of locally produced products. This series provides information about Florida consumers’ perceptions of local food to Extension faculty who are interested in local food programming or who work with local food clientele. This 4-page publication focuses on Florida consumer flexibility with the term “local.” It was written by Caroline G. Roper and Joy N. Rumble, and published by the UF Department of Agricultural Education and Communication, September 2014. AEC515/WC180: Talking Local: Florida Consumers’ Flexibility with the Term "Local" (ufl.edu)