AVANT GARDENER

A couple of weeks ago, social and media intelligence company Meltwater and creative agency We Are Social released country specific reports in Digital 2024, their annual report on social media and digital trends. 

According to the email I received, the Philippines ranked number one in terms of weekly online video consumption, “with 97.2 percent of internet users aged 16 to 64 doing so, ahead of the global benchmark of 92.0 percent” with “58.3 percent using them as learning sources….”

Other noteworthy findings taken verbatim from email include:

Filipinos spend an average of three hours and 34 minutes on social media each day, which is well above the global average of two hours and 23 minutes.
Internet users in the Philippines use approximately eight social media platforms on average.

Sixty percent of Fillipinos visit social media in order to learn about brands and see their content, well above the global average of 48.9 percent.
The Philippines is ranked as the number one country with the highest number of social media users following influencers (43.9 percent).

The Philippines continue to be the number one in vlog consumption with 50.7 percent of internet users watching vlogs or influencers each week… higher than the global average of 23.8 percent.

What have these figures got to do with a column on agriculture?

It means that farmers, agribusiness owners, and agriculture educators have a good chance of reaching a wide audience if they decide to promote their farm business, advocacy, or lessons online via social media, particularly if they do this via video. 

You don’t need to know advanced editing techniques or use fancy equipment in the beginning (or ever, actually), because a key component to success in vlogging is authenticity. But even if you're too shy to show their face on video, there are many ways to harness the power of social media such as through words and photos, or creating videos without your face in them. Some popular social media accounts exist purely on vibes, with no words at all, just video images of their subject. 

What’s important is posting consistently and having quality content that’s geared towards the look and message of your account. As the study says, 58.3 percent of Filipinos online use vlogs as learning resources. 

Most people will look at the Philippines’ data on online video consumption and despair at the time lost doomscrolling. Another way to look at it is as an opportunity to reach new audiences and tell them about your farm business, about food security, and how to become better citizens by supporting the agriculture industry.