Last updated on Sunday, October 11th, 2020

Social media platforms’ reach has been increased drastically since JIO provides its 4G services in rural, urban, and remote areas with lower rates compared to the other service providers.

Social Media Platforms Vs. Farming

Every person who is using smart mobile phone technology involves digital farming. Some people have big farms, some have small. Many of us have taken digital farms on a contractual basis from their owners like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, And YouTube. In digital farming, we are growing digital content (text, pictures, and videos) like real plants or something else that is not possible in real life.

Obviously, social media growth depends on a favorable digital environment that means the community with having smart mobile phones. I did try to be a digital farmer, so how digital farming can impact us physically and mentally. Also, how one can increase productivity using social media platforms?

In a straight way, many of us are spiritually involve in social media and its parent sources. Commercial websites and professionals use it to circulate their products and identity in the community. The e-commerce companies, software/technical or any other informative websites give their ads. We being an owner of our social media pages spent our time religiously, and judge the digital contents thereby given options, such as like, dislike, comment, review, and writing comments. What is social media digital farming in digital India and what is its relevance with us?

Social Media: A Contractual Farmer’s Field

Every person tries to keep a smart mobile phone with the best internet connectivity. As we know that earlier, the mobile phone was a device primarily for the use of oral communications. Also, the second-best use of it is to share the digital content and to take the information in terms of text, pictures, and videos these days. No doubt, the device is solving real-life problems and an important part of everyone’s life.

Now the question comes, how we are doing digital farming? Yes! you know for the seasonal crop we need physical fields, seeds, plants, fertilizer, and obviously water. Water may be from natural sources or by tube wells, rivers, etc.

In social media (like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, linked in, Instagram, etc) we create a platform for ourselves. We define our social identity to get and share the contents through a big social platform. This means we are the owner of a field with our digital identity and starts to plant or put seeds on that digital platforms.

Some are smart and they hire a social media manager and provide the fertilizer to every contractual owner. This fertilizer facility is available for all but some big social media influencers use it to sell to the lower field workers. These workers follow the social media influencers and hope to grow the same as their ideal. In this race, some digital workers become idle and follow their actions to get short term popularity.

Is Social Media Influencer a Big Farmer?

We remain very curious and serious to put the content, that can attract the attention of digital framers and workers, so-called friends. The taste of fruit (digital content) by an individual member of the friend’s list decides the output of the crop. This remains in terms of like, dislike, and comments on the individual social media walls.

As I have mentioned earlier those who attract more attention to the digital community become social influencers. These social influencers have the opportunity to put their own or someone else contained in the field of someone i.e. social media pages. It means this can distribute seed and fertilizer to grow the rest of small field owners or workers.

Mostly workers consume digital fruits (videos and small text) while small field owners try to produce the same crop of digital content. Yes! no doubt social influencers are a big digital farmer.

Here, you have taken the field on a contract basis with some terms and conditions. It means this is not your field but you are using someone’s field to grow the plants. As you know the permanent trees are not your property in this field but you can only feed them water etc for shadow purpose (your satisfaction).

The big tree is space for the advertisement of the owner and you may like, dislike, comment or share it with others, so it will grow. You can grow your digital plants also i.e. your contents which you want to grow with their terms and conditions. But here you can’t grow permanent trees for real-life output.

Social Media Sites

When you do digital farming on a contract basis, it’s not always profitable. You are managing your farm personally, no other digital marketing manager taking care of it. Yes! it is good for the owner. You spending your time to create the contents and other activities for the owner. The owner is always thankful to this digital farmer, to enhance their business, to extends its reach, to make it reachable for other small farmers. This “digital content” a piece of information called “data” is helpful to manipulate the seasonable crops i.e. products and services.

So, here I just told about the field i.e. social media sites, plants, and seed. Now I will share with you one more important parameter that is rainwater (fake news/trending news/trolling,etc.). Like in real life we observe the rainy season, the same happens in digital farming on social media platforms. I have shared here the duration of the crop which depends on how you are providing the fertilizer and water. It may be for some hours or for a few days. In the same way, here water flows 24 hours in your fields but rainwater timing is fixed.

Now it is not necessary to tell that who is the in-charge or master of the rainy season in digital farming. Maybe you have an idea now, like in real life we believe that GOD is in charge of the rain. Similarly, the big digital farmer (social influencers) knows that at what time most of the farmers are in the field and at what type of rainwater they have to spread on the fields. It is an open exercise to check that at what time you receive most of the messages in terms of rainwater. Is that time of morning or evening? So just check and understand the owners of the big and permanent trees.

Social Media for Business Websites

You buy a piece of land and start farming on that no problem at all. Irrespective of the size of the land whatever you grow on to that, it’s your crop (limited number of followers or friends). You can plant small size tree or big it is your choice. How you will extend the land size obviously you will decide. What type of crop you want to take from it, this is your choice. What type of water sources you have been selected for the plants only you will decide.

Stop, these all the things are true but remember you are not there for business. The landlord will use it for their own business.

Now let’s talk about professional websites and your own website. What you can do here? Here on your website, everything is related to you and of your choices, your interests and this will be displayed according to for you. No one can put an advertisement there without your permission, no even extra content in anyways. That is your digital property. The same is true for professional or business websites.

You can put your website content on your social media pages and ask one to share like or comment on to that. You can ask someone to do farming on your land also (guest posting on your website). Either, you can share equal parts or as you decide, its total will be your decision. You can give some space for an advertisement i.e. permanent trees for this land, understood the difference. You can distribute the production of the digital crop if you like free of cost to the people. Or you can take charges from that to take the products (services or e-commerce websites) of your land.

Like in real farming we use pesticides, fertilizers to grow the plants and to take more output in terms of the products from that crop. Big digital farmers use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques to grow the website and more reach to the small or contractual digital farmers.

But everyone prefers the organic fruits and vegetables, which means pure soil and its nutrients for the plants. so you can say that social media for business today. You see a lot of advertisements on your social media pages, that reflect it.

Social Media Marketing Companies Vs. Load & Carrier in digital farming

Have you anytime tagged a person or share the content on his timeline? Is that person who is in your friend list allowed to do you on his wall? Have you applied this social media marketing strategy with your friends? Also, might be someone who is in your friend list asked you to like his/her page (s), how frequently you responded to that?

Sometimes you observe good content on your wall shared by the friends or sponsored content and you get impressed, you like that. A very common thing in our life.

Now see the different situations. Is this tagging or sharing information by any person’s on your social media page timelines, do you feel like a real-life load?  Maybe yes!! for most people, it is a kind of physical load that people observe when they think about it. Many of them have a kind of fear like they are allowing some illegal items in-house.

Yes, it should be because we are connected to each other socially with a reputation. The very interesting situation when you ask a contractual farmer to put your crop for a moment means you tag him/her with your digital content. Have you observed, how many times your post appears on his/her timeline? A person in your friend list is associated with the big number of contractual digital farmers. You ask or tag to him to put your content digital products on his/her timeline means in the digital field. How easily he/she allows you to do that?

Then what other processes are available to carry the digital content of my fields in the society to promote? Are we really looking for appreciation from our contacts? Is it really necessary to tell them about your thoughts and their responses?

One thing is very clear among the contractual field’s farmers that they feel and face the most load of this kind of activity. Which they are supposed to do this kind of work on the contractual field. Also, spending enough time on such platforms from which they don’t get anything permanently and works on under the terms and condition always.

While on the other hand who have their own websites always looks for comment and sharing their content on such social media pages. It is appreciable if one tag their website somewhere on the digital platform.

Social media marketing companies frequently ask for guest posts to publish on different websites. Actually, you have to be the owner of a website it plays a role like you have your own land. This happens because they know about the output of their field(s).

READ ALSO: SWAYAM

Conclusion

So, in conclusion, we all are digital farmers at social media platforms, who are farming digitally cultivating output in terms of research papers or blog posts or services and or physical products. Many more digital farmers and workers are working on contractual fields while some have their own fields. The owner of digital lands is using effectively the contractual farmers and workers. In this digital era, we have to be very sensitive about our social life and behavior. This should not be affected by digital farming and its products.

Disclaimer

These are personal thoughts of the author on his experience in the digital world at social media platforms. If anywhere any sentence raises a question or relevant to someone’s thought it will be just a coincidence. This article is just to make aware about the social activity and its impact on our behavior and health. No intention to harm anyone related to or associated with the post. Please message in the comment box for any point or email to me.

Social Media Platforms- What We are Farming and Cultivating? by Dr Sushil Kumar is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at www.apniphysics.com.