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   Advancements in Agricultural Development 
  Volume 4, Issue 2, 2023 
  agdevresearch.org 

 

1. Olivia Doyle, Communications Director, Southern Hill Farms, Florida, USA, 1408 Sabal Palm Drive, Level 2, Gainesville, FL 

32611 c/o UFIFAS PIE Center, olivia.doyle@southernhillfarms.com,  https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6621-2418 
2. Lauri M. Baker, associate professor, Agricultural Education and Communication Department, University of Florida, 

USA,  1408 Sabal Palm Drive, Level 2, Gainesville, FL 32611, lauri.m.baker@ufl.edu,  

 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4241-6077 
3. Anissa M. Zagonel, Research Coordinator, UF/IFAS Center for Public Issues Education in Agriculture and Natural Resources,  

University of Florida, USA, 1408 Sabal Palm Drive, Level 2, Gainesville, FL 32611, azagonel@ufl.edu,  

 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6359-5820 
4. Ricky W. Telg, Professor, Agricultural Education and Communication Department, University of Florida, 1408 Sabal Palm 

Drive, Level 2, Gainesville, FL 32611, rwtelg@ufl.edu,  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8729-16346 
103 

 

Marvelous metrics: A quantitative content analysis to 
establish social media benchmarks for Florida fruit and 

vegetable farms on Facebook   
 

O. Doyle1, L. M. Baker2, A. M. Zagonel3, R. W. Telg4 

 
 

Article History 
Received: January 25, 2023 
Accepted: May 23, 2023 
Published: June 16, 2023 
 
 
Keywords 
social media strategy; quantitative 
content analysis; Facebook; 
engagement rate; Florida farmers; 
communications professionals 
  

Abstract 
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.  

 



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Introduction and Problem Statement 
 
The majority of Americans are a minimum of three generations removed from the farm 
(Vilsack, 2014), but platforms like Facebook can offer opportunities for producers to reach 
larger audiences and gain near-instantaneous responses through various online engagement 
methods (Reese et al., 2001). Social media has continually increased in recent years and likely 
will continue to increase worldwide (Mason et al., 2021). Research shows a significant 
relationship between social media and purchasing behavior (Shah et al., 2019), which makes it a 
potentially valuable endeavor for agricultural producers. The potential for sales through social 
media in Florida is great, with various fruits and vegetables available year-round due to various 
growing seasons (Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services [FDACS], 2021). 
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, it created barriers for producers and forced innovative 
ideas and collaborations to market produce online effectively. Other industries have data-
driven best practices to compare the social media performance of businesses with (Dascau, 
2022; Facebook IQ, 2016); however, due to the cyclical nature of the agricultural industry, 
benchmarks and practices for other industries may not be comparable or applicable to 
agricultural producers on Facebook.  

Engagement rate is one of the most recommended metrics to measure (Dascau, 2022; 
Facebook IQ, 2016) and is considered the currency of social media marketing (Sehl & Tien, 
2023). Engagement rate is calculated using the formula (likes + reactions + comments + 
shares)/followers (Stebner et al., 2017). The average engagement rate across all accounts on 
Facebook as of January 2023 was 0.07 (Statista, 2023). Social media marketing experts define a 
good engagement rate as anything between .01 and .05 (Sehl & Tien, 2023). However, it is yet 
to be determined if these benchmarks and practices established by other businesses apply to 
agricultural producers. Other studies have examined social media engagement with agricultural 
businesses through the lens of post types in informational campaigns (McLeod-Morin et al., 
2020) and characteristics of posts (Bowman et al., 2020). This study looks explicitly to fill the 
literature gap in best practices for Florida fruit and vegetable farms and the post frequency, 
post type, and engagement rate.  

Theoretical and Conceptual Framework 
 
A study by Hays et al. (2013) sought to understand how prevalent social media marketing was 
among marketing organizations of tourist destinations. This study found many of the 
organizations were not effectively using social media to interact with consumers; social media 
was not widely recognized as a critical marketing tool in marketing plans resulting in 
underfunding; and social media strategies could increase outreach through creative and 
tailored content (Hays et al., 2013). Industries seeking to market products should recognize the 
benefits of utilizing social media as a key marketing tool. This can be applied both with 
individuals and organizations or in this case, farms (Shah et al., 2019).  

Consumers use social media and other online platforms to seek information; search engines 
and social media are the top two of the most used online services (De Choudhury et al., 2014). 



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Research recommends that agricultural communicators use social media, including Facebook, 
for agricultural issue-related communication with the public and to promote social movements 
(Graybill-Leonard et al., 2011). Florida fruit and vegetable farms are provided an opportunity to 
connect with consumers through social media, promote their products, and provide farm 
updates. Facebook was first launched in 2004 (Maryville University, n.d.) and has proliferated, 
with over 2.96 billion active users as of the fourth quarter of 2022 (Statista, 2023). Since its 
initial launch, Facebook has experienced several updates, and new tools have become available 
for users, like the like button, born in 2009 (Kincaid, 2009). Not only does the like button 
provide a user’s affirmation of a post, but it also may push the content they indicated they liked 
to the newsfeed of those who are friends with them on the social media network 
(Mangalindan, 2015). While simple, the like button left Facebook users wanting more (Kapoor 
et al., 2018). Thus, on February 24, 2016, reactions became available to Facebook users 
allowing users to show different reactions to a post (Newton, 2016). In April 2020, amidst the 
onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the care reaction was included in the list of available 
reactions (Lunden, 2020). Although Facebook’s algorithm is ever-changing, users see more of 
the content they click like on most and less of the content they continually scroll past. With this, 
engagement is an important metric that provides insight into an organization’s posts (Constine, 
2016). 

Before social media, communication channels had limited opportunities to quickly reach a 
specific audience of interest (Owen & Humphrey, 2009); often, it was unclear if the message 
reached the intended target audience. Platforms, including Facebook, automatically capture a 
variety of analytics that provide insight into post-performance and engagement. Examples of 
engagement include liking, commenting, or sharing a post; however, on Facebook, engagement 
is any action on a specific page or post (McLachlan & Newberry, 2021). Research from Statista 
(2023) indicated that the average Facebook engagement rate for the third quarter of 2022 was 
0.07. While the engagement rate numbers do not appear bold, being attentive to engagement 
rates is essential in a successful social media strategy. Kite et al. (2016) identifies the need to 
invest resources into managing Facebook for quality content and the success of the posts.   

Evidence exists linking Facebook engagement with sales (Goh et al., 2013). Analyzing Facebook 
engagement rates allows organizations to identify what posts perform best among the 
intended audience. While social media provides the previously mentioned opportunities, it is 
still not considered a vital component of all marketing strategies, resulting in neglect of the 
platforms and underfunding to effectively carry out social media responsibilities (Hays et al., 
2013). The data analytics provide can be a resource to indicate the importance of utilizing 
Facebook, specifically in this study, in fruit and vegetable operations.  

 
 
 
 
 



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Purpose 
 
This quantitative content analysis aimed to determine the presence of Florida fruit and 
vegetable producers on social media and determine the relationship between types of 
Facebook posts and the engagement rate by collecting relevant analytic data. The following 
four research objectives guided this study:    

1. Determine the presence of Florida fruit and vegetable producers on social media.  
2. Describe Facebook activity by Florida fruit and vegetable producers.  
3. Determine the types of Facebook posts used by Florida fruit and vegetable producers.  
4. Define Farm Engagement Rate Levels by Strategy. 

 
Methods 

 
Quantitative research is utilized to aid researchers in interpreting the relationships between 
different variables (Field, 2000), which can allow results to be generalized to a larger 
population. Specifically, a quantitative content analysis analyzes the relationships between 
values assigned to types of communication (Riffe et al., 2005). By nature, quantitative content 
analysis is systematic and replicable (Riffe et al., 2005), which is important to note as this study 
was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The reciprocity of this study allows for 
its replication during other years without the impact of messaging during a global pandemic. 
Using this methodology, this study analyzed posts from Florida fruit and vegetable producers by 
gathering analytic metrics, including the number of likes, comments, and shares. Two coders 
collected the data for this study by visiting the Facebook pages of each farm in December 2021. 
All posts between January 1 and December 31, 2020 were copied and pasted into an Excel 
sheet. Researchers collected public information from the posts, including the post link, post 
message, post date, post type, number of comments, number of likes, number of other 
reactions, and number of shares, along with the total page likes and followers.  

A census sample of Florida fruit and vegetable producers who submitted to the Florida Farm to 
You program was used. The sample was collected from a list provided by the Florida 
Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services of the fruit and vegetable producers who 
had submitted to the Florida Farm to You program between its inception in January 2020 and 
the export date of June 8, 2021. This list included 195 submissions. The submissions were 
sorted only to include a relevant sample of fruit and vegetable producers for this study. Of the 
fruit and vegetable submissions, 78 were duplicates or otherwise unusable, which allowed for 
117 farms in objective one. Other objectives were focused on Facebook. Thus, farms without 
Facebook (n = 40) were removed; 77 had usable and active Facebook pages. Out of the 77 
farms, 15 (19.48%) were randomly selected for deeper analysis to fulfill objectives two through 
four, which resulted in 1,111 posts in the subsample. 

A codebook was created for two researchers to collect post data and code each post from the 
15 farms. The codebook was created by a University of Florida  agricultural communication 
graduate student and reviewed by an agricultural communication faculty member and subject-



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matter experts. The codebook included post type (text only, event, link, photo, share, video, or 
miscellaneous) and seven post categories (local, Fresh from Florida, COVID-19, recipe/how-to, 
business post, agricultural business or non-agricultural business post, and customer 
testimonial). To fulfill objective one, one researcher searched for each of the 117 farms on 
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and searched for the farm website, if it had one, for 
associated social media platforms. Then, in objectives two and three, subsample post and 
engagement data were collected by copying and pasting information from Facebook pages to 
code the posts. To ensure interrater reliability, coders each coded 20% of the 1,111 post 
sample. Kappa tests were run using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 28, and coders 
reached an acceptable rate of 80% reliability to move forward and code individually (McHugh, 
2012). Coders split the rest of the sample by every other farm and coded each of the remaining 
posts. Engagement rates of each individual post were calculated in SPSS using the formula (likes 
+ reactions + comments + shares)/followers, a formula from Stebner et al. (2017), with the 
addition of a metric to include reactions (Gogolan, 2022). Data were analyzed in SPSS using 
descriptive statistics, including frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviations, 
minimums, and maximums. The average engagement rate of farms was examined on a line plot 
in Excel to determine natural breaks in the data. 

Findings 
 
Objective One: Producers’ Social Media Presence 
Of the 117 farms that submitted fruit and vegetable information to the Florida Farm to You 
Program, the majority (f = 79, 67.52%) were present on Facebook. Of the three social media 
platforms analyzed, Instagram was the second most frequent platform (f = 53, 45.30%), and the 
least frequent platform was Twitter (f = 11, 9.40%). Table 1 outlines the frequency and 
percentages of social media platforms on which Florida fruit and vegetable producers were 
present during 2020. 

Table 1 
 
Frequency and percentages of social media platforms for Florida fruit and vegetable producers 
(n = 117) in 2020. 
Platform f  Percent (%)  
Facebook   79  67.52  
Instagram   53  45.30  
Twitter   11  9.40  
Note. Percentages do not add up to 100% because producers could be present on multiple 
platforms.  
 
Objective Two: Producers’ Facebook Activity  
Since research objective one identified Facebook as the most frequently used platform, 15 
farms’ Facebook pages were randomly selected for deeper-level analysis. Table 2 describes the 
Facebook activity for Florida fruit and vegetable producers between January 1 and December 



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31, 2020. The farm with the largest number of followers had 6,465 followers, and the farm with 
the lowest had 239 followers. The farms sampled had an average of 2,290.47 followers (M = 
2290.47). Posting 192 times, Farm J published the greatest number of posts during the sampled 
year, while Farm C posted the fewest, ten times during the same period. The average number 
of posts by all 15 farms was 74.06 (Table 2). 

Table 2  
 
Description of Facebook activity for Florida fruit and vegetable producers from January 1 to 
December 31, 2020.  

Farm Followers Posts  Engagement Ratea Likes Comments Reactions Shares 
   Mc SD M SD M SD M SD M SD 

A 6465 191 0.01 0.01 26.25 32.80 5.20 18.44 5.02 7.25 3.55 9.26 

B 4600 129 0.03 0.04 61.42 54.02 14.95 33.83 13.54 24.12 38.47 122.06 

C 3247 22 0.13 0.09 150.05 178.06 31.05 21.52 29.18 20.79 44.09 51.70 

D 3047 54 0.01 0.04 30.94 94.47 2.50 5.00 3.89 9.47 3.09 10.19 

E 2918 77 0.05 0.08 96.08 140.24 23.97 34.18 20.87 44.67 18.29 43.55 

F 2876 105 0.01 0.02 16.13 47.69 3.37 6.22 5.39 6.12 2.15 6.35 

G 2419 119 0.01 0.01 15.69 13.02 4.85 7.15 4.21 5.79 4.92 12.18 

H 1746 19 0.02 0.02 10.84 9.72 8.37 17.12 3.63 4.09 3.32 5.79 

I 1714 55 0.03 0.08 20.82 45.59 2.27 10.81 6.16 9.17 16.96 92.67 

J 1608 192 0.01 0.01 8.67 6.46 1.14 2.42 1.91 2.65 2.79 3.13 

K 1577 18 0.02 0.06 17.44 10.87 9.67 8.59 3.06 3.01 7.72 12.99 

L 919 51 0.01 0.02 9.65 10.13 2.37 3.91 0.73 1.51 0.75 1.00 

M 674 47 0.03 0.02 14.60 8.18 0.79 1.22 1.30 1.53 3.09 3.21 

N 308 20 0.01 0.01 2.95 1.61 0.05 0.22 0.55 0.76 0.40 0.60 

O 239 12 0.32 0.35 53.42 60.37 2.33 4.38 3.33 6.04 16.50 18.01 

All Farms 2290b 74.06 0.05 0.06 35.66 47.55 7.53 11.67 6.85 9.80 11.07 26.18 

Note. a Engagement rate (likes + reactions + comments + shares)/followers (Stebner et al., 
2017); b Rounded to the nearest follower; c Average engagement rate on Facebook is 0.07 
(Statista, 2023). A good engagement rate is between .01 and .05 (Sehl & Tien, 2023). 
 
Objective Three: Types of Facebook Posts Used by Producers 
Researchers coded what type of posts the Florida fruit and vegetable producers used. The most 
frequent post types included a photo (f = 656, 59.0%), share (f = 172, 15.5%), and text only (f = 
134, 12.1%). The least frequent post type included miscellaneous (f = 11, 1.0%), event (f = 22, 
2.0%), and link preview (f = 27, 2.4%). Table 3 reflects the frequencies and percentages of the 
coded post types for the Florida fruit and vegetable farm subsample between January 1 and 
December 31, 2020.  

 
 



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Table 3  
 
Description of the frequencies and percentages of post types for the Florida fruit and vegetable 
farms combined between January 1 to December 31, 2020.  
Post Type  f Percent (%) 
Photo  657 59.14 
Share  172 15.48 
Text only   134 12.06 
Video  88 7.92 
Link Preview  27 2.43 
Event  22 1.98 
Miscellaneous  11 0.99 
Note. There were 1,111 posts in total. 
 
Using the formula (likes + reactions + comments + shares)/followers from Stebner et al. (2017), 
with the addition of a metric to include reactions (Gogolan, 2022), the engagement rates of 
each individual post were calculated in SPSS. The post types with the highest engagement rate 
included miscellaneous (M = .32, SD = .38), photos (M = .02, SD = .05), and text only (M = .02, 
SD = .02). The post types with the lowest engagement rates included shares (M = .01, SD = .01), 
link previews (M = .01, SD = .01), and events (M = .00, SD = .00). Table 4 describes the 
engagement rates combined by post type for Florida fruit and vegetable farms between January 
1 and December 31, 2020.  

Table 4 
 
Description of engagement rates combined by post type for Florida fruit and vegetable farms 
from January 1 to December 31, 2020.   

Engagement Rate 
 Post Type M SD Minimum Maximum 
Miscellaneous  0.32 0.38 0.00 0.95 
Photo  0.02 0.05 0.00 0.59 
Text only   0.02 0.02 0.00 0.15 
Video  0.02 0.04 0.00 0.38 
Share  0.01 0.02 0.00 0.19 
Link Preview  0.01 0.01 0.00 0.06 
Event  0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 
Note. Engagement rate was calculated (likes + reactions + comments + shares)/followers from 
Stebner et al. (2017). 
 
In addition to post type, posts were coded by post categories, including customer testimonials, 
recipe/how-to, and business posts. Table 5 reflects the frequencies and percentages of post 



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categories, with business posts being the most frequent (f = 503, 45.3%) and customer 
testimonials being the least frequent (f = 30, 2.7%).  

Table 5 
 
Description of the frequencies and percentages of post types for the Florida fruit and vegetable 
farms combined between January 1 to December 31, 2020 (n = 1,111).  
Post Category  f Percent (%) 
Business Post   503 45.3 
Recipe/How-to  62 5.6 
Customer Testimonial   30 2.7 
Note. Percentages do not add up to 100% because posts could fall into multiple categories or 
not fall into any of these categories. Percentages were calculated based on the total posts in 
the sample (n = 1,111).  
 
Objective Four: Define Farm Engagement Rate Levels by Strategy  
To answer research objective four, average engagement rate of farms was examined on a line 
plot in Excel to determine natural breaks in the data. Based on natural data breaks, farms were 
divided into three levels based on the average engagement rate of posts. High engagement 
farms were defined as having an average engagement rate of .05 or greater, medium 
engagement farms had an engagement rate greater than .01 but less than .05, and low 
engagement farms had an engagement rate of .01 or lower. Three farms had high engagement 
rates, five had a medium average engagement rate, and seven had low. The total number of 
posts for farms with high engagement rates was 99 posts, for an average post rate of 33 posts 
per farm; the total posts from farms with medium engagement was 269 posts, for an average 
post rate of 53.6 posts per farm; and the farms with low engagement rates had a total of 732 
posts, for an average post rate of 104.57 posts per farm. The engagement rate was calculated 
by using (likes + reactions + comments + shares)/followers from Stebner et al. (2017), with the 
addition of a metric to include reactions (Gogolan, 2022). Table 6 provides the frequencies and 
percentages of post categories by engagement rate levels.  

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



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Table 6 
 
Frequencies and percentages of post categories by engagement level (n = 1,111).  
  High Engagement 

(n = 99) 
Medium Engagement 

(n = 269) 
Low Engagement 

(n = 732) 
Post Category  f % f % f % 
Business Post   70 70.71 70 26.12 360 49.20 
Photo  58 58.59 163 60.45 436 59.56 
Text Only  26 26.26 27 10.07 81 11.07 
Share/Repost  11 11.11 61 22.76 100 13.66 
Miscellaneous  6 6.06 5 1.87 0 0 
Video  4 4.04 13 4.85 73 9.97 
Link Preview  4 4.04 0 0 23 23.23 
Recipe/How-to  3 3.03 12 4.48 47 6.42 
Customer Testimonial   2 2.02 2 0.75 19 2.60 
Event  2 2.02 1 0.37 19 2.60 
Note. Percentages were calculated based on the total posts in each engagement rate category. 
Engagement rates were plotted and defined by data breaks as low (≤ .01), medium (> .01 and < 
.05), and high (³ .05).  
 

Conclusions, Discussion, and Recommendations 
 
For farms, communication directors of farms, agricultural organizations, and agricultural 
commodity groups, this study provides an analysis of current Facebook content and 
engagement rates. Although the data cannot be generalized outside of this specific population, 
it can serve as a benchmark for setting and reaching future communication goals when 
planning farm social media strategy on Facebook. This work adds to the literature by defining a 
benchmark for low (≤ .01), medium (> .01 and < .05), and high (³ .05) engagement rates for 
farms on Facebook. 

Results of research objective one indicated producers were using social media to connect with 
consumers, but there continues to be an opportunity for growth. In this study, farms’ primary 
focus was on Facebook. Over half of the sampled farms were not taking advantage of 
opportunities to sell directly to consumers on Instagram. Agricultural communicators should 
continue to work with farms on how to use social media, particularly during crises like COVID-
19, which influenced producers’ ability to market and sell products. Moreover, with consumers’ 
growing interest in local food, fruit and vegetable producers could close the gap between 
agricultural production and consumers through targeted social media marketing. Future 
research should investigate posts related to selling local foods and evaluate the effectiveness of 
these campaigns.  



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Findings from research objective two indicate that while engagement rates were relatively low, 
the average engagement rate (0.05) was comparable with the 2023 average Facebook 
engagement rate for all accounts (0.07) by Statista (2023) and could serve as an industry 
benchmark. While the sampled farms' followers varied between 239 and 6,465 followers, the 
findings reflected an average of 2,290 followers, which could be a baseline Facebook follower 
goal for Florida fruit and vegetable producers.  

Research objective three found that photos were the most frequently used post type; however, 
the engagement rate between photo and text only did not differ much. Perhaps fruit and 
vegetable producers do not need to include photos in every post and could use the text-only 
function to post updates and connect with consumers without significantly impacting the 
farm’s engagement rate. The miscellaneous posts could have performed the best due to being 
boosted, as these posts exhibited options only available to boosted posts. This may provide 
evidence that boosting posts increases engagement and may allow farms to reach new 
audiences. Occasionally, boosting posts during important seasons could be a part of farms’ 
social media strategy to reach new customers and increase engagement.  

Of the post categories coded, business posts were used most frequently, indicating that the 
sampled fruit and vegetable producers use Facebook to market and sell products to consumers. 
The fruit and vegetable producers used recipe/how-to posts and customer testimonials less 
frequently. This kind of content could take more content development and be more challenging 
for producers to incorporate into their social media strategy than business posts.  

Research objective four defined a benchmark for farm engagement rates on Facebook as low (≤ 
.01), medium (> .01 and < .05), and high (³ .05). Results showed that farms with the highest 
engagement rate posted an average of 33 posts per farm, the medium engagement farms 
posted an average post rate of 53.6 posts per farm, and the farms with the lowest engagement 
posted an average of 104.57 posts per farm. This indicates that posting more frequently may 
not increase the engagement rate. Perhaps fruit and vegetable producers do not have to 
maintain social media presence when their product is not in season, as consumers may be 
seeking information about their business and engaging with less frequent posts that provide 
more relevant and valuable information. The farms with the highest engagement rate may have 
only been posting during the active buying season for their crop, which is an average of 6 
months (FDACS, 2021).  

Acknowledgements 
 
Funding for this research was provided by the Center for Rural Enterprise Engagement, a 
partner Center of the UF/IFAS Center for Public Issue Education in Agriculture and Natural 
Resources. The authors would like to thank the Florida Department of Agriculture and 
Consumer Services for connecting researchers with farmers enrolled in the Florida Farms to You 
program and Naik Wali, a visiting PhD Scholar, for his support in the data collection for this 
research.  
 



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Author Contributions  
O. Doyle - formal analysis, investigation, writing-original draft; L. Baker - conceptualization, 
methodology, review and editing, supervision, resources, funding acquisition; A. Zagonel - 
writing-review and editing; R. Telg - writing-review and editing. 
 

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