Extension organizations are using social media and innovative content-generating approaches to reach farmers and assist them with their information needs. But to what extent are farmers using the information received by them and converting the information into practical application is the question to be answered. Hence a study to fi nd out the effectiveness of the social media-based agro-advisory services was conducted in the IT revolutionized the state of Andhra Pradesh with a sample of 126 farmers from three districts through random sampling method. The effectiveness of social media was analyzed by developing a composite index with four sub-indicators having a Cronbach alpha of 0.8 which stated that the majority of the farmers 39.7 per cent had medium effectiveness of the messages they received. The study found out that most of the farmers receive information daily and the information needs are mostly around crop health management. The understandability of the information was good which helped in increased yields followed by the rate of adoption and increase in income of farmers. These results help to strategize the strengths of messages shared through social media and help as guidelines in new content development by extension organizations.

Keyword: Effectiveness of social media; Social media; Effectiveness of messages; Farming community.