Facebook closed group surveys can provide representative data in certain situations

As hog producers worldwide faced challenges related to porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED), a web-based survey was used to better understand Taiwanese hog farmers' use of a Facebook closed group (FCG) for communication and to determine whether Extension professionals could use an FCG as an effective survey tool. The study found that the FCG sample appeared to be largely representative of Taiwanese hog producers overall. This finding may have been partly due to the impact of PED, which led many producers to be highly engaged at the time. This endeavor offers a good example of how Extension can collect and disseminate information through an FCG.