Scout, Snap, and Share: First Impressions of Plant Disease Monitoring Using Social Media.

The social media platform Twitter was used to monitor corn and soybean diseases in the United States during 2016 and 2017 as part of a campaign to involve crop scouts, farmers, educators, and agricultural advisors in disease data sharing. The purpose was to explore the feasibility of providing farmers and crop consultants with an easily accessible, user-friendly, no-cost platform for sharing disease observations with rapid information transfer and early warning capabilities. Two Twitter accounts were created, @soydisease and @corndisease, as part of an accessible data collection method for later input into the Integrated Pest Information Platform for Extension and Education (iPiPE).