Many properties of inorganic compounds are sensitive to changes in the point-defect concentrations. In minerals, such changes are influenced by temperature, pressure, and chemical impurities. Olivines form an important class of minerals and are magnesium-rich solid solutions consisting of the orthosilicates forsterite $Mg_2SiO_4$ and the fayalite $Fe_2SiO_4$. Orthosilicates have an orthorhombic crystal structure and exhibit anisotropic electronic and ionic transport properties. We examined the anisotropy of the electrical conductivity of $Fe_2SiO_4$ under the assumption that the electronic conduction in $Fe_2SiO_4$ occurs via a small polaron hopping mechanism. The anisotropic electrical conductivity is well explained by the electron transfer integrals obtained from the spin dimer analysis based on tight-binding calculations. The latter analysis is expected to provide insight into the anisotropic electrical conductivities of other magnetic insulators of transition metal oxides.