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L A U R I E G H A R I S , P H . D .

HOW AND WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA IS BEING USED IN NATURAL RESOURCE OUTREACH

OUTLINE

• Introduction• Social media tools• How tools are being employed by extension

programs• Opportunities for natural resource professionals• How to use the tools successfully • Conclusion

EXPANDING THE REACH OF EXTENSION WITH WEBINAR TECHNOLOGIES AND SOCIAL MEDIA

• Collaborative Effort• NCSU-Robert Bardon, Ph.D.• SREF-William Hubbard, Ph.D.• TAMU-Eric Taylor, Ph.D.

• Funding• Renewable Resources Extension Act

INTRODUCTION

Extension Professionals• Workloads• Administrative requirements• Tight fiscal environments

INTRODUCTION

Is social media a practical solution?• Internet access• Social media usage• Low-income,

minority communities

INTRODUCTION

Dynamic• Select tool according to

audience, purpose, or personal preference• Accessible• Interactive• Can encourage consensus

INTRODUCTION

Community• Shared interests• Knowledge exchange• Far reaching• Individual time table

SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS

• Blogs• Twitter• Wikipedia

• Professional and Social Networking• Facebook• LinkedIn• MySpace

• Videos/Images• Flickr• YouTube

SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS

Blogs can:• Encourage interaction• Disseminate timely, practical information• Connect individuals with opportunities

SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS

Twitter• Form of micro

blogging• Tweets are 140

characters or less• Follow others• #FollowFriday• #hashtags

QUESTION FOR AUDIENCE

True or FalseAfrican Americans and Latinos are significantly less likely to use Twitter than other groups.

SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS

Wikipedia• Informal channel for collecting and sharing

information• Enhances interaction, collaboration, and

contribution• Open to the public or just a few

SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS

Social and Professional Networking Sites (Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn)• Link people with similar interests• Help communicate information• Connect clients to resources• Profiles provide real context to the identity of

each online member

SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS

SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS

Flickr and YouTube• Can enhance field and qualitative research• Potential to bring in additional online learners• Increasingly accessible• http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3wgTTq0a8s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3wgTTq0a8s



SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS

Successful video projects • Are better viewed than told• Have music and pictures• Link to other information• Have multiple avenues for access• Have measures for evaluation


What social media tool do you use most often?A. TwitterB. FacebookC. LinkedInD. FlickrE. YouTube

CURRENT SOCIAL MEDIA USES

Alabama Precision Ag Team• Reach out to farmers

and environmental organizations

• Blog, Facebook, and Twitter


Iowa State University’s Turfgrass Blog• Communicate timely

information• Interactive channel for

peers, industry professionals, and educators• Reached an average of

34.9 to 148.4 people/day


Fan pages• University of Minnesota Equine Extension Program • Michigan State University’s Online Horse

Management Program


USDA Forest Service-Twitter, YouTube, Flickr


Ohio State Extension Educators• Support for clientele who had lost their jobs


Soil and Water Conservation Challenges• Integrated framework with WebGIS technologies,

data sources, and social media• Increase knowledge on sediment pollution


NRCS• Flickr,

Facebook, Twitter


What social media tool do think would be most useful for your work place mission?A. TwitterB. FacebookC. LinkedInD. FlickrE. YouTube

SUCCESS WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media planning process (Dadashzadeh 2010)• A formal agency view • Employee participation• Map of future desired public service


Tools to describe, create, and deliver the right marketing (Skelly 2005)• Define what audience can expect• Obtain feedback from the audience• Consider the product, price, place, promotion,

and partnerships• Be inventive• Capture audience’s attention


Essential steps to building an online community (Benson 2011)• Listen to your audience• Plan a strategy with metrics• Electronically market the strategy• Engage the audience• Report your measurements


Success with Twitter (Brown 2012)• Vary content• Speak in an authentic voice• Listen and take notes• Be concise• Spread out tweets• Thank new followers• Use third party helpers (Hootesuite,

Crowdbooster,..)

OPPORTUNITIES FOR NATURAL RESOURCE PROFESSIONALS

Engage people online and through their personal digital assistants• Almost 50% of nonindustrial private

landowners in NC are interested in web-based delivery (Bardon et al. 2007)

• Farmers are likely receptive to electronic communication (Guenthner and Swan 2011)

• Agritourism operators use social media tools to promote their business (Hardesty 2011)

• Work with individuals that are not able to leave their businesses (Cornelisse et al. 2011)


• Use social media tools to connect clients to credible resources and evidence based information

• Employ electronic technology for on-campus teaching as outreach (Guenthner and Swan 2011)

• Work with low-income urban communities to demonstrate the effectiveness of new and innovative computer uses (Kudryavtsev et al. 2007)

• Share method design, data collection instruments, and initial results to enhance transparency (Powell 2012)


Actively participate in social media outlets• Opportunity to observe and to become closer to

customers• Connect with clientele anywhere at anytime• Bring together people with similar interests• Reach a significant number of people• Measure progress


• Take resources to the people • Consider outreach materials

that will reach target audiences at the widest level• Balance reaching out face-to-

face with technology• Recommend new

communication methods where appropriate

METRICS

Examples of Metrics• Numbers of visitors, fans,

friends, followers, mentions, and/or incoming links to your site (Cornelisse et al. 2011)

• Time on the website, ratio between posts and comments, how fast the message moves, and customer actions (Benson 2008)

• Activity, tone of conversation, velocity, time on site, comments, and qualitative measures (Owyang 2007)

METRICS

Metric Tracking Programs• Google Analytics, URL

shortening programs, Twitter-centric tools (Cornelisse et al. 2011)• Scribd, Google alerts,

Facebook reports, online surveys on Facebook, TweetReach, Wordpress (O’Neill et al. 2011)

METRICS

Example: National Forest Foundation• Websites can be tracked for

visits and time on website• Track number of people

who like (785)• Track comments (11)• Qualitative review of

comments (I’m going to go; I’ve been there, etc.)


TRUE or FALSE

The time on website, comments, and velocity of the message can help track customer engagement.

CONCLUSION

Social media has the potential to:• Produce discussion• Change views• Encourage action• Reach new audiences• Provide feedback in a timely manner• Meet increasing demands of extension work at

decreased costs

CONCLUSION

• Great potential for outreach • With or without natural resource professionals,

clients are employing social media tools

QUESTIONS

Contact InformationLaurie Gharis, Ph.D.College of Natural ResourcesDepartment of Forestry and Environmental ResourcesNorth Carolina State [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]