Creating Effective Extension Educational Campaigns

John R Wells – NW Dist IT SpecialistL Scott Jackson – Ext Agent III

Brooke Saari – Ext Agent IPeter Vergot – NW Dist Ext Director

Xin Jiannong - IFAS IT Developer

Background

• Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area (CISMA)

• NISAW: National Invasive Species Awareness Week

• Small effort in 2012 and expanded for 2013 & 2014

The Effort

• Topics/Dates Sent to Agents• Formatted Articles Were Produced• WordPress Articles Collected• Utilized Multiple Email Databases• Identified Publishing Team• Press Kit Sent Out to Partners

Our Key Ingredients

WordPress 7AM

Social Media8AM & 1PM

Subscribe7PM

WordPress

Facebook Post

• FB Post needs to have weblink

• Use Picture instead of Link

• Share posts on multiple FB sites

• Stats on page

A Facebook Picture is Worth…the effort!

Press Kit and Twitter Example

March 4:

Cogon Grass: Cogongrass is one of the 10 worst weeds in the world. This grass is an aggressive grower and forms colonies causing loss of productive forest areas, severe degradation of habitat, and economic issues. There are treatment options for these infestations, make sure that specific instructions are followed and treatment is repeated. For more information on the biology of this plant and various treatment options visit http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/wg202. To learn more Click here.

o For Twitter: Explore these aggressive colonizers in today’s NW FL #invasives #NISAW Cogongrass & Hydrilla http://x.co/nisaw

subscribe.ifas.ufl.edu

Results

• 6,160 page views via jetpack stats– Social media & SMS – Does not include separate websites

• Facebook views ranged from approximately 40-400

• Twitter: many retweets and followers from around state and country

• #NISAW/#NISAW14 very important

Different days of week have better results: Monday’s best day (catches weekend)

View by Week (2,089 Campaign Total)

Lessons learned

• Need Good Template/Subscription Service

• Devote pre-effort time

• High quality pictures & reference articles

• Creating short urls, article tags, and #hashtag

• There always will be un-planned challenges– Computer Virus, Sickness, Website Crash, Work

Benefits

• Exposure Multiple User Groups

• Newsletter Visibility

• New Clientele

• Subject Awareness

• Expand Network

Results and Statistics Best Time of Day (Facebook)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Average Impressions by Posting Hour

Hour of Day

Results and Statistics Best Day of Week (Facebook)

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

Average Impressions by Posting Day

Results and Statistics Best Time of Day (Email)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 240%

29%31%

40%

45%

53%50%

40%

34%

28% 29% 30%

26%

22%20% 20%

24% 25% 26% 27%

32% 31%33%

29%

Hour of Day

Ope

n Ra

te P

erce

ntag

e

Source: kissmetrics.com

Results and Statistics Best Day of Week (Email)

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

40%

25% 23% 24% 23% 24%

44%

Ope

n Ra

te P

erce

ntag

e

Source: kissmetrics.com

Results and Statistics Specific Daily Events and Campaigns

(Using it All together)

Results and Statistics Specific Daily Events and Campaigns

(Using it All together)

Next StepsFacebook Advertising

Next StepsAdapting for Mobile Devices

• Making sites built around Mobile• Sending Text messages through our

Subscription Database to reach mobile users• Tracking Open and Click Rates• Formatting Tools• Further Training• http://subscribe.ifas.ufl.edu/