Description of 2013 eXtension America Saves social media campaign

1. America Saves Week 2013 Social Media Project-FINAL Report
eXtension Financial Security for All Community of Practice
Submitted by Dr. Barbara O’Neill, Rutgers University, oneill@aesop.rutgers.edu
A total of 104 Cooperative Extension educators, America Saves campaign coordinators, and others participated in an
America Saves Week (ASW) social media outreach project coordinated by the eXtension Financial Security for All
Community of Practice (CoP) (see http://www.extension.org/personal_finance). Dr. Barbara O'Neill (Rutgers
University) and Andrew Zumwalt (University of Missouri) served as project coordinators. A total of 100 new
Facebook posts and 100 new tweets were prepared for distribution by participants throughout the month of February
2013. The messages provided information about America Saves or some aspect of saving money or reducing debt and
expenses and included unique URLs to track project outreach. Eight Xtranormal videos on saving topics were also
developed and placed on YouTube with social media links (see http://www.youtube.com/user/moneytalkBMO).
This project employed a triangulation (multiple evaluation methods) approach to measure impact that used the
following strategies: 1. a unique Twitter hashtag (#eXasw), 2. a follow-up consumer survey, 3. a follow-up
professional participant survey, 4. bit.ly analytics to determine clicks on links embedded in the ASW messages, and 5.
tracking pre- and post-project Twitter influence metrics. It replicated the 2011 and 2012 eXtension ASW social media
campaigns, one of the first financial education social media projects to employ a triangulated evaluation methodology.
Three weeks after the end of America Saves Week, 1,503 tweets were recorded by use of the hashtag, #eXasw, that was
developed for this project and included in all of the prepared tweets. This was up from 1,437 tweets in 2012 and 1,190
in 2011. Several thousand Facebook messages are conservatively estimated to have been sent because more eXtension
project participants reported more use of Facebook than Twitter. By March 15, 2013, a total of 2,814 clicks from
Facebook posts and tweets were recorded (compared to 1,550 and 602, respectively, in 2012/2011). A link to an
evaluation survey was embedded in messages prepared for the final days of America Saves Week for feedback from
followers/friends of project participants. Another evaluation survey link was sent to the 104 project participants
themselves to gather feedback. Following is a brief description of results of these project surveys:
Consumer (Followers/Friends) Survey Results
All 18 respondents found the ASW messages very helpful (56%) or helpful (44%). Additionally, 83% visited one or
more of the ASW Web site links that were contained in the messages and17% said they planned to. With regard to
joining America Saves, 12% of respondents reported that they did, 18% said that they planned to, 35% were already
American Savers, and 35% said they had not joined. Open-ended feedback was received from three survey
respondents, two of whom requested a continued supply of savings tips: “More savings tips for how to reduce monthly
spending” and “More PowerPay tips.” The third comment concerned publishing savings photos along with content.
Professional Collaborator Survey
Of the 104 project participants, 21 (20.1%) completed an evaluation survey The number of social media
followers/friends reported by these 21 professional collaborators ranged from 14 to 670 and totaled 4,045 (versus
5,966 in 2012 and 8,163 in 2011), when the outreach numbers reported by all of them were combined, for an average
of 192 apiece (versus 199 in 2012 and 226 in 2011). As a positive sign of respondents’ growing “influence” on
Twitter, the Klout scores of all 14 respondents who reported them increased from before to after the project and
respondents’ total average Klout scores increased from 32.6 to 39.6 (versus 20.3 to 29.3 in 2012 and 11.22 to 19.68 in
2011). For more information about Klout scores and metrics, see http://klout.com/. Increases in PeerIndex scores were
also reported. The scores of 6 of 11 respondents who reported them increased between the start and end of the project
and respondents’ total average PeerIndex scores increased from 32.1 to 32.5 (versus 15.5 to 25.1 in 2012 and 4.94 to
11.52 in 2011). For more information about PeerIndex scores and metrics, see http://www.peerindex.net/.
Overall comments about the project were very positive. Following are examples: “Many replies and shares regarding
the messages,” “Several of the messages went viral including one of the Small steps to Health and Wealth messages
and a message indicating our governor proclaimed America Saves week in MN,” “Comments that they liked the
postings,” “Comments on usefulness of posts,” “We received a lot more retweets and mentions from our followers
and some new people as well,” and “I received some “likes” on some of the Facebook posts.”
Almost half (45%) of the professional participant respondents received direct messages, comments, or other feedback
from their fans/followers. No specific comments were made about the videos but they were viewed by almost 350
users. More than nine of 10 (95%) respondents said that they would participate in another social media financial
education project. If the ASW project is replicated: 1. Marketing should be expanded to recruit more professional
participants and 2. A methodology must be developed to avoid “spam” blockages by Facebook to America Saves links.