Description of 2016 eXtension mini-grant accomplishments

1. America Saves Week 2016 Mini-Grant-FINAL Report
eXtension Financial Security for All (FSA) Community of Practice (CoP)
Submitted by Dr. Barbara O’Neill, CFP®, Rutgers University, oneill@aesop.rutgers.edu
Below is a description of the outcomes for three project deliverables in our 2016 mini-grant application:
Development and Delivery of a New eXtension Webinar- The webinar Savings Strategies for Military Families was presented live
on February 16 (see https://learn.extension.org/events/2344) and has been archived in YouTube for viewing by anyone worldwide (see
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKiB1hOGxWg). A total of 113 people attended the live webinar and 41 more viewed the
archive as of March 17, 2016. A follow-up evaluation indicated that 89% of 100 evaluation respondents would recommend the
webinar and 93% planned to apply its information to their work. Several representative comments from attendees were “This webinar
gave me more ideas for saving,” “There were several calculators and studies that I want to add to my resources,” I will use the
content from this webinar with individual clients and workshops,” There were a host of new resources that were offered,” “I plan to
use the information for Military Saves Week,” “Great session with practical advice for clients,” and “Great information.”
Content Delivery via Twitter Chats- Dr. O’Neill participated in three twitter chats in February 2016 that, taken together, had more
than 10 million exposure impressions (i.e., total number of times that tweets are delivered to timelines, including repeats, based upon
the number of followers of chat participants). She participated as a guest tweeter on Wisebread’s #wbchat on February 18, 2016 with
a reach of 235,479 and 8,168,526 million exposure impressions (see http://www.wisebread.com/join-our-tweetchat-on-thursday-218-
12pm-pst-for-a-chance-to-win-100-in-prizes) and as a Blab (video chat) guest and live tweeter on Experian’s February 24, 2015
#creditchat archived at https://blab.im/experian-how-to-automate-your-finances-creditchat-america-saves-week. In addition, she
organized the February 23, 2016 #eXASchat Twitter Chat and accompanying Google Hangout (video chat) with eXtension, attended
by 25 participants, to promote America Saves Week and the 15-Week America Saves Challenge. #eXASchat had a reach of 99,204 and
2,074,147 timeline deliveries. The #eXASchat Google Hangout is archived on the eXtension FSA CoP YouTube page at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDW1heHTfh0 and Storified at https://storify.com/moneytalk1/cooperative-extension-exaschat-
for-america-saves-w. The three chats and a Wisebread blog post all stressed the need for saving and ways to free up money to save.
Social Media Campaign- A total of 151 Cooperative Extension educators, America Saves campaign coordinators, and others received
resources to participate in the eXtension America Saves Week (ASW) social media project. A new feature this year was the use of a
unique project branding image, created in Canva, to accompany the Twitter and Facebook messages. A second new feature was the
creation of an online Savings Promotion Resource Kit (see https://njaes.rutgers.edu/money/savings-promotion-resource-kit/) as a
repository of social media messages about savings that were created during the past five years. The messages provide information
about America Saves or some aspect of saving money or reducing debt and expenses and are organized into 12 different topic areas.
The project employed a multiple methods (triangulation) evaluation with five metrics: 1. unique hashtag (#eXasw), 2. a follow-up
consumer survey, 3. a follow-up professional participant survey, 4. bit.ly analytics to determine clicks on links in messages, and 5.
tracking pre- and post-project Klout scores (a Twitter influence metric). It replicated the 2011-15 eXtension social media campaigns.
Two weeks after the end of ASW, 2,406 tweets were recorded with the hashtag #eXasw, compared to 770 (2015), 1,091 (2014), 1,503
(2013), 1,437 (2012) and 1,190 (2011). We believe that the Canva image helped draw viewers. By March 17, 2016, a total of 846
clicks from Facebook messages and tweets were recorded (compared to 664, 1,277, 2,814, 1,550, and 602, respectively, in 2015/2014/
2013/2012/2011). Evaluation surveys were completed by followers/friends of project participants (via a link embedded in final
messages) and project participants themselves to gather feedback. Following is a brief description of results of these surveys:
Consumer (Followers/Friends) Survey Results- Of 38 respondents, all found the ASW messages very useful (68%) or useful (32%).
Additionally, 71% visited one or more of the ASW Web site links that were contained in the messages and 24% said they planned to.
With regard to joining America Saves, 18% of respondents reported that they did, 37% said that they planned to, 29% were already
American Savers, and 16% said they had not joined. Following is sample open-ended feedback: Easy to understand messages with
valuable info, Very helpful ideas, and Great messages throughout the month! I really appreciated the short snippets that I read.
Professional Collaborator Survey- Of the 151 project participants, 20 (13%) completed a post-ASW follow-up evaluation survey The
number of social media followers/friends reported by these professional collaborators ranged from 10 to 4,800 and totaled 16,032
versus 15,111 (2015), 3,056 (2014), 4,045 (2013), 5,966 (2012) and 8,163 (2011). When the outreach numbers reported by all of the
respondents were combined, there was an average of 802 message recipients apiece versus 487 (2015), 254 (2014), 192 (2013), 199
(2012) and 226 (2011). Sample feedback about responses to social media messages is as follows: [Received] retweets, likes on
Facebook, and direct comments on some of the messages, Got one share from the posts that we did, and A number of retweets.
Klout scores for the 9 respondents who reported them increased from before to after the project and respondents’ total average Klout
scores increased from 32.1 to 45.5 (versus 23.8 to 30.7 (2015), 29.7 to 38.8 (2014), 32.6 to 39.6 (2013), 20.3 to 29.3 (2012), and 11.2
to 19.7 (2011). More than 9 of 10 (95%) respondents said that they would participate in another social media financial education
project and 35%% reported that they received direct messages, retweets, likes, comments, and /or shares in response to their messages.
By all metrics used- Hashtag counts, clicks, increased Klout scores, and positive online survey feedback- this project was a success.