Including Mental Health Support in Project Delivery, 14 May.pdf
Extension 2.0: Harnessing the Power of the Blogosphere to Expand Programming Potential and Impact
1. Extension 2.0: Harnessing the
Power of the Blogosphere to
Expand Programming
Potential & Impact
Jamie Seger, Kara Newby
& Nancy Recker
The Ohio State University Extension
2. “Our job is not to defend
yesterday, but to invent
tomorrow”
-Peter Druker, Management Guru
3. Why Extension?
Lack of knowledge about Extension among younger
generation (18-34 yo)
8. Creating Your Blog
What do you want from your blog?
Ease of Use:
Google Blogger/Blogspot
www.blogspot.com
Professional Appeal
Wordpress
www.wordpress.com
9. Finding & Reporting Impact
Where do I obtain statistical data? What kind of
an impact is my blog having?
10. Finding & Reporting Impact
Options:
Wordpress.com Statistics
For blogs hosted by Wordpress.com (free)
Can retrieve blog hit information daily, weekly, or monthly
Top posts & pages
Search traffic (i.e. if someone views your blog via a search result)
Subscriber information (RSS feed, e-mail, etc)
Referring sites
Move It Miami County dashboard
Over 7,900 hits since the MIMC program in March.
MIMC program ended second week in May.
Blog averages approx. 70 hits per day.
11. Finding & Reporting Impact
Options (cont..):
Google Analytics
For use with a Blogspot blog – or – can embed into any
blog (with administrative access)
Can retrieve daily, weekly, monthly, yearly stats
Traffic sources (referring sites, direct, search engines, etc)
Top posts
Traffic map (see who is visiting your blog nationally &
internationally!)
Export data into a PDF or similar view
Family Blog
12. Finding & Reporting Impact
I have all of this data – now what do I do with it?
Annual Reports
Monthly Mini-Reports
List of new and updated posts (include “active” links)
One or two helpful comments that were posted to the blog
from readers
Overall statistics for that month
13. Group vs. Individual Blogging
Group Blogging
Blogs that have contributors of two or more people
OSUE FCS blog
Pros:
Less amount of work for everyone in updating the blog
Blog posts could represent a range of topics / authors could
focus on their area of specialization
Cons
Blog may seem unorganized, less uniform, and not targeting
one specific niche
May require more work: checking with other authors before
posting, etc.
14. Group vs. Individual Blogging
Individual Blogging
Blogs that have one contributor/author
Van Wert County Ag blog / Parents in Action blog
Pros:
Blog can be more focused
More of a “high-touch” blog (readers correspond with one
author – makes for an intimate experience)
Cons
More work for one person
15. Group vs. Individual Blogging
Which format is best?
Extension staff
Extension clientele
Example in action:
OSUE EERA blogs
www.stepfamiliiestoday.wordpress.com
www.osufcs.wordpress.com
16. Advertising Your Blog
Boost your impact by advertising your blog and
posts
Twitter
Facebook
17. Microblogging:
Facebook Fan Pages
• Creating a fan page
• Inviting people to your page
• Selecting a user name
• Promoting your page to go virally
• Value posting
• Cross promotion
• Getting others to connect to your page
• Posting from your phone
18. Online Resources
Copy of this presentation
Videos (How to blog, how to develop a podcast for
your blog, etc.)
Links to other social media presentations
www.neafcs.org
www.slideshare.net
19. Thank You!
Questions?
Please take a moment to fill out the session
evaluation.
Contact Information:
Jamie Seger - seger.23@osu.edu
twitter.com/jamies4families
Kara Newby – knewby@ehe.osu.edu
Nancy Recker – recker.22@osu.edu