by Laurie Gharis, Ph.D. Social media tools How tools are being employed by extension programs Opportunities for natural resource professionals How to use the tools successfully Expanding the Reach of Extension with Webinar Technologies and Social Media

1. HOW AND WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA IS
BEING USED IN NATURAL
RESOURCE OUTREACH
LAURIE GHARIS, PH.D.

2. 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

3. 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

4. INTRODUCTION
Extension Professionals
• Workloads
• Administrative requirements
• Tight fiscal environments

5. INTRODUCTION
Is social media a
practical solution?
• Internet access
• Social media usage
• Low-income, minority
communities

6. INTRODUCTION
Dynamic
• Select tool according to
audience, purpose, or personal
preference
• Accessible
• Interactive
• Can encourage consensus

7. INTRODUCTION
Community
• Shared interests
• Knowledge exchange
• Far reaching
• Individual time table

8. SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS
• Blogs
• Twitter
• Wikipedia
• Professional and Social Networking
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• MySpace
• Videos/Images
• Flickr
• YouTube

9. SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS
Blogs can:
• Encourage interaction
• Disseminate timely, practical information
• Connect individuals with opportunities

10. SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS
Twitter
• Form of micro
blogging
• Tweets are 140
characters or less
• Follow others
• #FollowFriday
• #hashtags

11. QUESTION FOR AUDIENCE
True or False
African Americans and Latinos are significantly less
likely to use Twitter than other groups.

12. SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS
Wikipedia
• Informal channel for collecting and sharing
information
• Enhances interaction, collaboration, and
contribution
• Open to the public or just a few

13. 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

14. SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS

15. 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=k3wgTTq0
a8s

16. 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

17. QUESTION FOR AUDIENCE
What social media tool do you use most often?
A. Twitter
B. Facebook
C. LinkedIn
D. Flickr
E. YouTube

18. CURRENT SOCIAL MEDIA USES
Alabama Precision Ag
Team
• Reach out to farmers
and environmental
organizations
• Blog, Facebook, and
Twitter

19. CURRENT SOCIAL MEDIA USES
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

20. CURRENT SOCIAL MEDIA USES
Fan pages
• University of Minnesota Equine Extension Program
• Michigan State University’s Online Horse
Management Program

21. CURRENT SOCIAL MEDIA USES
USDA Forest Service-Twitter, YouTube, Flickr

22. CURRENT SOCIAL MEDIA USES
Ohio State Extension Educators
• Support for clientele who had lost their jobs

23. CURRENT SOCIAL MEDIA USES
Soil and Water Conservation Challenges
• Integrated framework with WebGIS technologies,
data sources, and social media
• Increase knowledge on sediment pollution

24. CURRENT SOCIAL MEDIA USES
NRCS
• Flickr,
Facebook,
Twitter

25. QUESTION FOR AUDIENCE
What social media tool do think would be most useful
for your work place mission?
A. Twitter
B. Facebook
C. LinkedIn
D. Flickr
E. YouTube

26. SUCCESS WITH SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media planning process
(Dadashzadeh 2010)
• A formal agency view
• Employee participation
• Map of future desired public service

27. SUCCESS WITH SOCIAL MEDIA
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

28. SUCCESS WITH SOCIAL MEDIA
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

29. SUCCESS WITH SOCIAL MEDIA
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,..)

30. 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)

31. OPPORTUNITIES FOR NATURAL
RESOURCE PROFESSIONALS
• 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)

32. OPPORTUNITIES FOR NATURAL
RESOURCE PROFESSIONALS
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

33. OPPORTUNITIES FOR NATURAL
RESOURCE PROFESSIONALS
• 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

34. 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)

35. 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)

36. 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.)

37. QUESTION FOR AUDIENCE
TRUE or FALSE
The time on website, comments, and velocity of the
message can help track customer engagement.

38. 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

39. CONCLUSION
• Great potential for outreach
• With or without natural resource professionals,
clients are employing social media tools

40. QUESTIONS
Contact Information
Laurie Gharis, Ph.D.
College of Natural Resources
Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources
North Carolina State University
lwilson@ncsu.edu