This document discusses the evaluation of digital communication and social media tools used by Extension over three years to make content more discoverable. It describes various tools used including social media like Twitter and Facebook, a monthly email update, discussion board, an oak wilt status widget, Google calendar, and RSS feeds. For each tool, it discusses the objectives, provides usage examples and screenshots, and evaluates the return on investment in terms of time spent creating and maintaining the tools versus increased traffic, awareness, and value added to other Extension offerings. Overall, the tools were found to modestly increase the discoverability of Extension content with a relatively small time investment.

1. MAKING EXTENSION CONTENT DISCOVERABLE A THREE-YEAR EVALUATION OF DIGITAL COMMUNICATION AND SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS Eli Sagor@esagor, esagor@umn.edu

2. Outline Intro Tools: why, how, outcomes Discussion Multitaskers: http://z.umn.edu/UKROI

3. Extension and the Land Grant System Demonstrating practical applications of research, improved technology

4. Workshops

5. Workshops John Peterson photo

6. Now… Flickr: Morbuto(source)

8. Two-step Flow Model: Limited access to information Source: Watts & Dodds 2007, J. Consumer Research

9. It’s a networked world Source: Watts & Dodds 2007, J. Consumer Research

11. Objectives Content discoverability Awareness of Extension Add value to other Extension offerings Learn!

12. Sandbox Flickr: Jesseklein(source)

13. Tools Social media Monthly email update Discussion board Oak wilt status widget Google calendar News headlines

14. Social media objectives Discoverability: Increase content visibility Content automatically publishes from site to Twitter and Facebook Live and scheduled tweets about core content, events, news, etc.

15. Social Media http://twitter.com/MyMNwoods http://z.umn.edu/MMWfb

16. Social Media: ROI Investment: 1-5 hrs/wk (variable) spent scheduling, responding, posting Return: More accessible to next generation?Handy, versatile tool. Net: Slightly positive?

17. Email Update objectives Awareness Adding value to other offerings:WebinarsWorkshops

18. Monthly Email Update

19. Email Update: ROI Investment: $22 and 6-12 hrs/mo Return: Huge increase in site traffic. Increases awareness of upcoming events, content Net: Slam-dunk

21. Discussion Board objectives Easy point of contact Reply takes about as long as an email, but viewed by hundreds. Anonymous, accessible.

22. Everyone a teacher, everyone a learner

23. Discussion Board Screenshot

24. Discussion Board: ROI Investment: Expectation of response…? Return: Variable. Net: Not sure we know yet.

25. Oak Wilt “Widget” Embeddable anywhere Automatically updates Links to our oak wilt page

26. When they need information, will they know we exist? Creative Commons licensed Flickr photo byC.K. Hartman

27. Making content discoverable

28. Discoverable: Oak wilt widget on DNR

29. Oak Wilt Widget: ROI Investment: A bit of stress Return: The widget accounts for 61% of all views of the oak wilt status page. Of these viewers,45% go on to view other content Consolidates oak wilt info, helps partners Net: Slam-dunk

30. Google Calendar, RSS feeds Encourage other orgs to display our content

31. Screenshot for Embeddables

32. Embeddables: examples

33. The big picture Incremental changes: One step at a time Focus on adding value to other offerings

34. Workshops Peter Smallidge, Cornell Cooperative Extension

35. Websites

36. Cost 15-30% of one Extension educator’s time + $300-500 / yr Initial site development: $~10K (2007, 2009)

37. http://z.umn.edu/UKROI MMW poster