Social media for Master Gardener Leaders
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This document provides an overview of social media basics and how to use popular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube for Extension outreach. It defines social media and discusses why people use sites like Facebook, which has over 250 million photos uploaded daily. The document reviews how to create pages and customize them on Facebook, how to use hashtags and engage users on Twitter. It also discusses using Pinterest to curate image collections and sharing videos on YouTube to demonstrate gardening techniques and respond to user questions. The most important thing is to keep social media professional, relevant, and up-to-date while engaging meaningfully with others.
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Social media for Master Gardener Leaders
- 1. Social Media Basics Kim Kruse Senior Information Specialist Center for Landscape Conservation and Ecology
- 2. What is the role of Extension?
- 3. How have we done this?
- 4. Where do people search for info? http://www.flickr.com/photos/holtsman/4753306273/
- 5. What is social media? “Social media is a term commonly used for digital tools (e.g., websites, mobile applications) that allow and facilitate interaction between users. Social media encompass a wide variety of tools such as blogs, discussion forums, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and other social networking tools. The common thread across social media tools is that they enable interactive communication, conversation, and collaboration among the users of the tool.” -eXtension.org
- 6. Why do people use social media? http://mashable.com/2012/03/09/social-media-demographics/
- 7. Best social media sites for MGs
- 9. • Started in February 2004 • Went public in May 2012
- 10. • 20% of all pages viewed on the web are on Facebook • 250 million photos uploaded daily • 2.7 billion “likes” every day • Average user spends 20 minutes per visit
- 11. What do people do on Facebook?
- 12. Check to see what’s new
- 13. Like / Comment / Share
- 16. Get started http://www.facebook.com/help
- 17. Create and customize a Page • http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php • http://mashable.com/2012/07/13/facebook-pages-tips-tricks/#74
- 18. Tips to get people talking • Post good content • Share other people’s content • Use tags • Like what people say
- 19. Engage your users • Ask people what they think about different topics
- 20. Admin panel
- 21. Insights
- 23. Groups
- 24. Enlist some help • Assign other trusted individuals to be administrators for your Pages and Groups
- 25. What is Twitter?
- 26. Twitter • Started July 2006 • Appeal of Twitter is its simplicity • More than 465 million accounts • 175 million tweets a day (April 2012)
- 28. How do people use Twitter?
- 29. Twitter • 36% tweet (aka update their status) at least once a day • 92% people share, aka “retweet,” content that they find interesting • 69% decide who else to follow based on suggestions from their friends
- 30. How do I get started?
- 31. Set up an account • https://support.twitter.com/articles/100990-how-to-sign-up-on-tw
- 32. Start following people • Allow Twitter to check your email contacts for people who are already on Twitter • Visit the Twitter profile of similar people/organizations and start following the people they follow
- 33. Tips to get people talking • Post good content • Share (retweet) other people’s content • Use tags • @FloridaMGs • #2012Folklife
- 34. Tips to get people talking • Reply to other people’s tweets to create conversations
- 36. Pinterest “Pinboard-style social photo sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme- based image collections such as events, interests, hobbies, and more.” --Wikipedia http://pinterest.com/jcambatls/garden-outdoor/
- 37. Pinterest • Beta version of site launched in March 2010 • 11.7 million monthly users • 82% female • Average of 16:40 per visit • Pinterest is tied with Facebook for first place in terms of how long people spend on the site each month. The average social networker spends 405 minutes on both Facebook and Pinterest (and 89 minutes on Twitter)
- 41. Interacting • Repin • Like • Comment
- 42. Finally, let’s talk about YouTube.
- 43. YouTube • 2 billion views per day (May 2010) • 3rd most visited website
- 44. YouTube • Upload demos showing gardening techniques • Respond to questions and comments from users http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q7kCrb0mqs&feature=plcp
- 45. Video Sharing • Embed videos into websites, blog posts, or Facebook http://fruitscapes.blogspot.com/
- 46. Who’s watching?
- 47. UF/IFAS YouTube channels • SolutionsForYourLife • YourFloridaLawn • UFEntomology • PinellasExtensionTV • PolkFYN • DougBugHimself • SuwanneeCounty4H • BakerCountyExtension
- 48. What’s the most important thing to remember with social media?
- 50. Other things to Remember • Keep it professional • Post what is meaningful • Make sure your information is current • Make sure your information is correct • Make sure your information is relevant • Follow others and interact meaningfully with them • Remember, social media is social and PUBLIC
- 51. Is that all?
- 52. Why social media matters • “Cooperative Extension will continue to keep its local community ties, but has and will continue to grow an online presence. Cooperative Extension’s online presence is not a replacement for our local, face-to-face contacts, but rather a way to build, maintain, and strengthen these relationships.” • Anne Adrian, Auburn University
- 53. Need more reasons? • Stats for Why Extension Should Use Social Media (Anne Adrian) http://www.slideshare.net/aafromaa/stats-for-why-extension • What is Social Media? (Marta Kagan) http://www.slideshare.net/mzkagan/what-is-social-media-20058 • eXtension Social Networking Tools http://www.extension.org/pages/62095/social-networking-tools
- 54. UF MGs on Social Media Facebook.com/Florida.MasterGardeners Twitter.com/FloridaMGs Pinterest.com/FloridaMGs YouTube.com/UFGardening
Editor's Notes
- Today I’m going to talk about some online tools you’ve no doubt hear about, including Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, and how these social media tools can help you with getting the word out about Extension. We’ll talk about WHAT the major social networks are, HOW to use them for Extension, and WHY you should care. We’ll cover a lot of ground and touch on a lot of topics. Don’t be overwhelmed. Our goal is to give you a taste of what’s out there so that you can feel comfortable jumping in, if you haven’t already. Speaking of which, let’s get a quick show of hands. How many of you have already set up accounts on Facebook? Twitter? Anyone on Pinterest? Also, if you have troubles seeing any of the slides, feel free to check them out later on Slideshare. The link for the presentation is on your handouts.
- Let’s touch briefly on the role of Extension. What is it? In a nutshell, we help Floridians live better lives. And how do we do that? We connect with people and help educate on key topics, like gardening, using research-based information.
- Traditionally, we’ve connected with people in a number of ways: offer workshops, answer questions over the phone, answer questions in person, mail out printed newsletters, or write columns in the local paper. As Extension leaders, if we want to do our jobs effectively, it’s important that we be in places where people can find us and use us. So where does that mean that we need to have a presence today?
- Many people are still using these traditional ways of getting the information they want, but they’re increasingly looking for information online. I don’t need to be the one to remind you that today, a staggering amount of information is available, and it’s available at the touch of a finger in more locations than ever. Another advantage is that there is amazing opportunity for interaction between people, people who may live in distant corners of the globe but who share common interests. People aren’t just seeking information. They’re seeking community and connections. This is where social media comes into play.
- Here’s a definition of social media from eXtension. In a nutshell, it’s any digital tool – either a website or a mobile application – that allows people to connect with each other and have some sort of interaction.
- Statistics show than 66% of adults are now connected to one or more social media platforms (Source: http://mashable.com/2012/03/09/social-media-demographics/ ) So let’s talk about why people use social media sites, since that will help steer what we do as Extension leaders. 67% say it’s to stay in touch with friends. 64% say it’s to stay in touch with family. 50% say it’s to reconnect with old friends. 14% say it’s to connect with people who share similar interests. This is where Extension comes in. (Graphic source: http://mashable.com/2012/03/09/social-media-demographics/)
- We’ll start with Facebook, because I think it’s probably the most valuable tool for Master Gardeners who want to help spread the word about Extension.
- By now, I’m sure you’ve all heard of Facebook. In a nutshell, it’s a social networking site that allows users to connect with each other, share their thoughts and photos, and also connect with groups and organizations. And Facebook has grown by leaps and bounds over the years, with 845 million monthly active users as of 2011. That figure is now up to 900 million . Let’s do another show of hands -- how many of you have created your own accounts on Facebook? Graph: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_ipo_filing_charts.php
- If you think about how many people you know who have Facebook accounts and then think about how many people worldwide are using the site, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that there’s a lot of daily activity on the site. Sources: blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=72353897130 http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/04/23/48-significant-social-media-facts-figures-and-statistics-plus-7-infographics/ 20 minutes per visit: http://mashable.com/2012/03/09/social-media-demographics/
- So what do all of you do on Facebook? For most people, they want to find and connect with friends. Then they want to see what their friends are up to, e.g., check to see what’s new.
- Check their news feeds to see updates from people and organizations that they follow. And what do people do when they see something that they enjoy or that ellicits some sort of reaction from them?
- From the perspective of Extension, this is the key. We want to be posting content that will make people want to hit the “like” button, leave comments, and then share our content with their friends. This photo of the Gator band in London that was posted on Friday is a great example. Within the first 13 minutes that this picture was posted, 242 people had already liked it, 13 people had commented, and 11 people had shared it. By the time I looked at it again on Monday at 4pm, 568 liked it, 27 people had commented on it, and 39 people had shared it.
- So how do we put helpful content on Facebook that will engage users?
- The best thing to do is to set up what’s called a Page. Pages are the equivalent of profile pages but for an organization, business, politician, or other sort of public figure. (If you’ve been on Facebook awhile, you may remember that they were once called “Fan Pages.” For example, the Florida Master Gardener Program has one. So does Florida Department of Agriculture. So does Oprah. They’re easy to set up. Just use the link on your handouts: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php. Here’s one important thing to keep in mind – you should be logged into your personal Facebook account before you try to set up a Page. Otherwise, you’ll be somewhat limited later with the kind of interaction you can do. I logged out so that I could get a better screenshot of what the Master Gardener page looks like to new people who join it, rather than what I see as an admin.
- If you don’t a personal page, the Facebook help site can be a good place to get started. It’s www.facebook.com/help. But in the interest of time, I’m going to assume that I don’t need to talk about setting up a personal page.
- The best thing to do is to set up what’s called a Page. Pages are the equivalent of profile pages but for an organization, business, politician, or other sort of public figure. (If you’ve been on Facebook awhile, you may remember that they were once called “Fan Pages.” For example, FNGLA has one. So does Florida Department of Agriculture. So does Oprah. They’re easy to set up. Just use the link on your handouts: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php. Here’s one important thing to keep in mind – you should be logged into your personal Facebook account before you try to set up a Page. Otherwise, you’ll be somewhat limited later with the kind of interaction you can do. Note: Facebook also offers another option, called Group page. This can be a good way to set up a closed group that would be visible just to the Master Gardeners in your county. You could use it to post announcements of upcoming meetings, share photos of recent events, or whatever else you wanted to do.
- Once you have your page set up, you’ll want to post good content. Try to post photos and topics that other people identify with. For example, this photo was taken after Tropical Storm Debby passed through. Since so many people could identify with all the rain that had been falling, it was a good photo to post. Photos in general are more effective than just plain text. As a rule, we get more activity from dynamic photos that we post along with content over just content itself. Another good tip is to share other people’s content. It helps promote community, and you’ll show up as a “share” underneath their original post. Use tags as appropriate so that related people and organizations will see your post in their own news feeds. In this post, we tagged USF Botanical Gardens. All you have do to tag someone in a post is to start typing their name when you’re writing your post. Facebook will automatically give you a pop-up menu with friends and groups that you’ve joined that start with that series of characters. You can also choose to “like” some of the comments that other people make on your content. This can help improve the visibility of your content according to the algorithms that Facebook uses to determine a post’s popularity. Just don’t overdo it.
- Another fun way to engage people is to use the question feature that’s now built into Facebook.
- This is where you can see what activity has been happening with your page. You can also switch from using Facebook as an individual to using Facebook as your Page, either by using the drop-down arrow in the upper right or by clicking on the text that says “Change to Florida Master Gardener Program.”
- If you click on the insights graph in the middle of your admin panel, this is what you’ll see. It basically gives you a rundown on the various interactions that people are having with your Page.
- You can also advertise on Facebook, which can be a good way to promote your plant sale, recruit new MGs, etc. You can even target by gender, geographic location, age, etc. I could do a whole presentation on this topic alone, but for today, I’ll just suggest that you check out this section of the Facebook help pages. There’s also a new feature on Facebook that allows you to promote certain posts, but we won’t get into that today.
- Facebook also offers another option, called Groups. A group page is a little bit different but is just like it sounds. It’s a group of people who join and have a common interest. You could create a group page for your county MG program and invite all of the county Master Gardeners join. You could use it to post announcements of upcoming meetings, share photos of recent events, or whatever else you wanted to do. One nice thing is that you can choose whether or not you want the group page to be public, or if you just want it to be visible to members of the group.
- And keep in mind that you don’t have to handle all of this alone. You can add other individuals who can serve as administrators for the page.
- So how do we put helpful content on Facebook that will engage users?
- Twitter is two years younger than Facebook. While Facebook is good at connecting real-life friends and family, Twitter is best at connecting people with similar interests, like gardeners. People like how easy it is to use (in comparison to Facebook). That being said, some people still aren’t big fans of it. 465 million accounts: http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/04/23/48-significant-social-media-facts-figures-and-statistics-plus-7-infographics/ 175 million tweets per day: http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/04/23/48-significant-social-media-facts-figures-and-statistics-plus-7-infographics/
- Twitter is a social media platform that lets you send updates of 140 characters or less. Here’s a shot of the Pasco Master Gardeners Twitter page. You can see that they have a number of recent posts on interesting gardening topics. They’ve chosen to include shortened links so that people can visit another site to get more information on the topic. This can be an effective way to catch people’s attention and then drive them to your website.
- So how do we put helpful content on Facebook that will engage users?
- 36% tweet daily: http://mashable.com/2012/03/09/social-media-demographics/ 92% retweet: http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/04/23/48-significant-social-media-facts-figures-and-statistics-plus-7-infographics/ 69% follow: http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/04/23/48-significant-social-media-facts-figures-and-statistics-plus-7-infographics/ From an Extension standpoint, we’re interested in having a steady presence on Twitter, and posting good content that people will want to retweet.
- So how do we put helpful content on Facebook that will engage users?
- 36% tweet daily: http://mashable.com/2012/03/09/social-media-demographics/ 92% retweet: http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/04/23/48-significant-social-media-facts-figures-and-statistics-plus-7-infographics/ 69% follow: http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/04/23/48-significant-social-media-facts-figures-and-statistics-plus-7-infographics/ From an Extension standpoint, we’re interested in having a steady presence on Twitter, and posting good content that people will want to retweet.
- From an Extension standpoint, we’re interested in having a steady presence on Twitter, and posting good content that people will want to retweet. Along these lines, it’s important to follow people who you think will be interested in what you have to say, since that increases the chances that they’ll retweet your posts.
- Okay, so most of this should sound familiar. Again, we want to emphasize posting useful content. Here’s a shot of the Florida Master Gardener feed on Twitter. We use Twitter primarily to promote other content that we’ve posted in our newsletter, on our website, or on our blog.
- Okay, so most of this should sound familiar. Again, we want to emphasize posting useful content.
- Think about all of those great garden magazines that you’ve subscribed to over the years. What did you do when you saw a garden or an idea that stopped you in your tracks? You’d rip out the article and then tuck it away someplace. Think of Pinterest as the modern filing system for great garden ideas.
- Pinterest is the relative new kid on the block, since the site launched just over two years ago. Already, it’s up to 11.7 million monthly users: http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-media-users_b22556 Overall, more women than men use social media, and this is especially true with Pinterest, where 82% of the users are women, “who pin crafts, gift ideas, hobbies, interior design and fashion.” (Source: http://mashable.com/2012/03/09/social-media-demographics/) Pinterest is tied with Facebook for first place in terms of how long people spend on the site each month. The average social networker spends 405 minutes on both Facebook and Pinterest (and 89 minutes on Twitter) (Source: http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-media-users_b22556)
- The major appeal of Pinterest is that its very visual, so it’s especially popular with creative types. Here’s the Florida Master Gardener page. We haven’t been exceptionally active yet with this account, but we do have some different pinboards set up.
- Here’s on of our Boards – the one where we feature each Plant of the Month from our newsletter. he Florida Master Gardener page. We haven’t been exceptionally active yet with this account, but we do have some different pinboards set up.
- The major appeal of Pinterest is that its very visual, so it’s especially popular with creative types. Here’s the Florida Master Gardener page. We haven’t been exceptionally active yet with this account, but we do have some different pinboards set up.
- It’s basically the same story as on Facebook. If you feel inspired by something you see, then you make the decision to either like it, comment on it, or share it with others. Some people feature lots of photos and projects on their boards that they do themselves. If you have someone who’s a great photographer, then he or she would be a great one to get involved in setting up a Pinterest account. You could also involve other Master Gardeners who like to make projects, and it could be a collaborative effort. Of course, plenty of people on Pinterest just function as curators, sifting through the existing pins on the site and liking and repinning only the very best. If you want to start a Pinterest account but have limited time, this is the easiest way to do it.
- YouTube is a HUGE online destination in general, but this is especially for people who are looking for how-to videos in areas like gardening. There are other sites that host video on the web, but YouTube is the first place that many people go to search for videos. Many people also like that it gives you the opportunity to interact with other users by commenting or liking videos. That’s why this is a great place for your county to upload any videos that you might have produced. Image: http://www.dailytech.com/YouTube+Internets+Third+Most+Visited+Site+Turns+Five/article18393.htm
- Creating your own videos can be a great way to demonstrate gardening techniques or to show what common pest and disease problems look like. The video here shows Jaret Daniels demonstrating how to set up your own mini-garden that will attract butterflies. And these days, it’s easier to shoot and produce video than ever. Most digital cameras and even smartphones have the ability to shoot video. One of the most popular and affordable tools on the market right now is the Flip Video, which shoots HD quality video. Decent models start at as little as $125. http://support.theflip.com/en-us/home
- Once you have the videos loaded on YouTube, you can also embed them in your Web site or blog posts. You can also post them to Facebook or Twitter.
- Like Facebook, YouTube does a good job of letting you know about any activity on your account. This can be handy if you’re trying to track contacts.
- I wanted to share with you a list of different UF/IFAS video channels, so that you’d DougBugHimself is Doug Caldwell from Collier County Extension
- (Emily)
- Social Media in general can be pretty overwhelming and disorienting. It’s hard to take seriously sometimes because there is a lot of the trivial and banal out there. “What’s the point?” is a question that frequently arises, and it’s difficult to answer without some orientation. My short answer to “What’s the point?” for you if you are trying to engage, communicate, or market to an audience is – the audience is using this. And just as important, they expect that we will be too! Also, cost is a factor – BUDGETS – can work with social media outlets at virtually zero cost, other than time – think about how much time gets spent putting together paper newsletters, -- doing the layout, stuffing the envelopes and adding address lables, getting them mailed. Social media isn’t that time consuming when you think about it that way. And it’s easy to use once you get the hang of it, and very visually attractive. WORD OF MOUTH – not just trying to get our message out via social media channels, we want people to embrace it and pass it on to their own networks
- AA from AA is a big name in why Extension should care about social media Another good reason to use social media is because it’s FREE. “… Social media is like word of mouth on steroids.” via Marta Kagan And people expect it of us. “ 93% of social media users believe a company should have a presence in social media.” via Marta Kagan And here’s a key point to take home… “ 85% of social media users believe that a company should go further than just having a presence on social sites and should also interact with its customers.”