Livestock & Range blog, twitter, facebook and web pages

Social media such as internet based blogs; Facebook and Twitter when linked with RSS feeds provide a new tool for disseminating range livestock information to a growing group of both traditional producers and the general public. RSS feeds also allow for inserting blogs into existing web pages. I have created a UCCE Livestock & Range blog that can be seen at http://ucanr.org/blogs/LivestockRangeTopics/. I've also created a Facebook page that can be seen at http://www.facebook.com/UCCE.Range.Livestock and a Twitter page at https://twitter.com/#!/MendoLakeRange. Recently, I've created a LinkedIn page located at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=3849925. Right now the LinkedIn page is a closed group. The blog and tweets flow to my county based web pages which can be seen at http://cemendocino.ucdavis.edu/. Periodically the blogs are accumulated and disseminated via my regular written newsletter, The Grazer's Gazette, that is distributed both electronically and by snail mail. The efficiency in my extension efforts are amazing. Similar to writing one term paper for two or more classes but in this case, its one blog article being distributed to five or more groups of clientele. The digital aspect allows very rapid communication to those clientele that are technologically advanced. In addition, the younger audience, finds these communication tools much more acceptable than the more traditional methods. It was interesting to note that almost equal numbers of the over 50 age group are on Facebook as the much younger audience. I'm guessing they there because of grandchildren bu they are signing up for my information.

The target audiences reached through these modern technologies include traditional range cattle, sheep and goat producers, natural resource professionals, trade journals, land management agencies and non-governmental organizations. In the beginning the information was targeted at local groups within the two counties but due to it's popularity the clientele receiving the information are based throughout California, the US and many international areas.

Within my blog, Facebook and Linkedin pages there are built in evaluation tools that provide user statistics including most frequently read topic, referring web site, visitor demographics (Facebook) and number of unique vs. referred visits. In addition, all allow for comments and further discussion and some like Facebook allow readers to "like" the topic. I can use this feedback loop to assist in future programs including workshops, short courses or field days.

Files

Blog page pic

This is a screen print picture of my blog page.

Twitterpagepic

This is a screen capture print of my twitter page.

Linkedin page pic

This is a screen capture print of my linkedin group.

Web site pic

This is a screen print capture of our county web site showing recent blogs on front page. There are navigation buttons to my livestock & range pages as well as twitter pages and blog.

Web Twitter page pic

This is a screen capture of the web page of my Twitter posts. The neat part of how I use RSS feeds is that these are automatically created. Folks who only view my web pages can get access to my Twitter posts as well as my Facebook posts and blog posts. Really makes the information delivery efficient!

FaceBook insights1 pic

This is a screen capture of part of FaceBook's insights on my page.

FaceBook insights2 pic

This is a screen capture of the demographics report of visitors to my FaceBook page.

FaceBook insights3 pic

This is a screen capture of my FaceBook page's activity - what sites are visited and how folks found it - the referring sites.

Social Media SRM poster

This is a pdf of the poster that I presented last February at the Society for Range Management meeting. It describes briefly how I use social media and RSS feeds to reach both new and old clientele. Since presenting this poster, at least two other livestock and natural resource extension people, one in Idaho and another in Hawaii have developed similar pages.