Extension administrators discussed the competencies and characteristics of Extension professionals as they explored how Extension will need adapt to changing clientele, both in who they are and how they want to receive information. Extension education curriculum is not fully preparing future Extension employees in all required competencies,…

Social media has been recognized as a powerful tool supporting communication of many topics in the agriculture industry. We explored the use of social media platforms among farmers market managers and specialty crop growers in Illinois through an online survey. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter were platforms used by the majority of respondents. We…

The University of Nebraska--Lincoln Testing Agricultural Performance Solutions (TAPS) program involves use of farm management competitions to increase engagement across producers, industry, and universities. Participants make several management decisions throughout the growing season in a controlled field trial held at the university research…

eOrganic, the Organic Agriculture Community of eXtension, has conducted webinars on organic farming research for over a decade. I examined questions asked by farmers and university researchers or educators during 52 webinars presented 2015-2017. A higher proportion of questions asked by farmers than questions asked by researchers/educators were…

Farmers involved in local food systems are seeking opportunities to expand operations and diversify their sources of income through value-added operations and access to new markets. To be successful, producers need further food safety training and business skills acquisition to mitigate potential risks. We outline and discuss a multidisciplinary…

Research supports Extension educators' use of social media as an engagement, outreach, and marketing tool beyond posts shared by staff and faculty. This article highlights the practical use of Snapchat geofilters at county and statewide Extension events to support the creation of user-generated content and increase Extension's visibility with the…

As online communication becomes more important to Extension professionals, understanding how promotional strategies affect the number of people accessing online content also becomes more important. We tracked website visits resulting from four different promotional efforts to understand relative effectiveness of these efforts. Each effort was…

Extension professionals at all levels can use popular social media platforms to increase awareness of Extension. This article explores how our team of Extension professionals has used a blog in combination with Facebook on a weekly basis to better market Extension and our work. Every Extension professional can easily become part of a deliberate…

We developed a program centered on a social marketing-enhanced home energy education visit to encourage homeowner adoption of specific energy conservation measures. We randomly assigned 170 homeowners to an experimental condition that included energy education before an energy audit or a control condition that included only an energy audit.…

For various, largely unknown reasons, decision makers do not have equal interest in all Extension and outreach topics pertinent to a particular concept. This situation hampers Extension's ability to effectively deliver information and efficiently allocate limited resources. Using survey data, we identified heterogeneous preference for various…

This article describes a novel grain marketing simulation game called "Marketing in a New Era" (MINE) that was developed for use in Extension producer meetings and other educational settings. Key benefits of MINE are that users can personalize the game's marketing simulation environment by incorporating information specific to their…

We explored rural older adults perceptions of health to inform health promotion program development, using social marketing as our framework. Participants in seven focus groups viewed independence and holistic health as indicators of health and identified healthful eating and physical activity as actions to promote health. Barriers to these…

Social media is a valuable communication, outreach, and marketing tool, yet Extension educators often underutilize social media due to concerns related to lack of guidance and perceived risks. This article showcases a unique approach to creating a social media strategic plan that applies best practices from the field of marketing and addresses…

Want to send a message that 99% of your audience will read? Many Extension professionals are familiar with using social media tools to enhance Extension programming. Extension professionals may be less familiar with the use of mobile phone text-based marketing tools. The purpose of this article is to introduce SMS (short message system) marketing…

Online and off-site educational programming is increasingly incorporated by Extension educators to reach their clientele. Models such as the flipped classroom combine online content and in-person learning, allowing clients to both gain information and build peer learning communities. We demonstrate how video documentaries used in traditional…