Comparing Social Media and Postal Mailings in Forestry Extension Program Marketing

摘要

This reportdescribes a project that tested social media versus traditional postal mailing advertising for aseries of forestry Extension educational programs.Forestry Extensionclientele have diverse backgrounds and include landowners, urban tree owners, communities, agencies, and others, and vary widely by sociodemographic and ownership characteristics. Such diversity creates challenges for technology transfer, including initial client contact, participation in educational programming, and realizationof learning objectives. The Mississippi State University Forestry Extension programhas attempted to address these challengesthrough social media marketing and in-personimpact evaluation.Anonline marketing strategy resulted in 39% of clients becoming aware of and registering for programs through social mediaand email compared with 45% from postal mailings. Still, social media marketing resulted in more clients registering earlier, and in registration of clients who had not previously attended Extension programming,compared with postal marketing. Given the many diverse communication methods used by Extension clientele, social media,and traditional forms of marketing should be integrated intosuccessful marketing campaigns. Implications for future educational efforts arediscussed.