Social media campaign shows how ANR is improving lives

Brooke Latack was one of the employees featured in UC ANR's “Improving Lives in California” campaign.

To increase awareness of how UC ANR research and extension is improving life for Californians, Strategic Communications has been posting about UC Cooperative Extension activities across social media.

Inspired in 2022 by the state government boosting ANR's budget to allow the hiring of more than 100 academics and support staff, Doralicia Garay, social media strategist, wanted to show legislators and other Californians how they benefit from ANR.

“The ‘Improving Lives in California' campaign is designed to showcase ANR research as well as those who deliver it by featuring compelling content and UC Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists,” Garay said. 

She targeted Californians who were interested in agriculture, pests, environment, wildfire, water, youth development, and nutrition with paid campaigns as well as regular posts on Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn.

Between March 2022 and December 2023, UC ANR's “Improving Lives in California” campaign has reached more than 600,000 people and more than 21,000 people have engaged with the posts by sharing, liking or commenting across all platforms.

“The per-post engagement rate averaged 3.5% across all social media channels, which is almost twice the average rate per post,” Garay said. 

Key elements of the campaign:

• Employee spotlights: Through a series of engaging profiles, we highlight our extension experts' unique journeys and expertise. By featuring their skills and contributions to research projects, we humanize our staff and inspire a sense of connection with our online community.

          Examples:

          tinyurl.com/23bjz4xr Brooke Latack

          tinyurl.com/yxbmybp5 Ian Grettenberger

          tinyurl.com/rndcn6uz AtefSwelam 

Ian Grettenberger was featured on Twitter, now known as X.

• Short videos: Bite-sized videos featuring Cooperative Extension advisors are intended to simplify complex research projects and explain their relevance to all Californians. It's also a great opportunity for our audiences to get a sense of our researchers' personality. 

          Examples:

          tinyurl.com/mr46w65s Srabani Das

          tinyurl.com/bdf68sh5 Ramiro Lobo

          Series of videos: instagram.com/ucanr/reels/?hl=en 

Ramiro Lobo describes lulo fruit research in a video on Instagram.

• Social media takeovers: We take our audience on a virtual tour behind the scenes of our research facilities. Through carefully crafted multimedia content, we share what makes research and extension centers and county office locations unique, and how the infrastructure enables scientists to bring innovation to life.

         Example:

         tinyurl.com/272xh9h7 South Coast REC

• Research impact stories: We bring our research to life by illustrating its real-world impact on California communities. Through compelling narratives, we demonstrate how the dedication of UC ANR employees to research translates into positive change with advancements in agriculture, wildfire mitigation, water issues and more.          

         Examples:

         tinyurl.com/5y2vn4rs Hamutahl Cohen

         tinyurl.com/2e3bafh3 Houston Wilson, Jhalendra Rijal and David Haviland

• Interactive Q&A sessions: Live Q&A sessions on social media platforms encourage direct interaction between our experts and online audiences. Although social media reach has recently dipped for this type of content on Facebook, we successfully engaged with our Facebook audience in 2022 during a nutrition Q&A by retaining 80% of our live audience from start to finish. 

          Example:

          tinyurl.com/52e7jy6s Mary Blackburn, JavierMiramontes andAba Ramirez 

Mary Blackburn, Javier Miramontes and Aba Ramirez answered nutrition questions during a Facebook live.

• Employee-generated content: Encouraging employees to share their own perspectives, experiences and insights on social media platforms promotes a sense of ownership and inclusivity. It also creates a vibrant online community that encourages our audiences to participate in conversations about research initiatives. 

         Example:

         tinyurl.com/587jcxvf GerrySpinelli 

Gerry Spinelli describes his irrigation study in an Instagram video.

• Hashtag campaign: "#ImprovingLivesinCA is a unique campaign hashtag that serves as a unifying element, allowing us to gather user-generated content and track the campaign's reach and engagement.

“By strategically highlighting our employees in the narrative of our research efforts, #ImprovingLivesinCA strengthens the UC ANR brand identity and positions our organization as a collaborative partner at the forefront of innovation,” Garay said. “This campaign represents a comprehensive approach to leveraging the power of social media to drive reach and engagement and serve our online community.”

You can follow UC ANR on Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter),LinkedIn and YouTube.

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