Posts Tagged: Twitter
Some Thoughts on the Utility of Twitter in Extension
The extensionist of the 2010's is faced with a multitude of choices concerning where he or she will be most effective in transmitting good information to the clientele he has been assigned. While traditional formats like face to face meetings and on site farm calls still work, others liked mailed newsletters have been set aside in many cases for more timely, content rich and effective media, including vehicles like this blog.
On point, some of us Advisors and Specialists have taken to playing around a bit with Twitter, the microblog site which allows a person to keep others up to date on their own doings without having spend hours crafting an article. Personally, if one's business is to connect with a larger audience, I think Twitter can work.
I don't express myself so well on this point, so I'm including below a (mildly inflammatory) piece by Barry Ritholz, a blogger whom I follow pretty closely concerning the use of social media to connect with people in the professional space. The highlight in the middle is mine:
"For years we heard about people tweeting their every move. If you think this is how Twitter still works, you're probably e-mailing your friends jokes on AOL. Twitter has moved on. The looky-loos have long departed. The self-righteous wannabes tweeting over a hundred thousand times are living in their own tiny silos, in their own echo chambers. That's one of the great things about Twitter, when you see somebody hating on you you can check them out and in almost all cases they have almost no followers and no one sees the hate, so you can relax. This is not the network television of yore, this is one jerk with a megaphone in the middle of the prairie with no impact.
So you've got experts in every field tweeting about their findings, what interests them.
When breaking news occurs a hive emerges with tons of data... if you can't adjust on the fly, you don't deserve to be on Twitter, you need remedial reading classes."
I'll rephrase in less forthright language. Twitter has moved on from being the redoubt of the solipsist and the extremist, as in "hey, look where I am" or "hey, this is what I think" over and over again, to a medium for experts to connect quickly, effectively and share with those who are interested in what they think.
Not all a bad thing.
Whole post is below.
http://ritholtz.com/2017/04/twitter-results/
Mind the megaphone - can Twitter be effective as a medium for experts to share findings and data?
UC IPM's urban program now on Facebook!
UC IPM's Urban and Community Program is now on Facebook! 'Like' us so you can be updated about new...
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Global Food Systems Forum attracts international audience
People from more than 350 locations, on every continent except Antarctica, have registered to watch the UC Global Food Systems Forum webcast on April 9.
Interested people in Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Barbados, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Germany, India, Italy, Kenya, Morocco, Netherlands, Spain, Thailand, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Venezuela and states throughout the U.S., have signed up to be part of this global conversation and the audience continues to grow.
Sign up now to be part of the conversation http://food2025.ucanr.edu. We have begun the discussion on Twitter using (hashtag)#Food2025.
Not on Twitter? There’s still time
At the ANR Statewide Conference, we will be using Twitter for a variety of different purposes. On Tuesday, April 9 during the Global Food Systems Forum, the world will be live tweeting using (hashtag)#Food2025. Questions, answers and conversations on this critical topic will abound.
In addition, throughout the conference we will also be using (hashtag)#ucanr2013 to broadcast basic information for conference participants such as lost and found items, resource room opportunities, and last-minute scheduling changes.
If you haven’t used Twitter, Karl Krist has posted a 3-minute video showing you how to get an account and how to use it. Watch his video on YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFNaKhiHkRU.
For step-by-step Twitter instructions in writing, visit http://agisamerica.org/twitter-guide. Ag is America is a project of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU).
View or leave comments for ANR Leadership.
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
Details about ANR Statewide Conference in April
Join the #Food2025 conversation on Twitter
Everyone is welcome to join the Twitter conversation on issues that will be discussed at the April 9 Global Food Systems Forum. The topic for next week's Twitter discussion (March 24-30) is environmental pressures facing our global food systems and potential solutions. To participate in the Twitter discussion, use (hashtag)#Food2025.
If you haven’t used Twitter but would like to join the conversation, Karl Krist has posted a 3-minute video to bring you up to speed. Watch it on our YouTube channel – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFNaKhiHkRU
Seats remain for preconference tours
Seats are rapidly filling for our preconference tours, but a few are still available on Tour #1 of Coachella Valley and Tour #3 of San Diego County. In addition, a couple of seats have opened up on Tour #2 of urban San Bernardino and Orange counties.
All three tours are described at http://ucanr.edu/sites/statewideconference2013/Program/Tours_-_April_8. If you’ve already registered for the conference and would like to add a Monday tour, email your request for a tour to anrprogramsupport@ucanr.edu.
Final call for posters
If you would like to display a poster for the conference and haven’t yet submitted a request, please go to https://ucanr.edu/survey/survey.cfm?surveynumber=9900 and submit your request by midnight on Friday, March 22.
Nearly 500 people have registered for the ANR Statewide Conference April 9-11. Registration will be open until the conference begins, but those who register after March 25 will be accepted as space permits.
View or leave comments for ANR Leadership.
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
UC Cooperative Extension leader to 'Tweet' from White House garden on Friday
Follow the event in real time from 5 a.m. to 12 noon Pacific Time on Twitter using the tag #whgarden.
White House Social is a series of in-person meetings of people who engage with the White House through social media, including Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Hayden-Smith has followed Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and the White House on Twitter since Obama's election in 2008. She won the invitation after entering a contest that asked contestants to describe in 140 characters why they wanted to visit the White House garden.
"I'm really excited to be part of this,” said Hayden-Smith, who is also a UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Ventura County, specializing in 4-H youth, family and community development. "The fact that the Obamas are cultivating a food-producing garden on the grounds of the White House says really wonderful things about our country. The First Family is showing its concern about the health of Americans and reducing childhood obesity. That's something we at UC Cooperative Extension care a great deal about.”
Hayden-Smith Tweets as "Victory Grower” (@victorygrower) a persona she created to reflect her interest in a national revival of the Victory Garden movement, in which increasing food production was considered vital to bolstering national security by creating a more secure food supply.
"It's a different 'victory' now, but many of the goals are the same," Hayden-Smith said. "Gardens connect people with food and food production. Food is fundamental. It's what everyone shares in common. As we are entering a more challenging era of increased population and pressure on resources, it is vital for people to understand how to cultivate food.”
Hayden-Smith travels to Washington D.C. on Wednesday, Oct. 17. On Thursday, she and her colleague Rachel Surls (@rachelsurls), UCCE advisor in Los Angeles County, will tour urban garden projects in the nation's capital. They will be Tweeting about their tour on Thursday afternoon using the tag #urbanag.
Though not an official part of White House Social, Surls will have a brief tour of the White House Kitchen Garden on Friday. She will Tweet on Friday using the tag #whgarden.
Surls and Hayden-Smith are joining with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources to promote urban agriculture in California, an effort that is expected to generate multiple benefits. Gardening provides a way for people to be physically active, to improve food access, to increase fruit and vegetable consumption and to reconnect people with agriculture.
Following are background articles related to Victory Grower and urban agriculture efforts:
- Victory Gardens: A boon in hard times
- Summon us to service
- Kitchen table memories
- Urban Agriculture: A good model then, a good model now
- On the future of food
- UC helps you design your landscape and eat it, too
- Outlook: UC's land-grant mission fuels nation's growth, prosperity
- Setting agricultural science strategy in tumultuous economic times