April 6 Training

So this is our April
social media training.

Based on the poll,

which by the way,
thanks for doing that you guys

it helps me so much to
know what you're needing

because you're the ones that are
boots on the ground.

You know what you're wanting to
learn about.

And you guys had some
other really good ideas

That I'm going to cover in
probably not this one, but in future ones.

So I'm really excited.

And I love that you guys
are taking a personal interest in this.

So, welcome to social media training.

I just wanted to introduce myself
for those who don't know who I am.

I'm Alisha Wilkins.

You can email me at
Alisha.wilkins now.

I am legally changes to Wilkins.

I got married and hadn't changed
my name for a while.

Now I am legally Alisha Wilkins
and I am the social media manager

up here for Extension and my job is to
obviously run our Extension page.

But also to help you run your pages.

If you have Facebook questions,
if you have marketing ideas,

that you just need some help with,
I am here to talk about it.

If you have specific things
you want to ask me,

I am always down for a phone call,
a Zoom call to help you out.

I just wanted to start with a new thing
because you guys are doing so great.

And I've kind of been keeping track as
I go through social media everyday

of fun things I see people
doing with social media.

So Cache County extension,
they did a reel about spring cleaning

that was really, really well done.

Emory County,
Rowe sent in a video for us

that did super well
about World Water Day.

And it took him, I'm guessing,
five minutes to make.

It went super well, so thanks
Emory County.

USU Botanical Center has been
doing awesome.

They have the funnest flower pictures
and flowers are always easy to post.

Really low hanging fruit if you're like,

"I don't know what else I can post,"

just find a pretty flower
outside your office

and say, "We love spring!"
Done.

And then, Carbon County
had been doing awesome.

They had a post about the
STEM spot that the had installed.

And they had faces of the people.

And I know it's kind of hard to get
participants faces in things

if they didn't sign a waiver or something.

But I have found that if I want to include
someone's face in something

I just say, "Hey do you mind if I take
your picture for social media?"

9/10 times people have been
on board with that.

Anyway, there's a ton of other
things going on.

Those are just some of the
things that I saw.

So, I don't want this so be like
a full on lecture,

cause I know those get boring.

But you did ask what I kind of gained
from Social Media Marketing World.

I am just going to go through
a couple things

that I think that
you guys will appreciate,

then we can talk after about
how you can implement that.

Fluffy, generic things are awesome,

but I want to give you
concrete things to go and try.

So the first thing that I got hit
hard with the most,

is that your follower count,
doesn't really matter anymore.

We've been pushing for so long
to get this high number,

this high likes, followers,

but it's now considered a
"vanity metric"

by most social media professionals.

What that basically means
is that it just makes you look good

to other people but it doesn't
actually tell you

how well you're doing on social media.

But the platforms want engagement.

So that means, if you have 5,000
followers but you're only getting

20 likes, you've got to change
your strategy.

So then the next thing,
oh I'll get to that Nichole,

I'm sure there an actual USU policy.

Back when I was a 4H
person, I just kind of did it.

But I'll find out a more
formal policy.

So back to the followers thing,

maybe thing about what can I do instead
of just posting a graphic of my event,

is this an event we've
done in the past that I could

get someone to talk about on
a quick video,

about why they liked attending the event.

Could I get my agent or my coordinator,
whoever's in charge of the event,

to come on and share?

Could I post a picture of the
event from last year

and say, "look how fun
this is going to be!"

Utah 4H does that a lot with
a lot of their events

now that they have a content
library.

If it's a new event, maybe
post the thing they're going to be making

or reasons to attend this course.
Instead of just the graphic.

Often people are going to scroll past
just a graphic.

Just something to think about.

Followers doesn't equal success anymore.

You want to make sure you're getting
good engagement on your posts

meaning comments, likes, and shares.

So then the next thing,
kind of the same line, is,

not every piece of content will go viral.

That's just the world of social media.

And it's okay to have low reach
if you need to put information out there.

I know that there is some content
that when I post,

it's just not going to get a lot
of reach.

But that's okay because I'm
building trust.

I'm letting people know that this
is what we're about.

A lot of people ask,
when should I post?

How much should I post?
Duh-duh-duh.

It all depends on your audience.

So you can dive into your
own analytics for your page

and see when people are the most active,

and schedule your posts for then.

Or an hour before their most active times.

Because every page is different
every audience is going to be different.

Some audiences don't mind being posted
to a couple times a day.

Others it's like they only need a couple
times a week.

So dive into your own analytics
for your page.

And I can show you how to do that
in a different phone call if you want to.

Something they also talked about was

aligning your strategy with the goals
of the platform.

Video is huge on Instagram right now.

They're going to reward you by boosting
you in the algorithm

if you can post a video.

You don't have to do a trendy lip sync
or funky dance.

Even just a quick video from one of
your 4H coordinators about

time to sign up for fair stuff, or just
a staff assistant doing, I don't know.

There's lots of things you guys
can be doing.

They also are going to give value
to faces in their posts.

Instagram and Facebook are taking
a shift back to organic content,

to more friendly content.

So they want to see faces.
They want to see interactions.

Anyway, so then, what's another thing?
Oh!

It does take seven to ten touch points
for someone to take action

for your business,

so that means it might take them
seven times before they come to a class.

Or seven times before
they purchase a product.

Or they trust you as this reliable source.

Another thing that I am working on now
for our main account,

is start with five pillars of content
that you know your office is good at.

So if you've got canning person,
a 4H person, a gardening person,

so that way, each day of the week,
you assign their content.

So people know, well, just so you know,

on Tuesdays, I post about FCS,
on Wednesdays, I post about 4H.

Obviously you can do it more if
its like, gardening is huge right now

and 4H is going to get bigger too,
you can post more.

But that way it helps you to keep
your thoughts organized.

If you're like,
Mondays I need to find a food post,

Tuesdays I need to do this post.

And that way, also,
your followers can know,

okay, they post about money, food,
beef production, and gardening, you know.

They trust your page.

This is something that I know can be
kind of hard.

But if you want to understand
social media,

you have to get on social media.

And so, obviously use...

Be discreet about it.

But if you want to understand trends
and you want to understand

what people are doing online,
spend some time

on social media just scrolling.

So I scroll one,
I probably scroll an hour a day

intermittently throughout the day
just to understand

what the temperature of things is.
Like what's going on online?

Just because I want to be
aware of trends.

Sometimes I spend longer on the days
I need to create a bunch of content.

And I write down things, like
oh I could totally do that for Extension.

Another thing is you're
going to get a little uncomfortable.

Social media and being in front
of people online

is really uncomfortable if
you're not used to it.

Just getting used to the
uncomfortableness

is part of the social media
that I love.

I love being like,

"Okay, I look like a complete idiot
doing this right now,

but people love it."

And then the last thing is that
your content

should make the customers
the hero of your story.

So they should be the people who
you're focused on.

This is something—

Oh, I guess this was the last one,
sorry, I went backwards.

Answer questions.
Solve Problems.

That's kind of what our content,
for main Extension,

that's my goal is that we
phrase things around questions

that we're getting asked.

So, if you're the ones that are getting
calls in your county,

if you're getting a tons of calls about
crabapple or fireblight, like,

"When do I spray for fireblight?"

Make a post about it.

If you're getting tons of calls about
"When are out livestock tagging dates?"

Make a post about it.

You know? It's really low hanging fruit.

You know there's people out there
who are asking these questions.

Or, you know, if you have
a money question.

People are asking, "What do I do to save
money with gas prices and inflation?"

Make a money post about that.

And that can come just from
knowing what your audience is needing.

And solving their problems
and answering their questions.

So I know that was a lot of,
here, here is all of my thoughts.

And my one challenge,
because I want you to actually do things,

is to find your five pillars in
your office,

the five subjects that you know
you can consistently post

something in that.

And then just branch out from there
to help with things.

So that was just my little run down.

The conference was awesome and I
wish you guys could all go.

What questions or thoughts
do you have about what we talked about?

And how can I help address them?

I know Nichole had a question.

I will find out the actual USU policy.

It's probably good to follow
those policies.

But I know in the past,
if I just told them,

"Hey this is going on the social media,"

they've been fine with it.
So I'll find out.

I know if they're a 4H member,
they automatically signed a release

when they enrolled in Zsuite.

So kids are a little different, but I'll
ask for the adults.

K, whatcha got?

Yeah, just go ahead.

WOMAN: Hey Alisha, just to respond to
Nichole too,

one of the things that we've done,

because we're not just a typical
Extension office that deals only with 4H

but for the Tribal and Rural Opioid Initiative
classroom activities that we do,

we have a sign in sheet,

just like they typically use for
the 4H activities,

that has the release basically
printed at the top.

So as they sign in, we're counting that
as their release signature as well.

ALISHA: That's a good idea.

WOMAN: That's worked for us so far.

We are actually,
I'm working with Julien right now

to try and talk about how we should
handle our upcoming summit.

Because that might be
a little bit different.

We're talking about doing some live
Facebook posts during the summit.

So we're just going to double check
and make sure that that's okay too,

because we may have people signing in,

and we may have people that come in
when the information desk is closed,

or whatever.

So one of the things that we've
considered is posting

around the room,
on like a sandwich board,

that there is a possibility,
just giving them notice that

there is a possibility that they could
show up on our social media.

Because it is going to be broadcast
in different areas.

So as long as there's notice, we've been
under the impression that that's okay.

But to kind of cover ourselves,
like I said,

we just include the verbiage
off of the release form

at the top of the sign in sheet.

I don't know if that's helpful or not.

>> No, I like—the signage thing
is super important,

and I think good at fairs and events.

Like you are in a public area
you might be on camera.

When I worked county fairs,
we had those all over

and I didn't ever have anybody
have problems.

I have, you know,
my husband is in law enforcement

so I'm going to be that crazy mom
who's a little nervous

about my kids being posted
because I don't want that.

But yeah, the signage is a good idea.

And Shawna's awesome and put the marketing
photo video release form in the chat.

I like the sign in sheet too.

You got to keep track of their names
for food anyways usually.

Might as well just put your
thing at the top.

So, Kassie, I don't know what the
4h brand kit is.

Is that something Megan was doing?

Or did you hear...
I'm not sure what that is.

KASSIE: Megan might be doing it.

They did a National 4H brand
update training

a couple weeks, I guess it was about
a week ago, from National 4H

and I was just wondering if
we were gonna get the kit.

>> Yeah, I bet Megan would know.
I don't know much about that.

That's cool.

I'm trying to get out your April,
I didn't do a very good job for March,

I'm still trying to figure out
my schedule.

But, I'll try to get out some April posts

that are easy for you guys to
put up as well.

But I did want to ask what kind of
questions are you guys

getting in your office a lot of?

Like what things are people asking about?

Cause you're the ones that,
I don't get calls anymore.

I miss being in a county office
for that reason. I like that.

What are people asking about?

Gardening.
Yeah, pretty easy.

Oh, Water Wise.

Sewell has so many good things
for drought and lawn.

I know we posted that reminder thing
and people were upset.

But, people get upset about
watering their grass all the time.

So gardening, thats good.
Lawn care in the drought.

I don't know if you guys knew that
USU has a whole website about drought

and how to take care,
and not even just like lawn care stuff

but how to save water in your own home.

So I'll be making some posts about
that as well.

So you can just put those out there.

Post about lawn.

Goat heads.

My husband came home
with a goat head in his shoe.

And I was like,
I'm not starting this yet.

No, it's not going to happen for me.

What about my Southern Utah people?

I know Northern Utah fairly well.

But what are things happening
in Southern Utah?

I don't get down there enough.

Oh, canning?

What're people canning right now, Diane?

DIANE: We've had a lot of calls about
chicken for some reason.

Canning chicken.

>> Oh chicken. Oh okay.
That's a good one.

>> And then we get a lot of calls about
testing their lids.

For some reason everybody in
Washington County has been

inheriting pressure canners or finding
them in their parents garages

and they're disappointed
when the gage is off,

but anyway,
things like that.

We get a lot of those questions.

>> Okay.
>> And I know that Rick,

our horticulture guy, is getting a lot
of calls about watering,

and about planting gardens,
and starting seeds, and things like that.

>> Okay, no that's awesome.

I do know that Southern Utah is usually ahead.

They're in a different zone than us
for gardening.

So I try to specify as much as I can.

"Hey this is for zone this
if you're doing it."

I asked Nick Felesky and we've got a post
going out in April about,

"You're going to start seeing insects
already in Southern Utah."

Canning food. That's awesome.

So you could do a post about,

"What do you do if you
inherit a pressure canner?"

Make a checklist.

Like, here's all the things you should do

to make sure that it's ready to go
for when you want to can.

Or why you should follow a...
is it Bluebell?

Is that the canning brand?

That you should follow...
when...

Why you should follow this recipe
when you're canning chicken

and not what this influencer online
says about canning.

>> And that's actually a lot I've been
getting is people said they saw online.

But you're getting Bluebell ice cream
mixed up with Ball.

>> Is that what? Thank you.

>> But it would be nice if we had Bluebell
ice cream here in Utah.

>> I know. You're right.

>> I'm still getting, and Melanie
might be able to speak,

I'm getting calls about where
to find lids.

We still don't find a lot of lids
down here for canning.

We can find the lids for jars.

>> Lids.

>> But not lids on their own.

WOMAN 3: Yeah I saw your email about
that Andrea.

That would probably be good to talk about.

And I know the Ball website says
that the eight vendors

that they are actually
selling to specifically.

So like Ace Hardware Store and Walmart,
maybe not Walmart,

but Target, anyways.

There are like eight vendors nationally
that they have prioritized.

So those would be the places you
would want to tell people to try first.

But yeah, that would be a good idea.

We can throw together a
little post together on that quickly.

ALISHA: That's a good idea.

I know there's a lot of, are stores still
doing case lot sales everywhere?

I know Cache Valley's are
kind of waning down.

DIANE: We have one going right now at
Smiths down here.

And Lynn's.

Lynn's, which is our
Associated Food store,

They've just finished
theirs a week or so ago.

>> Cause when those come around,
those are crazy.

You can talk about how to...

Think your younger demographic
a little bit,

cause they've probably never learned
how to do a food storage.

So think my age.
Maybe we have one young child—

I have a half cooked baby right now,
we're pregnant.

Think like your younger demographic
who are just starting their food storage.

And pose yourself as the expert on that.

Like, "Hey, are you just starting out?
Here's an easy way to do food storage.

Store it under your bed.
Here's your essentials."

I always joke with my mom that my food
storage plan is tennis shoes

to walk to her house.

Cause she's like
six miles away.

So that's my food storage. Not really.

But how to safely build up,
or how to build up your food storage

without breaking the bank, you know,
spending all this money.

So there's another thing.

As far as your lawn care and drought,

also remember we're going to have
a lot of people

who don't own homes,
they don't own lawns.

I don't have a lawn,
I don't have a garden.

We live in an HOA community.

So how can you post about drought
so that they feel

like they're contributing as well.

Are their washer and dryer tips?

Let me post this Sewell website
in the chat.

It has super good information for all
those things.

Because drought is something that people
are worried about.

There's that.

Some thoughts that I had
is people are going to be asking

about their soils soon.

Like, what can I add to it?

Umm...
What's the word?

A strategy that I saw at
Social Media World that I liked,

was they didn't post the link on Facebook.

They put a little caption and
a little graphic

and they said check out the comments
for more information.

They put the link in the comments.

And so people had to take that next step,

which boosted their
post in the algorithm.

So that's something.

You comment below the link.
So it's not just sitting in the post.

Those do well.

Yeah. I'm trying to think if
there's anything else.

Honestly, you guys are super great.

Oh! Container gardening!
And 5-gallon bucket tomatoes!

Can you grow a tomato in a
5-gallon bucket?

Can you grow potatoes or spinach?

Or maybe even talk, like,

Why growing your own food, it might not
save you a ton if it's a small apartment,

but it's good for the soul.

I love having fresh herbs.

That's a good one.
Container gardening.

Another thing, if you're having a
problem with figuring out what to post,

is to do a Google search that's like,
how can I save water during a drought?

And then on Google there's
other frequently asked questions.

And that gives you some really good
places to start.

So if I did that right now,

How to save water in a drought?

Other common, people always ask,
"What are ten ways to save water?"

"How do people get water?"
"What are ways to save water?"

Something that we learned at the
social media conference is

put your tips in odd numbers.

So "my number one tip"
three tips, five tips, seven tips.

So people know exactly what they're
getting into when they start it.

So yeah, that's a good one.

I'm sure, maybe it's my 4H background,
but I'm sure you're getting

4H kids asking about livestock projects.

Tagging, what supplies I actually need
if I want to raise a lamb for the fair,

how do I get involved in clubs?

WOMAN 4: Turkeys right now.

We're getting turkey questions in
our office.

>> Oh yeah. That turkey project
is insane.

I'm really grateful I don't do that.
They're gross.

Anyway, okay.

I think that was all I really
wanted to cover

was just some basic things.

Like I said, if you have specific
questions and you need some help,

please reach out to me.

That's what I love doing,
is helping you guys be successful

on your social media
because it is important for us.

That's, honestly, where people go.

Especially my demographic.

We go to these social media sites
to build trust.

And ultimately, social media is to
build trust in your following.

And it's to tout yourself as the
expert in these fields.

We talked a lot about niching down

at this Social Media Marketing World.

But when I asked what is
Extension known for?

The number one thing was gardening,
but the number two thing that we learned

was that people know Extension for
good reliable information.

And that's awesome.

That's the brand that
we want to put out there.

So making sure that things
are research backed,

they're from our website,

and that they're helpful to the people.

That's what they look for Extension for.

And this upcoming,
I keep saying my generation,

but this up and coming genreation,
they're gonna learn that Extension

is more than just cows and cooking.

There's way more information that
we could be getting.

Now we just have to build that trust
over time.

Okay, if there's nothing else,
I love these short meetings,

I'm going to stop it.