In Heidi Radar’s article Extension Is Unpopular—On the Internet, she points out that finding Extension articles on the Internet is difficult. Commercial sites often overshadow Extension’s topical information. While I agree with most of her recommendations, I do not agree with item 7, “Encourage staff, faculty, and volunteers to write fewer articles, and ones of higher quality, that reflect current interests of clients.”
We should promote radio spots, videos, articles, bulletins, and journal publications. We need to share this content across search engines, social platforms, and our own websites.
In a previous post, Using technology to help get the word out, I talked about using technology to help with distribution. In this post, I would like to briefly discuss the reuse of content.
Turn Radio Spots Into Podcasts
Recently, I discovered that five of the University of Wyoming Extension educators are putting out regular radio spots. Radio spots are a great way to send out information. However, the spots are typically only a onetime shot at your audience. If a member of your audience failed to tune in that day, they missed the content. Podcasts allow you to reuse and share radio spots. You can then redistribute podcasts to a wider audience, including not only podcast subscribers but also your Facebook, Twitter, and iTunes followers. Right now, we are redistributing our podcasts to 1,613 followers of our Facebook fan page and assorted Twitter accounts.
Give Extension Content a Home on Blogs
I believe all Extension educators should have a blog. It can be an individual blog or a community blog where county educators post to a common blog with different categories. Educators could also band together by initiative team or in a statewide collective. A blog is an excellent opportunity to reuse articles submitted to local papers or distribute thoughts otherwise not picked up by a paper. According to the Pew Research Center’s 2011 Annual Report on American Journalism, more people are getting their news online compared to declining traditional sources.
Make Useful Content Easier to Find
If we (Extension) want to continue to exist, we need to continue to be relevant. We are relevant only in the public’s eye. However, if people do not find and use our content, others who communicate their message more effectively can easily replace us.
With the number of Extension educators we have nationwide, we should have little trouble having our content appear higher in the search engines. First, we must do a better job of making our content available. We should turn radio spots into podcasts and post articles to blogs.
These are just my thoughts. What do you think?
Additional Reading
- Book Review: Show Your Work! 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered
- How I Share as Part of the Seek – Sense – Share Framework
- Using Technology to Help Get the Word Out
- How Scarcity Affects Extension or Why We Should Be Giving It Away
- How Extension is Using Pinterest to Promote Good Nutrition
There were a lot of inaccuracies in the cited article. You would hope the JOE had better review. To conclude that Extension can’t be found on the Internet based on the results of two search terms is laughable, and shows a general misunderstanding of how search even works. Extension content actually shows-up pretty high in most searches– especially that content which is more niche.
I agree with you that with good searching skills, extension articles will bubble to the top. However, I am also receiving lots of feedback that extension articles are hard to find. I attribute that to weak search skills. Nonetheless, I believe we need to do a better job getting our content distributed. We have a lot of content that has been used once to a small audience, and it can be redistributed to a larger audience. More exposure does not hurt extension.