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Contact Information

Craig Wood, Ph.D
Acting Associate Dean & Director
UK Cooperative Extension Service

S-107 Ag. Science Center North Lexington, KY 40546-0091

+1 (859) 257-4302

craig.wood@uky.edu

Impacts

Contact Information

Craig Wood, Ph.D
Acting Associate Dean & Director
UK Cooperative Extension Service

S-107 Ag. Science Center North Lexington, KY 40546-0091

+1 (859) 257-4302

craig.wood@uky.edu




Fiscal Year:
Jul 1, 2019 - Jun 30, 2020


Success StoryFruit Extension Social Media



Fruit Extension Social Media

Author: Elayna Stirn

Planning Unit: Horticulture

Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial

Outcome: Long-Term Outcome

Scientific publications are long and difficult to understand for those who are not well versed in the Horticulture industry. Accessing concise, easy to understand information is necessary for us to overcome the gap in knowledge between researchers and growers. Brent Arnoldussen and I created a Facebook page, Instagram Page, and YouTube page for Fruit Extension so we can post resources we develop and share other resources in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment as well as those created by others in the industry. Each page will have short form educational video content and posts communicating upcoming events, tools growers should be utilizing, and short informational posts, each funneling into resources already provided or blog posts that expand concepts touched on in posts. This social media page has given us the ability to reach many different audiences across Kentucky. Those that have reposted our content have ranged from CAFE departments to county offices and other growers we have established relationships with as well as home gardeners and new growers in the state. Since the creation of our pages in March, we’ve received 82,000 total views. The demographic across all our pages is 52% women and 48% men with 73% of viewers ranging between 25 and 55 years old, which is our target range to hit the new generation of growers coming into our field. This ability to share information easily has allowed us to reach not just growers but home gardeners and potential new growers that will benefit from our resources. One huge benefit to this new online presence is finding new growers that would not have known our resources exist, so we can set them up with success before they plan their orchards. One grower had purchased peach trees without a plan for orchard managementso we were able to provide guidance and resources for him to become successful before he planted. This grower is quick to understand how to take care of his orchard thanks to the resources provided to him because of the social media. This has been a fantastic way to funnel people from the social media to our website and blog posts to encourage them to dig deeper into the topics we are covering. Now and in the future, we will continue to make connections with others for future collaborations, share and create new resources that will benefit growers for success, and use this to promote research that supplies data and information for the resources we provide for growers in the state. 






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