Situation:

Prior to the Covid 19 Pandemic, the Crittenden County Extension Service page was underutilized.   The 4-H agent was best about posting pictures of what the youth were involved in.  The staff assistant was great at posting fliers of our upcoming events but that was about all the office used the social media for.  However, the FCS agent was terrible about posting pictures had never attempted a video. But the Coronavirus forced all the agents to step out of their comfort zones, rethink the way they delivered educational programs and reach out to a whole new audience.

Educational Response:

Besides posting webinars and programs the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment have provide, each agent has taught their own lesson via video.  Some of these include:  Videos where the agents worked as a team - Making a desert dish garden (all agents), Herb Gardening (AG and the FCS agent taught a section on cooking with herbs).   The FCS agent has conducted several cooking videos featuring Cooking through the calendar recipes and NEP Eat Smart to Play Hard. The FCS agent taught a 6 week closed Cook together Eat together Facebook Live class that had 10 families sign up to participate.  Now that the class is finished, the videos are being posted on the website for all to see. The website is also used to advertise when we have grab and go bags available for pick up.  The agents would do a video explaining what was in the kits and how to complete the activities included. The FCS agent also conducted a weekly family photo contest series.  All photos must have members of families doing things together and the photos could be black and white or color.  Some of the subject categories included: family mealtime, families cooking together, family pets, hobbies and physical activity.

Outcomes:

Since March 18, 2020 the Crittenden County Extension Facebook page has grown by 101 new people that liked the page bringing the total number of page likes to 1,221 people. During the first month of COVID pandemic the page likes increased by 46 or 557% increase from the previous month. People have engaged in page post by liking, sharing or commenting a total of 18,441 times. The page has reached a total of 41,738 people since March 18. Page reach is the amount of people who have seen any content from our Face book page. The office page has been viewed a total of 2729 during this time period also.  Some of the comments we have received from clientele and other include: We’ve enjoyed seeing the post and we are learning lot.” This was from someone in a neighboring county: “Your office has done a great job with your facebook page, I’ve looked at our county’s facebook page and they aren’t doing anything.  Needless to say, since we have become comfortable with the technology needed to successfully us social media as a delivery method, we will continue to post more frequently once things return to “normal”