In our fast paced world, information is available in many forms. The Madison County ANR program has long relied on hardcopy newsletter mailings to around 1,100 households as the main source of outreach for education and program advertisement. In recent years, an electronic listserv has been created to offer clients the email option instead of regular mail. The listserv has around 150 subscribers. This way of distributing newsletters has helped reduce cost and labor within our office.

The ANR program had been using Facebook to a limited degree prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, however once social restrictions went into place, it was apparent an upgrade was needed. On March 23rd, 2020 the Madison County ANR agent created an ANR specific Madison County Extension Facebook page. After some time of advertising and posting information, as of today 7.6.21, the page has 569 followers and from July 1, 2020- June 30, 2021 the page reached 13,520 people. This is a very large increase in contacts and information sharing. It has allowed for sending timely information, receiving feedback and questions as well as ZOOM meeting announcements. This has been a particularly effective way to reach new clientele as several first time users of Extension have noted. A recent survey showed that 50% of respondents prefer in-person meetings with a Zoom option.

In addition to Facebook, other technology has been incorporated into the ANR program. A YouTube channel was created for posting videos and specific ag related info where it currently has 4 videos and 1568 views.