Author: Blake Newton
Planning Unit: Entomology
Major Program: Natural Resources
Outcome: Initial Outcome
During 2020, when face-to-face contacts were dramatically reduced because of COVID-19, the Extension Entomology team at UK used social media to make contacts with Kentuckians. In particular, we focused on our YouTube and Facebook accounts to deliver content related to seasonal entomology topics. Content consisted mostly of short posts with single images or 3-5 minute videos. During 2020, these posts received a total of over 27,000 views. One video, though, on Cicada Killer Wasps, continued to receive attention into 2021, and has gone on to garner over 85,000 total views. More important than the individual impressions that we made with these videos, though, is the new skillset that we have developed. We are now much more comfortable with social media in general and video editing and production in particular than we were before the pandemic, and have continued to use these strategies since to create new content on multiple platforms.