Meredith Oglesby – Agricultural Communication

Engaging audiences through social media in colleges of agricultural and environmental sciences

“Seventy percent of Americans use social media to connect with one another, share information and entertain themselves (Pew, 2019). It’s estimated 79% of 18-29-year olds are using Facebook and 38% are using Twitter. With college students being active on social media, college departments are able to leverage platforms to engage with students meaningfully. What is not clear, is what the most successful tactics these departments are using.

The objectives of this study were to 1) understand how departments within a college of agriculture and natural resources use Twitter and Facebook to engage audiences 2) determine success of tactics based on the highest levels of engagement, and 3) understand whom popular posts are targeting.

For this study, researchers gathered 16 months of social media analytic information from 4 academic departments. The top 5 Twitter posts from each month per department were used to determine the average number of impressions, engagements, and overall engagement. For Facebook, the lifetime of a post’s total reach and lifetime of engaged users were averaged. Tactics noted included if the post had a photo, video, link, hashtag, or tagged another page. The audience of each post was analyzed to track popular themes.

For Twitter, 307 tweets were analyzed across 4 departments. The departments had 608 total engaging elements with Department 1 having the most at 199. Department 1 had the highest average engagement and average engagement rate. On Facebook, 303 posts were analyzed for 493 total engaging elements across departments. Department 1 had the highest number of engaging elements at 211, the highest post total reach at 2,946, and the highest engaged users at 338.

Results show departments are engaging with three main audiences: students, faculty/staff, and alumni. Posts with engaging elements of images and videos had higher levels of user engagement in all departments. Popular themes across platforms include students on campus, student organizations, research, and events. This study aligned with most social media research in that posts with engaging elements have more reach. It is important that departments continue to use such tactics to reach audiences.”

Research Poster Presentation