Promoting Webinars with Penn State Extension’s Calendar

In my last blog I mentioned that you could select “webinar” when posting an event to have it appear on the webinar list on the statewide Extension calendar.  Then….. I went to find it.  Not only did I find it difficult to find, but I’ve also looked at numerous webinar postings and most of those were not using it either.  So, the audience for this post is limited to Penn State Extension, and the purpose is to show you how to select webinar when posting events. 

When you are entering an event in the Extension calendar system, you need to select the “Edit” tab and select “Categorization.”  Under the first heading, “Event Type(s)” scroll down (nearly to the bottom of the list and select “webinar.”  Make any other necessary selections and then click on the Save button at the bottom of the page and you are done.

Happy posting!

Extension Calendar Observations for 2012

Many of you know that in the past year I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about how we market extension programs.   Although my primary emphasis has been on the use of Cvent, I also have been considering how we use the Extension Calendar to market our programs and events.  As the year comes to a close, here are some of my observations that you might consider as you add programs for the coming year as well as some interesting facts and figures.

These recommendations are based on an average of 98 calendar entries reviewed each month between June and December. [1]  In general, I found an average of 140 potential issues each month, but am pleased to report this has declined from a little over 2 issues per entry in June to 1.58 issues per entry in December. 

What are the issues?  Here are the top three I’ve seen along with an explanation of how they might be avoided.

#1 – Using PDFs for registration or to provide additional information.  PDFs are often slow to download from computers and are useless with mobile devices.  Instead of a PDF, enter the information about the event into the calendar entry page.  This will make it easier for your potential audience to see the information.

#2 – Issues related to content.  There are several ways the content of your entry can impact the likelihood of attendance by your potential audience.  What you present and how you present it is important.

First, answer the basic questions:  

·         Who is the intended audience?

·         Why should they attend?  What should they learn or be able to do after attending?

·         What do people need to do to attend?  This includes advance registration.  Be sure to indicate how people should register and indicate if there is a registration date.   Any registration cost should be stated.  Also, let people know if the event is free.

·         Where is the event being held?  Most of the time this is covered in the address section.  However many of our events are online these days.  Be sure to tell the attendee what to expect when they go to a link.  For example:  “You will want to log-in to http://meeting.psu.edu/xxxx  to participate in the webinar.   This meeting room will be monitored beginning 10 minutes prior to the program.”  Also, with webinars, it might be useful on the meeting screen, if you leave the meeting room open, to post a message indicating the topic, date and time of the next session so that if someone goes there to test the link, they will know they are in the right place.  In the college calendar system, you can also select webinar in order to have the event appear on the Extension webinar calendar.

·         Who do I contact if I have questions or a problem?  It is also good practice to include a name and contact phone number in case participants have difficulty accessing the program.

Finally, don’t provide extraneous information.  Just provide the information that is relevant to that particular calendar entry.  If you are working with an event that has multiple meetings/locations across the state (i.e. ServSafe, Better Kid Care), you may refer to a calendar landing page for other events, but don’t try to list these on this particular entry.   If you don’t have a calendar landing page and need one, discuss it with your program team and EPL.

#3 – List a contact person.  We are a people organization, so include a contact person, email address and phone number so potential participants know who to call if they have questions.  Some offices are having email go to an office email account.  This is fine as well, but be sure the link that is used is descriptive.  For instance, if the contact for the event is the Beaver County Extension Office, use Penn State Extension – Beaver County Office rather than just Penn State Extension.  Along these lines, if you are working with another organization, it is okay to indicate that in the content of the calendar entry.  However, the contact person for our Extension calendar should be someone affiliated with Penn State Extension.

Finally – for some stats from the entries I viewed – only 43 counties and 22 programs posted entries on the Extension Calendar during this timeframe.  The Private Forests program and Lebanon County team take the prize for posting, having at least one entry every month between June and December.  Missing only one month during this time frame were Adams County, Equine Programs and the Start Farming Program. 

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[1] For other recommendations, consult “Events” on the Communications and Marketing Website (http://agsci.psu.edu/communications/web/best-practices/events). 

ESP National Conference - Next Week!

I'm looking forward to visiting Mobile AL next week for the (Epsilon Sigma Phi) ESP National Professional Improvement Conference.  I always enjoy the opportunity to meet with colleagues from around the country that share my enthusiasm for Cooperative Extension and the difference it can make in the lives of people and the communities in which they live.   The networking will provide insight into what is new and different and what is working well and maybe not so well.  It will be good to identify common challenges and potential solutions on how we can be more effective and efficient in our work.

The national Public Issues Leadership Development committee on which I serve will be providing a session entitled "Extension's Involvement in Controversial Issues."  We have a panel including extension professionals from different levels to gain perspectives unique to their positions.  They will reflect on experiences with the 2011 Missour River flood, shale energy and drilling issues and the role Extension has played in community dialogue and action on each of these issues.

Other workshops that I hope to attend relate to creating the networked professional, local food issues, scholarship opporutnities for the 21st century and methods to better meet the needs of Latino audiences. The keynote on Tuesday promises to be interesting as Joe Sumner, Director fo the Economic and Community Development Institute at Auburn University will give a presentation entitled "Global Trends that Will Change All Our Lives.  A look at a dozen trends that are reshaping how we live, work, play and compete."

Look for my report in my next blog installment.

Developing standard processes in extension registration

One of the discussion topics associated with registration processes this week has been the need for standardization of processes across the extension organization.  In my CRM implementation reading, understanding existing processes and mimicking them in the CRM processes is recommended to improve success in achieving CRM goals.  Our processes are beginning with registration, so I begin my thoughts on standardized registration processes in extension, across a system that spans 67 counties.

Registration seems like a simple process back in my days in the county - once the event was scheduled the appropriate process for registration is established.  In "the good old days,"  when we were first putting computers on our desks, this generally meant mailing out forms and fliers, putting information in our newsletters and newspapers and then waiting for either the paper forms or phone calls so names could be added to the list of participants.  Then we added technology - lists were kept in computer files and we listed our email address to accept registration or questions about the event.  We began promoting events online.

Today, our clientele can go to our websites and register online.  As we receive phone calls or other registrations, we add them to an online computer application which now serves the role of our earlier computer file.  However, instead of adding information to a computer file we are adding it to a database that helps us know what sessions people want to take, whether they want to participate in future programs, etc.  In addition, the participants can easily forward their invitation to any of their friends via email, helping to market the program.  We still promote the program through our other communication chains, although most of our newsletters and the newspapers may be online in addition to or instead of in paper form.  Online allows easy access to links to registration.  It also opens the potential audience to people who may not have previously been on our mailing lists.  So, there are many benefits to the shift.

So, what are the variables in how registration was handled in the past and can be handled today?  We're still relying on people close to the event site to respond to questions and assist individuals in the registration process.  Staff still assist educators in meeting preparation.  Of course, the professionals involved have to become familiar and comfortable with the online registration system - so this means providing training.  This is no different than in most cases where we went from keeping registrations in a notebook to keeping them in a computer file.  Training should include how to get the information necessary from the system to know who plans to attend what training session and who has or has not paid, fix name tags, order meals, etc.  Earlier communication about what was happening - what, when, where, how - still needs to occur between those planning the program and involved in registration processes.  This may have previously occurred in office staff meetings and may now have to move to phone, email or video communications since registration staff and educators may not be in the same office.   This seems doable.

Help me with this - what are processes related to registration that you feel are unique to your office situation?  And while you're at it, how do you see them being achieved utilizing an online application?  And finally, what are potential benefits or losses to be considered in moving to an online environment?

CRM for Extension

Another area of inquiry has been CRM (or customer relationship management) for extension.  The college has made the decision to pursue this and my charge is to consider implementation.  One of the first things we need to do in order to have successful implementation is to make employees aware of why we are asking them to adopt a particular CRM system.  This is explored in this blog.

While you've gathered from my other posts, and already knew if you really know me, I believe that with or without a "technology-based system" the management of customer relationships has long been a strength of strong extension programs.  The idea of focussing on the customer's needs to determine programming directions is nothing new - whether we use one-on-one opportunities, advisory groups, or technology-based surveys to collect this information - the point is we have been collecting this information and using it to drive business decisions.   But we have probably been able to put greater emphasis on the face-to-face methods for gathering input because of our unique structure which provides an office in each county of the state and because in the past a lot of our educational programming has been provided in a face-to-face environment.  However, there are segments of the population we have not been reaching.  For many of these people our office hours and the dates/times we traditionally offer programming are not convenient.  So, we have begun strengthening our on-line delivery which requires mechanisms to gather input in an on-line environment.  So, we're good on this part - what it tells us in terms of what the product looks like that we use is that it needs to provide a way to report both face-to-face input along with information gathered in on-line environments.  The ability to connect and allow for input for our online customers is one of the primary reasons for implementation of the CRM.

Along with all of higher education, extension programs are being asked to provide greater evidence of impact and success to support accountability to stakeholders and funding organizations.  Data is generally gathered throughout the various levels of the state organization.  States are at different levels in reporting - ranging from providing basic participation data to providing data that indicates personal or governmental savings related to long term impacts.  The latter is the goal.  This could be another factor driving towards implementation of a CRM system - for data collection to be used for reporting.  A CRM system would need to provide a great deal of flexibility and ease in reporting to be successful in this realm.  State systems have varied success in building and implementing extension-specific models for this purpose.  CRM's tend to be more business-focused - units sold over time - so this adaptation may prove challenging.

Has your state extension program adopted a CRM?  If so, how is it proving beneficial to your organization and customers?  I'd appreciate your input.

Social Media for Cooperative Extension

One of my areas of thought and inquiry lately has been around the role of social media in developing and reaching extension audiences.  Extension has long prided itself on the relationships formed between the clientele and extension professional in the field.  Most of these relationships were face-to-face and I know I've talked about this in previous posts.  In "face-to-face" we have best opportunity for building those high quality relationships that build on the regular interaction, ability to "really see" what someone is talking about and ability to read body language and facial expressions that clue us into the importance of what is being discussed.  As extension professionals we have access to a wealth of valuable, research-based information that can be interpreted and implemented for local situations.  How do we do that from a distance now that we have to cover larger geographical areas to reach the same number of clients?  And better yet, how do we measure success?

The July 28 issue of Inside Higher Ed featured a story, Tweeting by Faith that reports that universities as a whole believe social media is a valuable tool but are ineffective in measuring what the tool is contributing to the organization.  They remain caught up in measuring number of friends, likes, followers, etc. which indicate people are available to hear and possibly listening, but don't really indicate that our message is getting across and used.

I previously reviewed a slide presentation from "Information Management" on the 9 Challenges with Social Media Metrics and share with you now what they identified as challenges and some of my thoughts on how they relate to Extension. 

1.  Response Tracking - This goes back to what we are measuring.  And to go beyond likes, retweets and shares we have to know who is using the content so we can later identify what change the information inspired.  This would require some type of "registration" which is a turn-off to many people when they are surfing.  Personally, if I see it and its not a site I already value, I'm not likely to register.  Someone could go in and make lists of those initial respondents perhaps and message them later to get follow-up information realted to how they used the information.
2. Audience - Are we successful in reaching the desired audience?  Of course this also assumes we sat down initially in planning our campaign and identified our audience.  In this we also need to know whether our message is going out at the proper level for the intended audience.  The message will be different for a beginning versus an advanced client.
3. Monitoring - Are we using social media to listen to how well we are performing.  What are our clients saying about us when we aren't directing the conversation.  This week there has been a great outpouring of support for Cooperative Extension related to our horticulture resources on the #CoopExt tag.  It's refreshing to see that, but who is watching.  And we can sit back and smile now, but if the message were negative would we be prepared to respond effectively and quickly?
4. Content analysis - We need to be sure that what we are producing is of the highest quality and usefulness to the intended audience.  Also, when we retweet or share other's messages we need to be sure it meets our quality requirements.
5. Connections - The article recommends some software that can be used to measure the strength of the connections that are being made on behalf of your social media presence.
6. Traffic analysis - What kind of interactions are taking place as a result of those connections?  Are they improving our reputation and reliability and helping to spread the intended message?
7. Influence - Klout has made us all aware that different people are on different levels of the influence chart.  We need to know how many people/companies of influence are supporting our programs through connections, messages sent, retransmission, links and comments.  I've always felt our messages were much stronger when someone else from the outside shared them as our message.  (Which emphasizes need for our clarity in delivering the intended message to the intended audience.)
8. Case Management - Do we follow-up with issues and challenges that are identified in a timely manner?
9. Cross-platform identities - How do we manage our identities for different forms of media to best utilize the attributes of that media?  Audiences often differ by media as do limitations and types of information that are appropriate to be shared.

How is your cooperative extension program measuring impact through social media?  Do you include it in your regular reports?  Does today's evaluation influence planning for future educational efforts?  And finally, how are you monitoring your message?  I look forward to hearing from you.

Extension Excellence

I learned this morning about the Extension Excellence program and website (http://excellence.tamu.edu/) which apparently has been in existence from planning to implementation for the past 7 years now.  "About Excellence" indicates the program began through the formation of a task force by ECOP to find ways to measure excellence in Extension.  The team includes a director and evaluator for each region of the US with representatives for the 1890 schools as well.

There are seven criteria with appropriate measures identified for program evaluation.  The criteria, as listed on the website, are as follows:
1. The university recognizes Cooperative Extension as a major component of outreach/engagement
2.  Diverse stakeholder input is used to shape programs
3.  Client satisfaction
4.  Best Practices/Exemplary Programs
5.  Knowledge/Attitude/Skills/Aspirations (KASA) and Behavioral Change
6.  Economic Impact
7.  Funding for Cooperative Extension

I believe regular review and reflection on how these criteria are reflected in programming would be beneficial for all of us in Extension.  Some areas may closely relate to our role in the organization, but it is good to have an awareness of what defines excellence for the organization as a whole.

The group also provides regular webinars, newsletters and other resources to aid extension in program evaluation.  The March 2012 newsletter contains results of a survey of Extension Directors and Administrators that suggests that personnel other than directors that are utilizing the information collected by the site are in the areas of planning and reporting, program leadership, human resources and communication.  Primary challenges appear to be increasing use and the number of institutions reporting to the site.  Recommended uses for the data include:  institutional comparisons, tracking institutional change over time, grant applications, illustrating critical needs and reporting progress and use of resources (accountability). 

Make reviewing this site a personal professional development goal for yourself today.  We gain value through the collective actions of our organizations.  This program/website will help to make us more aware of our accomplishments, both individually and collectively.