My first foray into Pinterest

The question of whether or not Pinterest was a tool to be used by the college or extension came up a couple weeks ago in a college social media forum.  No one present had much experience with Pinterest, so not much more was said.  The primary user in the college of which I am aware are Jeff Hyde  for the Agricultural Entrepreneurship programs.  I hadn't used it beyond viewing links others sent me so decided to explore.  I am now the proud owner of a "Penn State Extension" board. 

One thing I find interesting about Pinterest is their enrollment process.  Unlike most social media hubs, you have to be invited to join Pinterest.  You can request the invitation from their site.  In my case I recieved the invitation within 24 hours of my request.  The invitation included links to get me started.  Unfortunately, at the time I received the invitation I did not have time to work on this so rushed through some of the information and logged out.  Yesterday when I logged in I had to try to figure out some things that probably would have been evident had I spent more time with the prescribe introductory links.  After a little bit of time on these I began exploring other sites.  I decided I needed to give myself an assignment so set off to create a Penn State Extension board.  In my research I did find a Cooperative Extension board which contains "pins" from around the country, but I wanted to make my board unique to Pennsylvania to explore how we might use it to talk about what Penn State Extension offers.

So, I began work on my board.  Naming it was easy.  Then I realized I still didn't know how to pin things to my board, so did a little backtracking on that.  It didn't help that some of the initial pages I attempted to pin had no images sufficient for pinning.  This may have implications for future web design if it is hoped that people will promote your pages through tools such as Pinterest in the future - in this case, you need images that can be utilized to make it easier for this to happen.  I believe from my web travels yesterday I came across a solution for pinning items that don't contain images, but couldn't find it again when I retraced my tracks.

Eventually, I got a respectable board established with basics about what Penn State Extension is, and some program pages, newsarticles and notice of upcoming events.  I like that new items are automatically shifted to the top and that I can select the cover picture.  It's also nice that the URL for what you are pinning is automatically posted.  I found it interesting that if I post something someone else has, even if I didn't get it off their page, they get credit for the initial "pin." 

I felt that sense of accomplishment I used to enjoy when freshman would accomplish something they thought was impossible or hard as I finished, but recognized the next question is the every repeating "So what?"  How do we know if this is an effective way to reach our audience?  Will people use it?  Is there a mechanism to evaluate success?  These are all questions that have to be answered to determine whether or not this is something to encourage for programs such as this.  I must admit a bit of pleasure this morning when I found that one of my items had been repinned three times already.  So, did three people find this that wouldn't have otherwise known about Penn State Extension?  At least I know three people looked at the page.  I look forward to seeing how this develops over time.  I'll keep you posted.  (and if you give me material, I might even "pin" you.)

Current hashtags for twitter

This is not anything profound, just a list of hashtags I've been using lately in promoting some of our extension programming along with some of the rationale for their selection.

#CoopExt - Seems to be best tag to use for Cooperative Extension activities and events.  Appears to be used universally - good way to follow what is happening in other states.  Some people have used #Extension which I understand, but when I search on it I see a variety of topics covered from domain names, hair design, and phone installation.

#MilKids - information about programming and resources for children of parents involved in the US military

#AgEntre - this evolved from conversation with Sarah Cornelisse, Jeff Hyde and Keith Dickinson regarding topics related to new product or business development by agricultural producers.  We discussed #EntreFarming, but the suggestion was the #AgEntre is more inclusive.

#NGV - Natural Gas Vehicle

Some that don't appear to need much explanation:  #PennState, #FoodSafety, #HACCP, #ServSafe, #stormwater, #water, #renewable #energy, #invasive species, #DayCare, #marcellus #dairy.

Added to the list on 5/16/12 -
#MasterGardener
#FoodPreservation
#Arboretum
#Marcellus
#wine

New additions as of 6/7/12 -
#forestry
#urbanforestry
Be sure to follow me on twitter @kavines.

Thinking about CRM tools

I've been giving some thought recently to CRM tools - software intended to strengthen the relationship between a business and its clients engaged in virtual interaction in an online environment.  However, as I begin in this thought process, I can't help but think back 20+ years ago when I began work as a county extension educator - a role that relies heavily on an individual's ability to develop and maintain relationships on  many levels from individual to entire organizations.  Of course, at that time the primary mode of communication with individual clientele that was not face-to-face was by telephone.  Face-to-face connections occurred during farm visits or in group educational settings except those times you would run into a client in the grocery store or a restaurant.  I can't ever remember anyone making a big deal of it, but it was understood that when you received a phone message you would respond as quickly as possible.  The staff assistant who took the message generally made certain that the client knew you were away and had an idea of how long it might be before you got the message so they had an expectation for when the call would be returned.  Unless someone dropped in the office as you were arriving, that stack of phone messages was the first thing you would conquer on your return.

When we increased the number of computers in the extension office and moved them onto people's desks and equipped them with email I do remember the discussion about how quickly you needed to respond to email.  At that point, many people treated email much as they would the phone and when an email came in felt the need to respond instantly.  Some were concerned that their productivity in other areas was suffering because of the constant interruption.  I have heard people suggest that people schedule time to respond to email - first thing in the morning, last in the evening, maybe after lunch - so they can preserve other time to work on other projects without this distraction.  But it remains extremely important to respond to emails in order to maintain relationships just as it was important to return phone calls in the early days.  However, the opportunity exists at times to evaluate the situation and return an email with another form of response - phone or maybe even a face-to-face visit when it seems that is best for maintaining positive relationships.  But not responding is not an option in such a people-oriented business.  And much as the staff assistant did with callers in years gone by, if we anticipate our response may be delayed beyond our normal expectations we generally provide automatic responses to buffer the expectation of the sender so they do not read our delayed response as a failure to respond.

Now enter social media.  Similar to email - but quicker paced, and much more public.  Failure to respond is not an option.  How do we utilize the tool to share information and education while working our best to develop and maintain relationships?  After all, isn't the key to CRM responding in a timely manner with what the client needs and doing so in a manner that is useful to them and aids in the development and maintenance of a positive relationship that provides benefits of regular interaction in the future.

So, answer the phone, respond to emails and utilize communication through social media that is intentional in setting the tone for that positive relationship.  Be your own CRM tool.