Growing Blueberry Knowledge Via Social Networks

The All About Blueberries Community of Practice (CoP) was built to help guide blueberry producers in the southeastern region of the United States in methods to maximize productivity, decrease production costs and increase the marketability of their crops. The All About Blueberries CoP is incorporating the best existing Cooperative Extension publications and developing new research-based extension recommendations related to blueberry production and consumption on its website: www.extension.org/blueberries. The website officially launched Aug. 31, 2010. Social Networking sites such as Facebook, WordPress and Twitter are being utilized to help draw traffic to the website. Information found on the website is posted on the Social Network pages with links to the information on the website. A broader audience is reached by using these Social Network sites and, thus, traffic to the website is increasing. The CoP is using Google Analytics to measure website activity. In the seven months since the website launched, 15,646 pageviews have been made. Facebook ranks 7 of 29, and Twitter ranks 18 of 29 in Entrance Sources used to view information on the website. WordPress Site Statistics reveal a total of 1,311 views of blogs posted on the site. These figures are constantly increasing. In addition to these sites, the CoP also is using Flickr, an online photo management and sharing application, to obtain photos to use in building the website.  Using Flickr allows the CoP to reach a broader audience with its message about blueberries. All of the online tools used by the All About Blueberries CoP are free to use and free to access.

Using Social Networks to share knowledge is a great way to reach more people. According to Uday Saxena, “If utilized well, social media can lead to great success...it is possible to conduct regular business online.”