Using Real Money to Promote Extension Horticulture Programming

Extension professionals have a long tradition of promoting their educational programming efforts via a creative variety of outlets, the majority of which are at no real cost to the Specialists other than their time. Many of these include newsletters (hard copy and online), trade magazine listings, email lists, direct emails, calendars of events, and more recently blogs, websites, Facebook, Twitter, and a great myriad of other social media platforms.  What would happen if actual dollars were spent to market Extension horticulture events to the public? The Greenhouse Tomato Short Course (GHSC) was used as an example and has been promoted over the years in an assortment of free and paid methods. The GHSC is a national conference held in Jackson, MS, each March, which is designed to train commercial growers of greenhouse tomatoes and other hydroponically grown vegetables (http://greenhousetomatosc.com).  Having just completed 25 years, the methods of promotion will be examined. The free promotion techniques utilized include those avenues mentioned above. While helpful, the reach of free methods to new audiences will always be limited. However, by spending real dollars, new clientele can be accessed. Advertising in trade magazines reaches a wide circulation of paid subscribers. This is often augmented by online versions of the publications which may or may not include an extra fee. Facebook marketing is a sophisticated instrument for tailoring exactly who the audience is for each paid ad. The target audience can be defined with a series of keywords, states, or countries of the user’s residence, and various population demographics (age, education level, etc.). Furthermore, by using well-designed ads and posts, clientele who would most likely benefit from the program can be enticed to become engaged. The GHSC Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/GreenhouseTomatoShortCourse) attracted over 6,000 page likes in a four-month period. In addition to the above, marketing promotional items have been carefully selected so that producers will enjoy them when they return home, yet also continue to promote the program to others in the community for years into the future. Costs to be incurred need to be incorporated into grant proposals to insure that they are allowable charges. The caveats of navigating this path will also be addressed.

•