Science 7 - LAND and SEA BREEZE and its Characteristics
E xtension 2011 fsa cop social media project-05-11
1. Tweet Smarter, Not Harder:
Methodology and Impact of a Social
Media Project to Encourage Savings
Barbara O’Neill, Andrew Zumwalt,
Rebecca Travnichek, Michael Gutter
eXtension Financial Security for All (FSA)
Community of Practice
2. Workshop Objective
Discuss pilot test of the FSA
CoP’s ability to implement and
evaluate a national social media
financial education project.
3. Program Description
– National grant-funded social media outreach
project to promote savings
• $1,200 mini-grant for America Saves Week 2011
– Greatly elevated the social media capacity of the
FSA CoP
– Use a triangulation (multiple methods) evaluation
approach
4. Definition of Social Media
Digital networks (blogs, Facebook, Farmville,
Twitter, wikis, YouTube) that enable people to:
– Organize
– Socialize
– Learn
– Play
– Participate in e-Commerce transactions
5. IF FACEBOOK WERE A
COUNTRY, IT WOULD BE THE
THIRD LARGEST. THERE ARE
MORE FACEBOOK USERS THAN
PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES.
THE WORLD’S SECOND MOST
POPULAR SEARCH ENGINE IS
YOUTUBE.
MORE THAN 75 MILLION PEOPLE
WERE ON TWITTER in 2009 (and
over 200 million in December 2010)
AND IT IS GROWING FASTER
THAN ANY OTHER SOCIAL
NETWORKING SITE, ESPECIALLY
AMONG 50-SOMETHINGS
6. Four-Step Project Methodology
• FSA CoP social media capacity needs
assessment (survey)
• FSA CoP capacity–building training
• Program implementation and delivery
• Triangulated impact evaluation assessment
7. CoP Capacity Survey Topics
• Social media tools used
• Frequency of use
• Description of content posted
• Number of friends/followers
• Social media impact evaluation methods
8. Use of Social Media by FSA CoP
Frequency of Social Media Use by Extension
Family Economics Educators (N =45)
Social Media Site Almost Daily Frequently Sometimes Rarely Never
Facebook 42% 20% 22% 9% 7%
Twitter 7% 14% 2% 39% 39%
YouTube 5% 25% 48% 16% 7%
Blog (any) 5% 5% 35% 7% 49%
Linked In 2% 11% 20% 27% 39%
Flickr 0% 0% 7% 19% 74%
Plaxo 0% 0% 7% 0% 93%
My Space 0% 0% 0% 9% 91%
Digg 0% 0% 0% 5% 95%
9. Subsequent FSA CoP
Social Media Webinar
How to Use and Evaluate Social Media in
Financial Education
Duration: 01:28:44
URL for Viewing:
https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/p52944724/
10. FSA CoP Social Media
Webinar Topics
• How to use Twitter
• How to use Facebook
• How to assess social media outreach
and influence
11. Project Implementation
• 70 Facebook messages and 70 tweets
– Saving, debt/expense reduction, America Saves, ASW
• 94 project cooperators
– From eXtension, Saves campaigns, military, others
• One of first financial education social media
projects EVER with a focused evaluation
methodology
12. Sample Facebook Messages
• Save your loose change! According to America Saves, saving fifty cents a day
over the course of a year will allow you to save nearly 40% of a $500
emergency fund. Remember, small changes equal big savings! For more
information, visit http://bit.ly/fHbGQy.
• Do you keep track of your spending? The America Saves program suggests
that you review your purchases using credit and debit card receipts, bank
statements, and/or online records. Then, ask yourself if you should reallocate
some of this spending to an emergency savings account. For more savings
tips, visit: http://bit.ly/fLuD29.
• Need help establishing a budget? America Saves offers this great tip:
Beginning on the first day of a new month, track everything you purchase.
Then, review your list at the end of the month. It will be much easier to make a
budget once you see where your money is going. For more savings tips, visit:
http://bit.ly/fLuD29.
• Want to save money? Take advantage of discounts and/or incentive programs
provided through your employer. Many companies offer discounted rates for
computers, fitness center memberships, movie tickets, hotels, cellular
services, and more. Talk to your human resources representative to see what
perks your company offers. For more savings tips, visit: http://bit.ly/fLuD29.
13. Sample Tweets
• Save loose change. Saving $1 + change/day allows u 2 save $500/yr.
Small changes=big savings! For more info, http://bit.ly/ASaves #eXasw
• Do u track your spending? America Saves says 2 review monthly
purchases & put $ into savings. For more info, http://bit.ly/ASaves
#eXasw
• Save >$2/day buying coffee vs. latte. In 1 year, you could “find” $500
to save. Wake up & smell the coffee! http://bit.ly/ASEnroll #eXasw
• Keep your car engine tuned & tires inflated to proper pressure to save
>$100/yr in gas, says America Saves: http://bit.ly/ASTips #eXasw
• Consider nixing cable movies. This saves >$500/yr. Use local $1
movie kiosks instead. For more saving info, http://bit.ly/ASaves
#eXasw
• Avoid expensive purchases on impulse. Think it over for 24
hours. Avoid buyer’s remorse & save $$. More tips: http://bit.ly/ASTips
#eXasw
14. Triangulation (Multiple Methods)
Evaluation Approach
• Unique Twitter hashtag: #eXasw
• Follow-up follower/friend survey
• Follow-up project participant survey
• bit.ly analytics to determine number of clicks
on unique embedded links
• Pre- and post-ASW Twitter influence metrics
15. Quantitative Impact Data
• 1,190 tweets were recorded with #eXasw
• Several thousand Facebook messages
• 877 clicks from Facebook messages
• 275 clicks from tweets
• 36 of 94 cooperators reported a total of 8,163
followers/friends; estimate of 15,000 reached
16. Follower/Friend Survey Results
• N = 45; 32% “very helpful” and 57% “helpful”
• 48% visited ASW links; 25% planned to
• 11% joined AS; 32% planned to; 18% were
already in AS; 39% had not joined
• Mostly positive comments about messages
• A few negative comments about “overkill”
17. Follower/Friend
Survey Comments
• “Keep up the good work,”
• “These tips are timely and beneficial. I appreciate the effort to
help us help ourselves,”
• “The tweets made me think about the ways we are managing
our money,”
• “I welcome any and all suggestions for increasing my financial
well-being.”
• One respondent complained about a lack of money to save
• There was one solicitation by a commercial firm
20. Professional Collaborator
Survey Results
• N = 36; average of 226 followers/friends
• 17/22 Klout scores increased
– Average increased from 11.22 and 19.68
• 5/19 PeerIndex scores increased
– Average score increased from 4.94 to 11.52
• Mostly positive comments; Some negative
comments about “overkill”
21. Professional Collaborator
Survey Comments
• “Very good idea to get the word out”
• “We hope to re-use the messages posting one each day”
• “I hope to continue to use the tweets I was unable to use
during ASW”
• “Wish I had ready made tweets every day”
• “Very good idea, think we could try to keep this up”
• “This was great. It was easy to do”
• “I really appreciated this project to help me get going with
Twitter”
• Nine of 10 (91%) respondents said that they would
participate in another SM financial education project
22. Future Directions
• Apply for funding in 2012
• Seek funding for a larger scale project
• Stretch message delivery out over a longer
time period with fewer messages per day
• Do a character count on Facebook messages
• Seek a larger number of project participants
with high Twitter influence scores
• Develop metrics to measure Facebook impact
23. Project Summary
• Social media is good method for increasing
awareness but poor method for action
– “Conversion ratio” of followers/friends who joined
America Saves was < 1%
• Many small aggregated impacts are impressive
• Project built SM skills of the FSA CoP
• SM messages can be repurposed as radio
scripts, newsletter fillers, and text messages
24. Comments? Questions?
Our project methodology can very easily be
replicated by other eXtension CoPs
Consider getting funding so that a few CoP
members can produce content for many to use
Best wishes!
