Last week, I wrote about the new social media approach we’re taking to the statewide Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station (MAES) and Michigan State University Extension (MSUE) needs assessment project called AdvanceMichigan. You will be an important component of the AdvanceMichigan effort. One of the approaches for obtaining people’s ideas and suggestions (“content”) in social media is to prompt their interest in contributing to the dialogue by responding to “content” that we have provided. This is called “seeding” the dialogue and it’s a good thing that spring is around the corner because we’re going to need to plant a lot of “seeds.” The idea is to present some brief photo with a caption, a short audio or video clip, or a written impact/success story that illustrates issues that we have previously addressed, ways that we have addressed them, and/or impacts of the programs we’ve provided. If it’s interesting or provocative enough, it will prompt others visiting the site to share their ideas and insights into related issues that they feel we should address, or other ways of addressing the issues or the kinds of impacts that they would like to see. That in turn should prompt others to contribute their content, and before you know it, we will have a series of contributions that help us to better understand the issues we should be prioritizing and the impacts we should be achieving in our programs.
Over the next few weeks, we would like for you to consider providing content to seed the dialogue in an issue related to your work, and particularly the work we have envisioned in the priorities of our institute programs. You can approach this as an individual, as an AoE or county or regional or departmental team effort, or with a colleague in a neighboring county or affiliated department. If you start with a short impact statement, then you can think through the options of which medium would be optimal for telling the story, whether it’s a video, a voice-over PowerPoint presentation or a bulleted document. Whatever format you use, it should take the viewer LESS than two minutes to read, listen or watch the content. We are looking for a great diversity of programs and stories across all four institute areas to seed the discussion of our needs assessment. And if you need help in adapting to the right medium, our colleagues in the social media realm and in ANR Communications and Marketing can help make it quick and simple.
Early next week several samples of the type/format of information that we are seeking will be posted on the Spotlight blog along with the e-mail address to use in submitting your content or content ideas. We will provide funds for professional development to the individuals or teams which provide content that generates the greatest amount of discussion. This is a great way to tell our MSUE/MAES story and to engage others in discussing programs for Michigan for the future. Remember, you have to participate to win!
