Flickr photo by pro soil

Living Case Studies: Lessons Learned Social Media and Sustainable Agriculture

Beth Kanter, Visiting ScholarThe David and Lucile Packard FoundationWest Coast Sustainable Agriculture Grantees Peer SessionJuly, 2011

Agenda

SpectragramLiving Case StudiesQuick Reflection

I love grass fed beef

You can explain complex issues like cap and trade in 140 characters

Policymakers do not pay attention to messaging that comes through social media channels

Agree or Disagree

What Are Living Case Studies?

Traditional Case StudyFinished, Tidy, Packaged,Talks About Success

Living Case StudyWork in progress, vibrant, messyReal time learningOpen to input, empowerment

Presentation 7 minutes ….

Feedback (13 minutes)-identify best practice-clarifying questions-resource sharing-give feedback

grist on the social webrecent experiments

grist missiongrist sets the agenda by showing how green is reshaping our

world. we cut through the noise and empower a new generation to make change.

gristastic ladder ‘o engagement

gristastic ladder ‘o engagement

grist on the social web

twitter chat: #sodawars

quick and effective way to give content more legs

“super” twitter chat: #bikenomics

840 tweets reached close to 250,000 people

created an entirely new avenue for the topic

twitsourcing #hipsterfarmerbands

over 815 tweets in two days

reach of over 290,000 people

being quick and opportunistic

reaches outside new audience

what we’ve learned

if properly tended, social is an incredibly effective tool to grow

your audience.

what we’ve learned

be nimble.

what we’ve learned

don’t be afraid to experiment.

my advice

dive in.

Case Study: Using Social Media to Test Messaging

The Campaign: Urge Governor-elect Jerry Brown to Stand up for Safe,

Sustainable FoodTake action and sign this petition urging Governor Jerry Brown and the California Legislature to push for comprehensive legislation that supports healthy food and farms for all Californians.

Please support healthy food and farms for all Californians

I urge Governor Jerry Brown and the California Legislature to push for comprehensive legislation that supports healthy food and farms for all Californians.

Tactics

Messaging

• Create goal• Identified action• Created timeline • Identified audience• Define content to raised awareness• Identified best ways to deliver messaging

Canvassing

Eat Real Festival San Francisco Street Food Festival

Nonprofit PartnershipsRoots of Change partnered with 9 nonprofit organizations to help promote our petition and strengthen our network

Social Media

Facebook: great tool to help raise awareness and build a movement.

Twitter: low investment tool that ROC uses reach a broad audience of followers interested in food and farming.

Change.org: A free online petition platform for social change that raises awareness about important causes and connects people to opportunities for powerful action.

Analysis

Measuring EffectivenessWebsite Analytics:

-Google Analytics: great tool that helps measure traffic and detailed statistics about the visitors to your website.-Salsa CRM Platform: easy to use tool to better under email metrics such as open rates and click through.

Social media analytics

- Bit.ly: a popular URL shortening service helps trace your link performance.

- Facebook Insights: provides metric about your Facebook pages.

- Hootsuite: allows you to monitor keywords and manage multiple accounts

Campaign Results

Lessons LearnedWhat worked:- Partnerships with nine organizations

- ROC’s webpage and petition

- Online petition – Change.org

Areas of Improvement:- Integration of Social Media with campaign – specifically Facebook and Twitter

- Stick to timeline

- Continually driving traffic to our website

Next Steps: Food Movement Rising

http://rootsofchange.org/campaign/food-movement-rising

Please visit: www.rootsofchcange.org/connectPlease visit: www.rootsofchcange.org/connect

Thank You For Your Time