In this presentation, Susan Schoenian, University of Maryland Extension Sheep & Goat Specialist, shares her experiences using various social media tools.

1. SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS
Experiences of a small ruminant specialist
SUSAN SCHOENIAN
Sheep & Goat Specialist
www.sheepandgoat.com
sschoen@umd.edu

2.  Online technologies and practices that
people use to share opinions, insights,
experiences, and perspectives.
 A broad term used to define website and
web applications where you have social
interactions around a media form.
 Tools and platforms people use to publish,
converse and share content online.
 Interactive forms of media that allow
users to interact with and publish to each
other, generally by means of the Internet.
 A combination of sociology and Information
technology that allows people to publish
their own content and to establish business
or personal relationships.
What is social media?

3. 1. Blogs
2. Social networking
14. Comment communities
3. Social news
15. Regional social media sites
4. Social measuring
16. Podcasting communities
5. Micro-blogging
17. Blog networks
6. Social bookmarking
18. Blogging communities
7. Social Q & A
19. Presentation-sharing sites
8. Video sharing
20. Content-driven communities
9. Photo sharing
21. Product-based communities
10. Social search
22. Review and recommendation sites
11. Professional networks
23. Other
12. Niche communities
13. Social e-mail
There are at least 23 different
kinds of social media.
http://onbloggingwell.com/23-types-of-social-media-sites/

4. Rank Site Type # unique visitors
1 Facebook Social networking 950 million
2 YouTube Video sharing 880 million
3 Wikipedia Content-driven 410 million
4 BlogSpot Blog 340 million
5 Twitter Micro-blogging 170 million
6 WordPress Blog 130 million
7 Linkedln Professional network 96 million
8 Google Plus+ Social search 90 million
9 DailyMotion Video motion 60 million
10 Flickr™ Photo sharing 51 million
Top 10 social media sites of 2012
http://socialmediachimps.com/platforms/most-visited-social-media-platforms-2012/

5. Mass influence!
 Social media is a culture changer, not a fad.
 Anti-AG activist groups are becoming increasingly
active on social networks.
Why should you embrace social media?

6. We have a
good story
to tell.
We need to tell our story!

7. Marketing
 If you’re a direct marketer or service
provider, social media is a great way to promote
your products (and services) and engage and
build your customer base.
How can social media help your farm?

8. Information
 Gain knowledge
 Share ideas
 Research products
 Find support
What else is social media good for?

9. My Social media tool box
 Blogs (2006)
 Flickr™ (2007)
 SlideShare (2010)
 Twitter (2010)
 Facebook (2011)
 Linkedln
 Pinterest
 Youtube
UME Small Ruminant Program

10.  Online diary: a discussion or
information site that consists
of discreet entries (posts)
that are displayed in reverse
chronological order.
 Most blogs are interactive:
visitors can leave comments.
 “Real” web site: content is
indexed by search engines.
 There are many FREE
blogging platforms.
http://askavetsheep.wordpress.com/
What is a blog?

11.  Created in 2006 to
provide information to
sheep and goat
producers and anyone
else interested in small
ruminants.
 Contains information
news, images,
presentations, and
research findings.
 795 posts
178,409 views
Shepherd’s Notebook blog
mdsheepgoat.blogspot.com

12.  Created in 2006 to provide
information to consigners,
potential buck buyers, and
anyone else interested in our
meat goat testing program.
 Blog entries contain links to
all test data and reports
(PDF files).
 All consigners have had Internet
access and the blog has turned
out to be an excellent tool of
communication.
 291 posts
41,555 views
W. MD Pasture-Based Meat Goat Performance Test
mdgoattest.blogspot.com

13.  My farm blog
Helps to promote sales
of breeding stock.
The Baalands
baalands.blogspot.com

14.  Most popular online photo
management and sharing
application.
 Established in 2004;
acquired by Yahoo in 2005.
 More than 6 billion images.
 Can organize images into
sets and categories and
search using (meta)tags.
 Low cost ($25/year)
What is Flickr™

15. Began posting images in 2007 (6,454 images).
#1 image: 524,643 views
My Flickr™
www.flickr.com/baalands

16.  Presentation sharing web
site, e.g. PowerPoint
presentations.
 Also supports documents,
PDFs, and videos.
 Useful tool for education
and e-learning.
 Can imbed presentations
in social media.
What is SlideShare?

17. Began uploading files in 2010 (99 presentations).
SlideShare
www.slideshare.net/Schoenian

18.  Established in 2006.
 Micro-blogging service.
 Can post text-based messages up
to 140 characters, known as
“tweets.”
 Messages can be grouped using
hash tags (#).
 Over 500 million registered users,
generating over 340 million tweets
daily.
 59% of users are women.
What is Twitter?

19.  Since
2010, Shepherd’s
Notebook blog
entries have been
automatically sent
to Twitter.
Twitter
twitter.com/MDSheepGoat

20.  Launched in 2004.
 The most popular social
networking web
site, surpassing MySpace in
2008.
 Over 1 billion users, half of
which use Facebook on a
mobile device.
 57% of Facebook users are
women.
 Personal and business uses.
What is Facebook?

21.  Established page
in October 2011.
Facebook
www.facebook.com/MDSmallRuminant

22. Pinterest
Youtube
What’s next on my social agenda?

23.  Another (new) way to
reach people and extend
the reach of my
extension program.
 Branding of my
extension program.
 Integration among social
media websites.
 You get lots of statistics:
like, reach, favorite, visit
s, views, downloads, etc
.
What I like about social media?

24. No,
Twitter
 Which one(s) to use Facebook is is better!
better than
Twitter
 The learning curve
 Time
 Measuring impacts
 Getting people to
interact
 Dealing with negative
interaction
Social media challenges

25.  www.facebook.com/MDSmallRuminant
 twitter.com/MDSheepGoat
 msheepgoat.blogspot.com
 mdgoattest.blogspot.com
 www.slideshare.net/Schoenian
 www.flickr.com/baalands
 pinterest.com/mdsheepgoat
Social media
UME Small Ruminant Program

26. Sheep don’t
tweet. They
bleat!
Do you have any questions?
Thank ewe for your attention.