Live Well Alabama is SNAP-Ed at Auburn University’s social media initiative. It is helping Alabamians live more healthful lives! Social media brings SNAP-Ed messages to families at home and shares tools and ideas on eating healthy and being active.
Program Summary
The Live Well Alabama social media campaign started in 2017. It supports the messages about healthy behaviors that are taught by all Alabama Extension SNAP-Ed programs. The Live Well Alabama social media efforts include:
- daily posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest that promote healthy eating and physical activity
- polls and hashtag campaigns to encourage audience participation
- sharing success stories of SNAP-Ed education
- connecting with other organizations through reposts, retweets and repins.
If a tweet, pin, or Facebook post grabs a reader’s attention, they can visit the Live Well Alabama website! The site provides more in-depth information on a variety of health topics. It highlights:
- Alabama SNAP-Ed program initiatives Body Quest and Quest for Healthy Schools which focus on youth obesity prevention and school wellness.
- Other Alabama SNAP-Ed projects like community gardens, emergency backpack programs, faith-based programming, farmer’s markets, and healthier retail efforts.
- Current, credible, and fact-based information on a variety of nutrition and physical activity topics.
Impact
Program managers use a variety of social media marketing strategies. They are testing their messages and doing on-going evaluation of how well their messages are working with users. These efforts helped Live Well Alabama to have a great first year! In the first nine months of the campaign, the program had:
- 370,000 Facebook impressions
- 96,510 Twitter impressions
- 4,370 average monthly Pinterest users
- more than 4,000 website page views
Live Well Alabama continued to maximize its exposure digitally, and increase awareness on social media channels. The results after year two included:
- Facebook increased followers and likes by 53.93%
- Twitter increased followers by 29.47%
- Pinterest increased followers by 49%
- Website reached over 15,000 views since January 2018
The results from the Live Well Alabama social media initiative were successful due to the following:
- Boosted posts on Facebook to reach the target audience and increase impressions
- Created Facebook and Twitter polls to maximize follower engagement
- Maximized awareness of the target audience by creating consistent and frequent posts on social media
Type of Program
Nutrition Education; Social Media
Years of Implementation
2017-present
Target Audience
Low-income families
Program Evaluation
Platform-based analytics were used to determine Facebook and Twitter impressions as well as monthly Pinterest users. Engagement and increased exposure were measured through audience participation in polls and hashtag campaigns and examination of sharing and retweets by other organizations, such as USDA, Public Health and AGisAmerica.
This article was submitted by Alabama Extension's SNAP-Ed at Auburn University. For more information please contact Katie Funderburk or Sondra Parmer.