MARKETING: THE BEST OF US

Sometimes it's nice to stop and smell the roses, so this week we want to focus on the great marketing going on across K-State Research and Extension. Below are just a few of our favorites:

-Sedgwick County 4-H is an excellent example of the impact of consistency, with their consistent look-and- feel on banners, handouts, and other materials.

-Shawnee County sends out picture-postcards with quick tidbits about what they've been doing, and their Impact Annual Report is short and makes good points. This is just the tip of the iceberg on their marketing efforts.

-Cowley County's Website continues to provide excellent content in an attractive layout.

-Deb Sellers's work on "Sage Wisdom" materials continue to leads the industry, with a comprehensive Website, and additional audience-targeted materials in 2008. It's not so much the tactics she implements, but more the strategy she puts behind them.

-Jana Beckman's field days, press releases, special winter meetings, and quarterly reports are great examples of a small shop partnering with many others (on and off- campus groups) to get projects done and communicate impact information.

-Stacie Minson does an excellent job keeping residents in mind. She develops targeted fact sheets, advertisements, comprehensive Website, great signage, and much more in her watershed efforts.

-The newsletter design templates that are being produced through Distribution in the Dept of Communications have provided great quality, consistent looks to many county and district newsletters.

-The Event-in-a-Box project, spear-headed by Nancy Peterson, has helped with many events throughout the state. Possibly the top outcome of that particular project is the real estate style signs that are now staked across the state.

-Johnson County's horticulture program continues to be a leading source of horticulture information in Johnson County and beyond. Especially noteworthy is their stable presence in the KC Star.

And let's not forget Bourbon County's brochure, Meadowlark District's introductory display, and Labette County's Web sites.

We Know there are more great marketing examples in our state. Please, tell us about them. Click "coment" below and brag about yourself or your peers.

MARKETING: THE BEST OF US

Marketing: The Best of our Peers

This week, I will be attending an Association for Communications Excellence conference, where I have the chance to talk with my peers at other land-grant institution. With that in mind, let me share with you some of the great things going on across the system, nationwide:

-eXtension. Can we really talk about marketing Extension without listing eXtension? If you haven’t already, visit the site (www.extension.org.) See what all the fuss is about.

-UNL’s Lancaster County (Lancaster.unl.edu/4h). Their Egg Cam drives users to their site from around the world, especially during hatching time. And while the Web visitors are there, they can learn more about the 4-H program in Nebraska.

-Extension en Espanol (http://extensionenespanol.net/). This site is not only a great resource for existing Spanish materials, it also serves as a quality-control checkpoint for Spanish Extension materials nationwide.

Let us know what else you've seen. Add your own "best of" list by clicking "comments" below, or contact me at lsleicht@ksu.edu.

Marketing: The Best of our Peers

Great marketing find: brochure holder

If you are looking for a portable brochure holder, consider this one:

http://www.displays2go.com/product.asp?ID=7342

It rolls up into a 3-inch by 24-inch cylindrical bag, and is easy to carry. It has a steel base and is stable once it is set up. It has eight pockets that will hold 9-inch by 12-inch documents.

We bought three of these for use at the State Fair, 3i show and other similar events. They cost less than $40 from the vendor listed above, and seem to be good quality. They are a little challenging to set up, so you do want two people to help with that. Otherwise, we're excited about this find.

If you would like to see a sample before you purchase it, we have them standing in our offices in Umberger Hall. Just contact Pat Melgares (melgares@ksu.edu) or Linda Sleichter (lsleicht@ksu.edu) to schedule a time to check it out.

Great marketing find: brochure holder

COMMUNICATING DURING CRISIS

Every organization or business is susceptible to a crisis. In addition to its numerous workings with the public, K-State Research and Extension has facilities, personnel, livestock and other resources statewide that carry the risk of something going wrong.

Thinking ahead of crisis is crucial for managing a crisis. While detailed plans are the best way to make sure everyone in your office or unit know what they should do in a crisis, here're some guidelines for forming a crisis response:

* When a crisis occurs, gather the following information:

1. What happened?
2. Who does this affect?
3. Is danger still present?
4. Who is responding to the incident (local authorities, other?)
5. Are there injuries or fatalities?

* Contact your immediate supervisor immediately. He or she will need the above information, and should also know what additional steps should be taken.

* Communicate immediately. If you don't know all the facts of a situation, let people know what has happened and what you are doing - even if to say that you don't have all the facts but are working to get complete information. You will immediately be recognized as an organization that is being open and accessible.

Crisis communications guidance, templates and consultation is available through the K-State Research and Extension Department of Communications. For more information, contact Pat Melgares, 785-532-1160, or melgares@ksu.edu . --Pat Melgares

COMMUNICATING DURING CRISIS

Make Your Web Site Google-icious

For many Web users, Google or Yahoo are their first stops when searching the Web. And, when those search results appear, it is our goal that K-State Research and Extension sites top the list, and that our descriptions within those results are captivating enough to get users to click on our links.

So, a question we ask is how to make our sites more “Google-icious!” Here are a few tips:

-Title your site. Make sure your page has a descriptive, accurate title. It’s the first thing people will see from your site when they do a search. And keep it short. If you look at Google search results, Google only displays about the first 64 characters of a title.
-Always add descriptions to documents. When making PDFs with Acrobat, use Control D, and put a good title in the title field.
-Include alt text on navigations, graphics. Without alt text, search engines cannot “read” what your graphics represent. Adding the alt text lets a visual item be read as content.
-Create a network of links. By linking to other sites and encouraging them to link to your site, you can move up the ranking of search results.
-Add metadata. These are the descriptive words that explain what is in your site, and it also appears in the site description in a Google search.
- Register your site at Open Directory Project, a web directory of Internet resources, including Google: http://dmoz.org/add.html. Or use http://www.google.com/addurl.html

For more tips to make your site Google-friendly, check out these resources:
http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/library/Help_Google.htm
http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/library/Help_Google_Find_Ext.pdf
http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/library/Help_Google_Find_Kansas_U.pdf

If you need more information on search engines, please contact Amy Hartman at 785-532-6379, or email ahartman@ksu.edu.

Make Your Web Site Google-icious

Expanding on Branding -- Who do we want to be?

In marketing, the term "branding" is used to reflect what an organization wants to be. Sometimes, however, branding is confused as being our logo or perhaps some other graphical representation of the organization.

An organization's brand is a promise -- a promise that whenever "customers" come to the organization, it will provide something of value.

K-State Research and Extension promises practical, research-based information that improves the quality of life of people in Kansas. That's the foundation of our organization's brand. From that, many "sub-brands" might represent our organization -- maybe good, maybe bad -- depending on how well we serve our customers.

For example, our customers may come to know us as having excellent customer service, friendly people, being easily accessible or something else. What we are known as depends largely on how well the entire organization consistently displays certain values.

Logos and other images become a symbol of an organization's promise. People who see our images and have a positive or negative impression often tell others about us -- a concept known as "buzz marketing" or creating "buzz."

Bottom line: When all members of an organization consistently deliver on the organization's brand promise, that's what people come to know you as.

See and share more marketing tips online at www.communications.ksu.edu/marketing.
-- Pat Melgares, melgares@ksu.edu, 785-532-1160

Expanding on Branding -- Who do we want to be?

Newsletters Appeal to Current Users

The time you spend on developing a professional newsletter representing your local office or your program seems to be well worth the effort. Marketing research continues to show the value of newsletters as an information source for people currently involved in your program.

In his 1988 doctoral dissertation, Jim Lindquist (currently the Assistant Director for Extension Field Operations), reported that 57 percent of all Kansans used newsletters as an information source. In 2007, K- State Research and Extension's statewide telephone survey showed that more than 3 in 4 Kansans consider newsletters as "very effective" or "somewhat effective" ways to find information.

Lindquist's study found that the use of newsletters was highest in rural areas and for Kansans who were already involved with an Extension program ("users"). The 2007 survey also indicates high usage among rural residents (83.3%) and current users (86.9%), but also among young adults (84.4%), non-users (75%) and suburban residents (72.6%).

Professional newsletter design and printing services are available through K-State Research and Extension's Department of Communications, and can be paid with the county allocation. For more information, contact Greg LeValley at glevalle@ksu.edu . --Pat Melgares melgares@ksu.edu

Newsletters Appeal to Current Users