URBANA, Ill. — As part of my Agricultural Leadership Education degree requirements, I completed an internship last summer. While working as the intern for Illinois Master Gardeners, my boss entrusted me with the responsibility of growing our social media presence.
I was able to put into practice the knowledge I learned from my agricultural leadership education courses (AGED 230) to develop an effective media and communication strategy. I started by posting daily articles related to horticulture and regularly inviting people to like our page. After some time, I created our Twitter account, followed by an Instagram account in the fall.
I regularly use the knowledge and skills I learned in my AGED courses when creating infographics and using specific hashtags, images, and GIFS. This has enabled me to help Illinois Master Gardeners create and grow their social media presence and followership. We now use a social media schedule that includes a theme for each day. Some of the themes include Sick Day Saturday, where we feature a plant that is currently stressed with tips to revive the plant, and Master Gardener Monday, when we highlight our hard-working members. Since applying our new social media daily themes, we have increased the number of social media followers and have expanded our educational impact with the help of retweets from the U of I Extension flagship account.
— Madalyn Hammel
Senior from Bridgeport, IL
Agricultural Leadership Education
University of Illinois College of ACES Agricultural Education Program
Intern, Illinois Master Gardeners
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