Priester livewell bowen

Elaine Bowen, EdD, CFCS, LDExtension Specialist, Health Promotion

In the beginning, life was simple… a new challenge every week. But then…

A Spark Ignited, creating the LIVEWell website to

Inform

Inspire

Connect

Encourage

Website Features Stories of “Inspiring West Virginians” Special Features Weekly Challenges & Tip of the Week Recipes Blogs Resources Links to Affiliate Organizations

The Shape We’re In

Mud River Pound Punchers

Summer Steps Challenge

Showcase Important Resources

Let’s Take a Walk

http://livewellwv.ext.wvu.edu/

Promoting Our Website

o Link with other websiteso State Fair drawingo Billboard

“What’s In It For Me?” (WIIFM)Read blogsSee inspiring West Virginians in “The

Shape We’re In” Support work to make communities

healthier places to live, work, and play

Showcase programs and resources

More WIIFM…

Track your stepsTry weekly “LIVEWell Challenges” for

simple daily health changesCheck out new resources for kids, parents,

teachers, schools, and communitiesTry healthy recipesUse content in Extension newsletters and

media

Weighing Our Progress

Extension Employee Online Survey

Focus GroupsGoogle Analytics

Weighing Our ProgressExtension employees reported

health improvements (61%) and increased motivation (70%)

Focus group participants rated weekly tips and recipes highest

The average visitor views 3.2 pages and spends 3.02 minutes on the site

What Does the Literature Tell Us?

“Take-home Nugget” Study

Online messages can contribute to an increase in healthy food consumption and physical activity, and is a desirable intervention tool

Nyquist, Rhee, Brunt, & Garden-Robinson (JOE Dec 2011)

Participant ability to customize goals, compare progress to others, and receive daily messages effectively motivates for positive behavior change

O’Neill & Ensle (JOE Apr 2012)

Patton’s (2011) developmental evaluation framework is an excellent model for evaluating eXtension CoPs

Kelsey & Stafne (JOE Oct 2012)

Recommended best practices for websites include user-friendly design, navigation, and consistency techniques

Doty, Doty & Dworkin (JOE Dec 2011)

The Health Communicator’s Social Media Toolkit http://www.cdc.gov/socialmedia/tools/guidelines/pdf/socialmediatoolkit_bm.pdf

Making Health Communications Work http://www.cdc.gov/healthcommunication/healthbasics/whatishc.html

Resources

Health Communications Basics

Content: Describe specific health action Voice: Cite a respected source Positive impact: What happens as a result Tell a story: Example of a person like them Connect: Relate to specific audience needs

and feelings Call to action: Bottom line message

Lessons Learned Content has to be fresh and current Oversight of contributors and deadlines is time

consuming Establishing a website as “the source” for quality

info requires constant promotion and visibility (internal and external)

Newspaper partnerships are tricky (academic vs. public journalistic perspective)

There are distinct generational differences in how audiences gather and use information/websites

“The Team” Core Team of Extension specialists, tech

staff, and Director of Communications The Charleston Gazette staff 35 Contributing Authors: specialists,

agents, students, other university faculty Guest Bloggers Affiliate Members Walking Groups

Special Acknowledgements Emily Murphy, Extension Specialist Ann Bailey Berry, Associate Director Cassie Waugh, Program Coordinator Sherry White, Multimedia Specialist Gitta Jenkins, Database Technician Alex Yohn, Assistant Director-Technology

Thank You!

Contact MeElaine.Bowen@mail.wvu.edu