The PIE Center actively engages new audiences through a plethora of communication channels to continuously share our extensive volume of research, news and training materials.
The center pays close attention to web traffic. More than
13,000 unique visitors have come to the website and amassed nearly 17,000 page views.
On social media, the PIE Center more than doubled its number of Twitter followers in 2012-13. Likes to the center’s Facebook page increased by almost 200 people, with the bulk of new members joining during a successful user-submitted photo contest. Photographers entered more than 40 images into the contest, in which Facebook fans voted for the winner.
The number of people receiving PIE Center emails (the center’s primary method of reaching stakeholders) grew by more than 34 percent from last year. The center disseminates weekly Trends & Topics articles and analyses, guest bloggers, quarterly newsletters and important announcements this way.
Special report webpages
This year, the PIE Center launched a new webpage format when the center embarked on a research program focused on capturing the public opinion on current agricultural and natural resources issues. The special report webpage for the center’s water quality and quantity survey was by far the most frequently visited on the site, gathering about 1,000 page views in the two weeks after the page was published.
Media coverage
With the assistance of IFAS Communications and UF’s University Relations, the PIE Center has found a much broader audience both online and in print.
Surveys about water quality and quantity, public higher education and immigration were exposed to millions on the University of Florida homepage, distributed through state news wires and covered by journalists working for outlets such as The Gainesville Sun and The Fort Myers News-Press.
