Texas County Extension Agents Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Using Facebook to Communicate with Constituents

Abstract

Extension, in its American form, has been charged with communicating research advancements to the public since its formal inception in 1914. Ways of communicating research have changed throughout time due to advancements in technology. The extension service is now also charged with communicating research advancements in inexpensive, efficient, and reliable ways and addressing local priority needs relative to each county agency. This study sought to describe Texas extension agents’ confidence, ability, and perceptions using social media, Facebook in particular, to communicate with constituents.

The participants in the study were a randomly selected group of Texas extension agents. A web-based questionnaire was used to measure the perceived level of confidence, ability, and perceptions that each agent had about Facebook. Means, standard deviations, and minimum and maximum scores on the scales were used to describe agents’ perceived levels of social media competence on a five-point, Likert-type scale, and if they used Facebook professionally or personally.

Findings indicated that the majority of the sample had Facebook profiles and logged in daily personally but did not use it professionally due to limitations and restrictions.