2014 Highlights: UC IPM Annual Report

Urban and Community Program Shares through Social Media

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In 2014, UC IPM’s Urban and Community Program stepped up its efforts to use social media for sharing educational information and products to new audiences. As we assess the needs of clientele, we will be looking into other possible social media platforms to get IPM information out to our users.

In March 2014, we started the blog, Pests in the Urban Landscape, to provide information about landscape, structural, home, and garden pests with many of our readers. At least once per week we post newsletter articles, new and revised resources, training opportunities, and other announcements. By year’s end, the urban blog received close to 70,000 views, averaging about 235 visits per day.

For the growing number of people who prefer to get their information through videos, the Urban Program produced over a dozen videos for the UC IPM YouTube channel, bringing the total number of urban and agricultural videos to 34. Users can now watch videos about managing yellowjackets, bed bugs, ants, mosquitoes, weeds, and other pests, as well as see clips on beneficial insects and spiders. Many of the home and landscape videos have been translated into Spanish, which have been viewed more than 23,000 times. In 2014, our videos received over 80,000 views, with the most popular video Distinguishing Between Yellowjackets, Wasps, and Look-Alikes, receiving 32,000 views alone!

The UC IPM Urban Twitter account (@ucipmurban) was started in 2009 and our number of followers continues to grow. We tweet several times per week to more than 840 followers, providing short and timely updates so users can immediately learn of new and revised resources and announcements.