Pest Management Professional, March 2018

By KAren reArdon Contributor Y es or no Now or never This or that For such a little word or sets a lot of limits But and opens a world of possibilities Peanut butter and jelly Rhythm and blues Yours and mine And turns two good choices into one strong solution For RISE Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment its got to be And not Or a groundbreaking social media program we launched this month How did we get to And Our governing board began a strategic conversation in 2016 about reaching consumers directly by focusing on their information needs about specialty pesticides and fertilizer That conversation matured into one about the power of the social media lifestyle conversation to deliver answers to peoples questions and make a positive impression After the governing boards decision to invest in the concept we piloted a social media program in 2017 to begin a lifestyle conversation on Facebook and Twitter with the next generation consumer influencer and opinion leader the millennial We built the And not Or program on attractive curated content delivered directly to our audience with rigorous measurement built in so we could assess the quality and quantity of our conversation with the next gen consumer Facebooks and Twitters ability to hyper target the audience and capture audience interactions and reaction let us know which pieces of content performed best so we could optimize impressions and engagement with our messages throughout a 10 week pilot program last spring And not Or targeted millennials in five states with the expectation of reaching about 4 million people who identified as our target audience based on their demographic information brand likes and other social media tracking information We pored through consumer research and analytics and did some of our own research to better understand the millennial consumer and their attitudes about many things including professional services and do it yourself products Positive results Our results exceeded our expectations and showed us there is an appetite for the information we are sharing We reached more than 7 million people who liked loved shared clicked commented on or otherwise interacted with our content more than 400000 times A series of videos we posted had more than 800000 views during the four weeks they were posted on our Andnotor org microsite and shared on Facebook and Twitter Negative conversations about pests lawns and outdoor living decreased in the lifestyle space within our target geographic region too These results gave us a solid foundation to invest in the program for 2018 and beyond We know social channels are a place where all of us must be present and active with relevant content And not Or gives our industry a voice in the conversation with a generation of consumers who get virtually all of their information from social media especially when making buying decisions or seeking information about services and products I predict what we learn from the program this year will reinforce what we learned from our pilot The next generation of homeowners wants to hear from us and they are looking for our resources to help them solve problems For professional applicators we will have information about the millennial consumer seeking their services along with pest and product knowledge Well also have practical information about engaging in the lifestyle conversation with relevant content Consider these two statistics resulting from the Think with Google YouTube Insights Study 62 percent of millennials live in single family homes with half of them owning their house 62 percent of smartphone users report YouTube influences their purchasing decisions with howto videos and reviews and they would follow the advice of these influencers vs their favorite TV or movie personality The social lifestyle conversation is one in which we must engage both now and into the future to ensure a vibrant future for families communities and our industry Our goal is to keep choice alive through And not Or by sharing content that is meaningful to our audience and meets their needs Our longer range goal is to move from awareness to active awareness creating advocates for the contributions our products and services make for healthy safe and fun homes and communities Well have more to report when our 2018 program wraps up in May pmp REARDON is vice president of public affairs for RISE Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment Contact her at kreardon@ pestfacts org ASSOCIATION UPDATE Its And not Or says RISE 28 March 2018 pest management professional mypmp net