Audience engagement when disseminating livestock information through infographics on social media

Infographics utilize visuals to narrate complex information in a simple and concise manner and may represent an educational opportunity for Extension professionals. The objective of this project was to evaluate the effect of communication mode on audience engagement and reach through social media. We hypothesized infographic posts would elicit a greater number of reactions, comments, shares, and people reached compared to webpage link posts. Four informational webpages for five different livestock species (n = 20) were selected from the University of Minnesota (UMN) Extension website and were utilized to create corresponding infographics. Two infographic-webpage pairs were systematically assigned to a month and posted to the associated UMN Extension livestock Facebook page (www.facebook.com). Posts occurred on the first and third Mondays of the month with a one-week washout period between post types. Facebook metrics were recorded at 1, 4, 8, 12, 24, 48, and 168 h following posting. Results were compared using mixed-effect negative binomial regression models and reported as estimated marginal means following back transformation. Overall, posts containing infographics tended to elicit more reactions, comments, shares, and reach compared to posts containing webpage links; however, significance varied among audiences. These findings support infographics as a valuable tool for Extension professionals to effectively disseminate science-based, livestock information on social media.