Promoting Small-scale Maple Syrup Production on Facebook: A Field Experiment Testing Emphasis Message Frames

Wednesday, September 18, 2024

11:30 AM – 12:00 PM MST

Location: Embassy Suites, Goldenglow

Author(s)

Scott Hershberger, n/a (he/him/his)

M.S. Student in Life Sciences Communication
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Madison, Wisconsin, United States

Speaker(s)

Bret Shaw, PhD (he/him/his)

Professor and Environmental Communication Specialist
University of Wisconsin–Madison Department of Life Sciences Communication and Division of Extension
Madison, Wisconsin, United States

Author(s)

SM

Steven Moen, CFA, MS (he/him/his)

PhD Student
University of Wisconsin–Madison Department of Statistics, United States
TJ

Tony Johnson, MS (he/him/his)

Forestry Outreach Specialist and Maple Syrup Program Manager
University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of Extension
Juneau, Wisconsin, United States
TG

Tricia Gorby, PhD (she/her/hers)

Natural Resources Institute Director
University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of Extension
Madison, Wisconsin, United States

To encourage more people to begin producing maple syrup, we ran Facebook advertisements reaching more than 300,000 Wisconsinites. We compared four different ads, finding that emphasizing the lifestyle of working the land attracted the most interest from Facebook users overall. However, important differences emerged by age group and gender.

Learning Objectives:

Upon completion, participants will be able to describe the benefits of maple syrup production that are most likely to appeal to private forest landowners and other potential maple syrup producers. Furthermore, participants will be able to explain how the most appealing aspects of maple syrup production differ by age group and gender.
Upon completion, participants will be able to conduct strategic public outreach using social media advertisements. This includes targeting audiences based on age group, gender, location, and interests; testing multiple ad versions to determine which is most effective; and understanding the strengths and limitations of message-testing through Facebook advertisements.