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Digital Dissemination of Tools to Manage Heat Illness Risk in Agricultural Workers

Tim Porter and Whitney Pennington

Summary

In 2022, the state of Colorado enacted rules that require agricultural businesses to implement heat illness prevention programs and training for their employees. University-based and Extension professionals from Colorado State University adapted existing training scripts and visual aids from California, in both English and Spanish, to be compliant with the Colorado rules. In spring 2023, a digital campaign was developed to disseminate these training materials to agricultural employers in Colorado and the surrounding region. Paid social media ads were placed on Facebook and LinkedIn in late May and early June 2023. These ads drove traffic to a campaign website, in English or Spanish and focused on the call to action of downloading training resources. The campaign goals were to drive visitors to the campaign website (leads), generate user downloads of materials (conversions), and target those leads and conversions (users) from a six-state region. The small investment (<$250) resulted in 17,000 ad impressions and 201 website visits, but only one user downloaded resources. Moreover, only 21 percent of users were located within the target region. This campaign did generate leads, but it did not result in conversions, and users’ location was not consistent with paid geographic targeting. Potential contributors to limited conversion include poor website design, users’ unfamiliarity with the information source, inappropriate timing, or lack of capacity to effectively use the materials. While the adaptation of the training content to meet regulations is an important first step, future dissemination will rely on strong relationships and be paired with capacity building activities.

Details

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