With three out of four consumers under stay-at-home orders, they are cooking more meals for more people, more often. The Nebraska Beef Council has been extending an extensive library of content, including advertisements, recipes, cooking videos and educational materials about beef nutrition to help consumers while they are home during the COVID-19 pandemic. More   have been shifted to social media outreach in order to deliver this content to consumers.
 
Why social media? Online platforms such as Facebook and YouTube are being used more than ever to help consumers stay connected. According to Facebook, over 1.6 billion users visit their platform every day. These users also happen to be the target audience that the Beef Checkoff is trying to reach. According to YouTube, in an average month, 80% of 18-49 year-olds watch YouTube, while 90% of America’s 18-24 year-olds use it.
 
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NBC’s social media posts have reached over 250,000 consumers with information about beef preparation, proper storage and healthy eating. This includes over 5,000 video views and 4,200 click-throughs to additional information on the Beef Checkoff websites.
 
Another advantage to social media is the ability to engage and interact with consumers. During the month of March, over 39,000 consumer engagements (likes, comments, shares and views) took place on the NBC Facebook & Instagram pages. The cost to interact with these consumers averages less than $.05 per engagement.
 
If you haven’t already, follow the Nebraska Beef Council on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to see how the Beef Checkoff is helping consumers feel confident when choosing and preparing beef during these unprecedented times.

 

As we have shifted our social media outreach to share quick tips with consumers for preparing beef at home, the Nebraska Beef Council has also adjusted our health and nutrition outreach to provide greater impact during this uncertain time. Many health professionals rely on annual conferences and symposiums to gain valuable continuing education credits in their respective field. With the cancellation of many of these spring events, the NBC has adapted to provide numerous educational webinar events to help health professionals achieve their continuing education needs, while gaining a broader impact among these audiences. 

For example, the American College of Sports Medicine annual summit draws over 300 fitness professionals from across the country to learn about the latest training and nutrition protocols. By transitioning to a webinar series, we’ll now be able to reach over 1,300 fitness professionals immediately and garner an additional 700 views by storing it online for a year in the ACSM webinar library. We’ll then partner with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), a contractor to the beef checkoff, to utilize this same presentation for a webinar aimed at registered dietitians. That platform typically sees around 4,000 registrants and pulls nearly 2,300 dietitians for the live broadcast.  Partnering with other state beef councils also helps us further extend the promotion of these efforts and maximizes the efficiency in our use of funds. 

The NBC sessions have been accepted for virtual conference experiences with the Nebraska Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics as well as for the City of Lincoln/Lancaster employee health fair.  Fall opportunities are also confirmed as some spring events have shifted to later in the year.