Date of Graduation

5-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Agricultural Education, Communications and Technology

Advisor/Mentor

Cox, Casandra

Committee Member/Reader

Jogan, Kathi

Committee Member/Second Reader

Whitehead, Isabel

Abstract

Digital media, including websites and social media platforms, are becoming a staple in the marketing and communication field to reach consumers. Although digital media can offer high dissemination rates to a broad audience, it can also be time consuming without current training or resources to allocate to it. Nonprofits struggle to maximize their reach and effectiveness through social media due to limited staff, time, resources, and training (Bernritter et al., 2016; Bjork et al., 2016; Lovejoy & Saxton, 2012; Tao et al., 2021). Equine Assisted Activities and Therapies organizations in Northwest Arkansas selected for this study showed high use of digital media with 100% (n = 6) of the selected organizations having an Instagram and a Facebook account on behalf of the organization. However, inconsistencies across platforms and update frequencies show these organizations lack training or resources to utilize digital media to their full potential. Thus, marketing communications training would benefit those managing digital media accounts.

Keywords

Nonprofit; digital media; communications audit; equine-assisted activities and therapies; social media; website accessibility

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