The Power of Partnerships: How Hard Work Plus Some Social Media Spread the Word about Invasive Callery Pear

On September 28, hard work on the part of Missouri Invasive Plant (MoIP) Task Force members culminated in a successful day. MU cut down a callery pear tree and became the first official signer of the MoIP Task Force Pledge to Stop the Spread of Invasive Species. You can read the whole story here.

In addition to the dozens of people attending the ceremony, MoIP, the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, and others helped spread the word online.

Here are the results of that concentrated effort, from MoIP’s social media accounts.

 

MU CAFNR kicked it off in real-time.

Today in @cafnr courtyard, @MizzouBotanic signed a pledge to stop the spread of invasive species. A #callerypeartree was removed from the courtyard landscape as part of the ceremony. @MDC_online @moinvasives pic.twitter.com/na0XYhp0q9

— MU CAFNR (@cafnr) September 28, 2018

A few minutes later, Carol Davit’s photos made it onto Instagram.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

This morning, the first of eight Callery pear trees on the Columbia campus of the University of Missouri was cut down—not by vandals, but by university officials. During the invasive plant awareness and educational event, officials not only removed the invasive, non-native tree, but also signed a pledge signaling the Mizzou Botanic Garden’s continued commitment to control other invasive plant species on campus. More info at moinvasives.org #invasivespecies #invasiveplants #callerypear #bradfordpear #bradfordpeartree #stopthespread #cafnr #mucafnr #miz #zou #mizzou #invasiveplantpledge #nativetree #urbanforest #foresthealth

A post shared by Grow Native (@grow_native) on Sep 28, 2018 at 11:04am PDT

This post reached 470 accounts and was seen 698 times.

An Instagram story serialized the morning via 6 photos, along with text about our mission. Instagram stories were seen 76-116 times depending on the individual story (views were enhanced by location tagging and hashtags).

One Instagram story prompted a private message from a flower grower working on a tree ordinance for the City of Springfield that’s looking to address some invasive species issues (especially with the Callery Pear). She wanted our moinvasives email address to discuss someone to talk to to make sure their work is in line with what we are doing.

In total, we made 1,216 impressions last week on Twitter.

And then Carol’s photos were on Twitter…

🌳 Mizzou Botanic Garden Cuts Down Pear Tree & Takes the Pledge to Stop the Spread of Invasive Plants https://t.co/ZT7SL9YlXC pic.twitter.com/bVmUXJ2LK2

— MoIP Task Force (@moinvasives) September 28, 2018

MU got in on the action with a Retweet:

As the first signer of the #InvasivePlant Pledge in #Missouri, we hope @Mizzou inspires others. You can take the pledge here: https://t.co/IOI4CzJpcT pic.twitter.com/mUsAmAOX94

— MoIP Task Force (@moinvasives) September 28, 2018

Which earned 12,000+ impressions

Lately, average MoIP Twitter impressions range between 75 to 250, so this is huge.

And of course, Facebook had to get in on the action. This link to our blog post reached nearly 1,800 people, earned 99 engagements (clicks, likes, hearts) 9 shares, and 24 link clicks.