To catch the attention of students, the Office of Sustainability is seeking to reach students and promote awareness of alternative forms of transportation through social media and Web use.
The Office of Sustainability is using means such as Facebook and Twitter to create awareness of different forms of transportation for students such as walking, biking or taking a bus.
“Students are an impossible nut to crack in terms of getting their attention,” said Ashley Pennington, outreach coordinator for the office. “Social media is a huge, viral way of reaching [students] in ways that traditional marketing might not.”
The Office of Sustainability has teamed up with Gainesville’s Regional Transit System to promote these alternative forms of transportation.
Chip Skinner, marketing and communications supervisor for RTS, said the use of social media and the Internet were huge for the company.
“We use [our Facebook] as an informational source,” Skinner said. “We continuously try to post at least two things a week out there.”
Skinner saw the positive effects of media usage when RTS recently redesigned its website. The newly designed website produced a record-high 4.75 million hits in the month of August, as compared to its previous average of 36,000 hits per month.
Charlene Ochogo, a freshman at UF, has noticed the efforts of the Office of Sustainability. Pointing to an e-mail from the office regarding the One Less Car Challenge, a promotion from the office that focuses on alternative transportation, Ochogo believes the campaign is effective.
“I thought it was really cool,” she said. “I was like, ‘Hey, I’m going to be a part of this.’”
