Digital and online engagement connects DWFI with its global audience

Continued momentum for the Water for Food podcast

The Water for Food Podcast continues to be a successful initiative with each new episode averaging over 1,000 downloads. DWFI created the Water for Food Podcast during the height of the pandemic to amplify the voices of those making waves in the water and food space. Since its inception in August 2020, the podcast has had more than 22,000 downloads and attracted listeners from 76 countries. New episodes are released each month and the platform allows DWFI to engage in meaningful, casual conversation with its partners and share these experiences with its stakeholders.

New episodes in the past year included: 

• 13 - DWFI Policy Team – Business Ecosystem in Rwanda
• 14 - Jackson Stansell – Sentinel Fertigation
• 15 - Roric Paulman – Paulman Farms
• 16 - Erin Haacker - Nebraska Groundwater
• 17 - Karina Schoengold – UNL Agricultural Economics
• 18 - Renata Rimšaitė – DWFI and National Drought Mitigation Center
• 19 - Renee San Souci, Member of the Omaha Tribe
• 20 - Christopher Neale, Director of Research, DWFI
• 21 – Peter McCornick - A new year at Water for Food
• 22 - Dave Aiken - Water Law and the Perkins County Canal
• 23 - Dan Snow – Water Sciences Lab Director
• 24 - Ankit Chandra and Nick Brozović, DWFI - Agribusiness Matters
• 25 - Soumya Balasubramanya - The World Bank
• 26 - Mure Agbonlahor and Louise Mabulo - Water for Food Conference

The Water for Food Podcast is available on the DWFI website, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify.

DWFI sees large growth on LinkedIn social platform

DWFI continues to engage with its audiences on social media, using the LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube platforms to share research results, promote events, celebrate awards and accomplishments and connect with its stakeholders.

LinkedIn saw the most growth with an increase in followers of 60 percent, gaining 789 new followers over the past year. Page engagement also increased by 50 percent, page impressions increased by 44 percent and page reach went up by 50 percent. Additionally, post shares increased by 55 percent, post impressions went up by 46 percent and post clicks increased 18 percent. The result was a targeted effort by the communications team to increase engagement in this area.

Highest performing posts were those sharing the debut of DWFI’s research on the current state of Irrigation-as-a-service in Rwanda at the FAO Global Framework on Water Scarcity in Agriculture (WASAG) conference in Cabo Verde, which resulted in 410 clicks, and those related to the 2023 Water for Food Global Conference.

At the end of FY23, DWFI had 21,323 followers across LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram social media channels.

Digest newsletter sees improvements in bounce rate, open rate

The Digest newsletter is a monthly email update sent by DWFI to its stakeholders to keep them informed on research and events. During FY23, the DWFI communications team refined its email list, removing subscribers whose email addresses bounced as a result of a job change or otherwise. While the purge resulted in an overall decrease of subscribers in the short-term, it reduced the bounce rate from 9 to 2 percent. A high bounce rate could result in servers mistaking emails for spam and blocking them automatically. A low bounce rate helps DWFI continue to reach its stakeholders.

The 2023 Water for Food Global Conference resulted in 169 new Digest subscribers. Additionally, the first Digest after the conference received an open rate of 58 percent, a record for the newsletter, which usually sees an open rate of 40-50 percent. This means the Digest is reaching a more engaged audience.

Website remains hub for institute news and resources

DWFI’s website continues to be the online destination for information about the institute, including conference and event information, news and more. During FY23, the DWFI website had more 22,000 users who viewed over 65,000 web pages. The number of sessions – which shows the number of times a user engaged with our website over the year – increased by more than 15 percent. The increase in traffic was notable leading up to the 2023 Water for Food Global Conference. Additionally, DWFI’s website showed up in more than 803,000 searches on Google throughout the year.