Community Marketing Publications

Journal Articles

Moving to the Rural Great Plains Point of Origin Differences in the Decision Making Process was published in the Fall 2008 Great Plains Research. This article describes the motivations of recent migrants from both metropolitan and non-metropolitan points of origin, and identifies differences in how both push and pull factors are perceived. The Center for Great Plains Studies has granted permission to provide a link to this 2008 copyright article. Click here to view the article: Moving to the Rural Great Plains.

Community Recruitment and Retention of New Residents: A Study Using a Market Assessment Process will be published Spring 2009 in the On-line Journal of Rural Research & Policy. The article explores new resident recruitment and retention patterns perceptions and development strategies from both sides of the market—the demand side (new residents) and the supply/provider side (communities marketing themselves as a desirable places to live). Using an iterative Delphi survey process of community practitioners, with input fed into the analysis from new-resident focus group findings, we were able to assess current market performance in terms of the relative effectiveness of new-resident recruitment and retention programs and draw implications for future improvement.


 

Research Briefs & Publications

A team of researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln recently explored perceptions of newcomers to the panhandle. Who are these new residents in the panhandle? Why did they move? What will keep them in the panhandle? The research team answers these questions in a three-part analysis titled "Relocation to the Buffalo Commons, Newcomers to the Nebraska Panhandle."

Tailoring Rural Community Web Sites to New Residents, EC859
Recruiting and retaining new residents is critically important to rural communities that historically have had decreasing populations. This publication reports on responses from old and new residents about the importance of a Web site and includes examples of how communities could develop or modify their Web sites and other marketing materials, based on survey responses.
 

Cornhusker Economics Articles

The following articles related to the buffalo commons were published in Cornhusker Economics. Cornhusker Economics is a weekly newsletter with current research and reports from vaious faculty and staff associated with the Department of Agricultural Economics. Includes weekly market.

Community Images: What They Communicate to New Residents by Cheryl Burkhart-Kriesel (April 18, 2012)

Developing a Community Marketing Plan, published December 12, 2010

Attracting and Retaining Workers in Rural Communities, published May 13, 2010

Tailoring Rural Community Web Sites to New Residents, published February 24, 2010

Baby Boomers: Will They Be Moving to Rural Nebraska?, published December 9, 2009

New Rural Residents: Insights into their Decision to Stay or Leave, published December 10, 2008

Moving to the Nebraska Panhandle: A Broad Picture of the Decision Process, published November 12, 2008 

Community Vision is Important to New Residents, published May 28, 2008

Community Recruitment and Retention of New Residents, published January 18, 2008

Newcomers to the Nebraska Panhandle: How Do We Keep Them Here?, published December 12, 2007

Presentations, Radio, Video, Webinars

Marketing Rural Communities to Attract and Retain Workers in a Changing Economy (powerpoint) was shared with the Nebraska League of Municipalites at their annual meeting September 29, 2011.

A model that outlines proposed theoretical aspects of rural new resident recruitment and retention was offered at the Rural Sociology Society annual meeting in 2009 and can be found in New Rural Resident in the Midwest: A Closer Look at Recruitment. To complement the research component, a second presentation shared observations of how communities are addressing recruitment and retention issues: Applying Research to Community Recruitment and Retention.

A visual presentation that highlights the key points of the initial research is: Relocation to the Buffalo Commons: Using a marketing approach to understand residential decisions among new residents to Nebraska's Panhandle, Published July 3, 2008.

National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals

A series of three presentations highlighting the community image research process and results were developed for the National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals (NACDEP) annual meeting in Park City, Utah, in 2012.

Two presentations were shared at the 2011 NACDEP annual meeting in Charleston, South Carolina.

Information from the initial research project was shared at the NACDEP annual meeting in San Diego, California in 2009. The three part session featured an overview of the research, highlighted the focus group results and identified how the research is grounding extension programming.

Radio & Video

Nebraska Ag Almanac -- the University of Nebraska's long-running series of radio (interviews with NU Extension specialists and educators)

Hay and Forage Audio -- the University of Nebraska's Hay and Forage information in .mp3 format.

Market Journal-- a weeky television program for agricultural business decisions. The Web page is updated each week on Fridays.

Crop Watch -- a central resource for University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension information on crop production and pest management. It is produced by UNL Educational Media in the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

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