If you’ve been spending a lot of time on social media lately, you might have noticed an interesting trend. In addition to the usual puppy, baby, and meal pictures, more and more people are sharing science content. One of the main sources of the science content filling your feed is NASA. How does an organization comprised of supposedly stodgy scientists and engineers dominate social?
Here are a few ways that NASA does social media right.
Aspirational Content
As a 56-year-old organization dedicated to science and exploration, NASA has an enormous amount of truly unique content. Through social, NASA deploys content like pictures of the Earth taken from space, and video from Mars that is meant to inspire its fans. NASA taps into our aspirational nature as a way to engage fans and build awareness.
Genuinely Funny Social Media
The Mars Curiosity Rover has its own Twitter account, @MarsCuriosity, and if you aren’t following it, you really should. The Rover tweets funny posts about its travels on the Red Planet as well as pictures and video that it has taken. In this way, Curiosity has built up a following of 1.57 million people. Many brands try to be funny. Very few succeed. NASA, believe it or not, is one of them.
Being Everywhere They Need to Be
5.2 million likes on Facebook. 6.73 million Twitter followers. 410,560 YouTube subscribers. And that’s just for their main NASA accounts. NASA also maintains a number of specialized accounts. (Like the Curiosity Rover Twitter account.)Wherever they may have fans, NASA has a presence online. Wherever they have a presence online, NASA takes the time to develop a substantial, engaged following that would be the envy of any social media marketer.
Strategic Partnerships
In addition to developing their own incredible content, NASA works with other individuals and organizations on content that is of mutual interest. Stephen Colbert, Angry Birds, Star Wars, Star Trek- NASA has a ton of popular partners helping them make great content.
To learn about other science-related brands that dominate social media, click here.
