Social Media Lessons from Space for Destination Earth

Social Media lessons

from space for

destination Earth

Presented at the Social Media Tourism Symposium #SoMeT14EU in Rovaniemi, Finland, April 2014

Remco Timmermans - @timmermansr

Space is not a

destination.

It is a destiny

In the beginning,

there was a race…

photo credit: RIA Novosti

Public heroes of the 1960’s

The Mercury 7

Yuri Gagarin

photo credit: NASA

Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins

Cernan, Stafford, Young

photo credit: NASA

Public interest disappeared

even quicker than NASA’s budget!

135 missions that nobody

knew cared about…

except when

things go wrong…

photo credit: NASA History Office

STS-1, Space Shuttle Columbia, 12 April 1981 Flight #1

STS-51L, Space Shuttle Challenger, 28 January 1986

photo credit: NASA

Flight #25

STS-107, Space Shuttle Columbia, 1 February 2003

photo credit: NASA

Flight #113

photo credit: Javier Pedreira

STS-135, Space Shuttle Atlantis, 8 July 2011 Flight #135

The end of the space program?

image credit: XCOR photo credit: SpaceX

image credit: MarsOne

No! Space has never been cooler than today!

ISS passing over the International Space University, France, July 2013

#spacetweeps

to the rescue…

The first tweet from space!

photo credit: bunnicula

2009: The first #NASATweetup

Feeding the space

ambassadors

2011 #STS135 #NASATweetup

6,000 registrations

for 150 spots

100+ #NASASocial events

over 3,000 participants

ph

oto

cre

dit

: NA

SA/A

ub

rey

Gem

ign

ani

photo credit: NASA/Bill Ingals

Brand ambassadors for life, 100 at a time…

6.4 million

followers

3.6 million

page followers

300 million+

views 32 channels

900,000 subscribers

187 million views

800,000

followers

6,800 photos

18 TV channels,

always live!

600,000

followers

19,000

followers

Going Global: 2011 ESA/DLR #spacetweetup

Local flavours: #CNEStweetup

Bringing space to you

When the community

takes over…

15 days

15,229 posts

42.3 million impressions

#ThingsNASAMightTweet

Co-creation

Crowdsourcing

@SpaceApps

Storytelling

“Space Oddity” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaOC9danxNo

#WakeUpRosetta: How to turn

technology into public excitement

Giving technology a face

Engaging the public

photo credit: ESA

From boring engineering stuff…

…to a personality

…and human emotion!

Lessons from space

for destination Earth

summary

#1 – Take social media seriously

#2 – Create a sense of pride

#3 – Feed the ambassadors

#4 – Tell stories

#5 – Make it personal

Thank You!

@TimmermansR

@TravelsInOrbit

@WorldSpaceWeek