NASA
Case Study
Social Media and Video Campaign Increases Teacher Involvement by 25% in K-12 Science and Education Program
NASA tapped Communications Strategy Group (CSG®) to increase awareness and engagement in the space agency’s GLOBE Program, an international K-12 science and education program that connects a global network of teachers, students and scientists.
In examining the organizational challenge the GLOBE Program faced, CSG’s social media experts saw an opportunity: use the built-in two-way dynamic of social media to better engage teachers, as well as involve educators around the world in content creation. From there, the team created and executed a strategic plan that delivered a unifying message, optimized existing classroom challenges, developed compelling social media content, and facilitated user-generated content from around the world.
views of “Salute to Teachers” video
increase in social media-driven traffic to website
increase in teacher sign-ups
Data Informed Social Media Posts
CSG started with a comprehensive audit of GLOBE’s existing social media presence. Then the team built new profiles for GLOBE and enhanced existing ones, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and LinkedIn. To ensure the profiles were managed to drive consistent, authentic engagement, CSG created social media editorial calendars, helped manage the daily posting of compelling content, and leveraged analytics via social media and Google to track website and social media efficacy.
As a result, engagement grew exponentially:
“Likes” on Facebook:
from 1,240 to more than 120,000
Social media referrals to GLOBE.gov:
increased by 48 percent
Total referral traffic to website via social networks:
increased by 37 percent
Teacher sign-ups for GLOBE’s programs:
increased by 25 percent
Commented, shared and “liked” content:
Hundreds of users around the world
Tapping the Power of User-Generated Content and Video
To further engage the GLOBE community, CSG undertook multiple video production projects. From conceptualization and scripting to production and promotion, CSG spearheaded the development of four fully produced videos, as well as helped coordinate and amplify many more video vignettes. Additionally, CSG created campaigns focused on user-generated content, such as the “I Do GLOBE” campaign, to get the GLOBE community involved in producing and submitting home videos made with their cell phone video cameras.
CSG’s strategy dramatically increased the number of videos GLOBE produced and shared with its community – user-generated content increased from 18 videos to 320 over the course of the project.
To maximize the impact of the videos, CSG also carefully crafted comprehensive promotional plans. For example, CSG released the Salute to Teachers “thank you” video on World Teachers Day. As a result of CSG’s efforts, the video went viral, generating more than 600,000 views across all of GLOBE’s social channels, with over 160,000 views on YouTube alone. Additionally, the video garnered more than 70 media mentions and it was a “Top Video” on Twitter for World Teachers Day the year it launched. The video also increased GLOBE’s Facebook “likes” by 35 percent, drove nearly 50,000 page-views to the GLOBE.gov website and increased requests for new GLOBE accounts by more than 50 percent during the video roll-out.
CSG’s efforts helped NASA put GLOBE on the map in a big way,
generating not only awareness with educators, but a resulting spike in new account requests that impacted the Program long after the video rollout.
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