- August 20, 2014
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Return to the Stars with NASA’s Story-Driven Strategy
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has a story to tell like any good brand. The agency known for the moon landing, Mars exploration and space exploration has always had a place in mass media and has been at the forefront of social media since early 2008. Starting with its first Twitter account for the Mars Phoenix Lander, the space agency has aggressively dominated the social media landscape through various platforms with a story-driven approach to promoting its brand and educating the public.
NASA has since grown since its first Twitter account and expanded its digital footprint to more than 500 accounts spread across 10 social media platforms that communicate the agency’s mission and engage with followers around the world. It has nearly 6.6 million followers for its main @NASA Twitter handle and 4.8 million fans for its primary Facebook page. The agency was recognized in Forbes Magazine and on Mashable as the eighth-most engaged brand on Twitter in 2013, as calculated by Nestivity, a community engagement platform for Twitter. Launching on Instagram less than a year ago, NASA’s principal account quickly amassed 1.2 million followers and has become a repository for dazzling astronomical images.
Its updates are constant and can include live chats and presentations with astronauts on the International Space Station, as well as updates from the robotic Curiosity rover exploring the surface of Mars. For example, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who became an Internet sensation last year with his rendition of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” performed live on the ISS. Hadfield proved to be a one-man meta-fusion of media and space travel. His “Space Oddity” clip garnered millions of views and his tweets with William Shatner and other Star Trek greats generated Hollywood crossover headlines. The agency diligently worked overtime to spread the word through its various channels.
NASA has pioneered its efforts in calls-to-action campaigns to engage and grow its audience. The agency used #GlobalSelfie to celebrate Earth Day by asking people around the world to take a photo of themselves. NASA used each picture as a pixel in an interactive mosaic image comprised of 36,422 photos posted to NASA’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. From a distance, it looks like planet Earth, but zooming in lets users explore each individual face.
The agency crowd sourced the design for prototypes of spacesuits intended for Mars exploration by the 2030s. Given NASA’s long-standing media ties, a Tron-like design won with nearly 235,000 votes. In 2009, The Colbert Report’s Steven Colbert hijacked a naming contest for the third node of the International Space Station with a majority of the votes. Ultimately the agency named the node Tranquility, but compromised with Colbert by honoring him naming rights to a treadmill, aptly named the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill, or COLBERT for short.
Throughout all of its posts, tweets, pins and pictures, NASA has consistently maintained sight of its goal: to tell a story about NASA and its role in space exploration.
It’s a valuable lesson for businesses who question how to approach social media as part of an integrated marketing effort. Are you using social media as another medium to tell the story of your business? If you’re not, you’re missing a huge opportunity to connect with your consumers. We offer suggestions on how to find your brand story and carry it across all of your marketing campaigns. Skip over to “Finding the Value in Your Brand Attributes” for ideas and inspiration.