This presentation presents a case study with results about what NASA did for the Mars Curiosity rover landing on the Red Planet in August 2012.

1. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NASA Socials & the Mars Curiosity Landing
John Yembrick and Jason Townsend, Office of Communications

2. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
We Take it Offline at NASA Socials
• NASA has had great
success with inviting our
social media fans to in-
person, behind-the-
scenes opportunities at
NASA centers and
facilities
• Events range from two
#NASASocial
hours to two days in
length
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http://www.nasa.gov/social

3. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
We Make Events Special and Memorable
Provide unique or exclusive:
Information
Speakers
Access
Setting
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http://www.nasa.gov/social

4. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Successful Events Rock Logistics
 Short, interactive sessions  Your Online Audience
 Connected (WiFi)  Powered
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http://www.nasa.gov/social

5. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
We Work All Angles: Curiosity Rover
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http://www.nasa.gov/connect

6. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
First-ever multi-center #NASASocial
• 7 NASA Socials around the country on
Friday, August 3
– Ames Research Center
– Glenn Research Center
– Goddard Space Flight Center
– Jet Propulsion Laboratory
– Johnson Space Center
– Kennedy Space Center
– Langley Research Center
• For two hours, every center was connected
together for the first-ever Multi-Center
NASA Social
• Participants had the opportunity to ask
questions of the science and engineering
teams at JPL no matter the center they were
visiting.
• Over 150 participants at the seven locations
also toured their host NASA center
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http://www.nasa.gov/connect

7. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
So What Happened? #NASASocial
Aug. 3
First-ever multi-center NASA Social
Tweets using #NASASocial or “NASA Social”:
9,750 (estimated total)
Reach: 58 million
potential impressions
Source: Sysomos by MarketWire
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http://www.nasa.gov/connect

8. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
We Took the Offline, Back Online: Streaming Events
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http://www.nasa.gov/connect

9. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
So What Happened? NASA Social Broadcast
Aug 3, 2012 – 2 Hour Event
Unique Viewers: 10,440
Viewer Hours:1,912
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http://www.nasa.gov/connect

10. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
We Help Answer Questions and Enable Conversation
• We established several different hashtags
to help social media users track the
conversation throughout the landing:
• For the NASA Social, we used #NASASocial
• For mission updates, we referenced
@MarsCuriosity for longer references, and
#MSL for shorter references
• For news events, we took questions
tagged with #askNASA
• NASA and JPL Social Media staff helped
the Public Affairs Officers by taking
questions from social media users on
Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ during
regularly-scheduled press conferences
and other televised news events using the
hashtag #askNASA, allowing the public to
directly ask questions.
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http://www.nasa.gov/connect

11. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Landing Night Social Media
• JPL Social Media staff hosted a
moderated chat answering basic
questions about the mission from
members of the public with NASA TV
coverage on UStream
• NASA and JPL Social Media staff
closely coordinated posting on the
flagship and mission accounts the
latest news updates, promotions of
education/outreach online activities,
and responded to incoming queries
from members of the public on
Twitter, Facebook, and Google+
• Twitter: @NASA, @NASAJPL,
@MarsCuriosity
• Facebook: NASA, NASA JPL, Mars Curiosity
• Google+: NASA
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http://www.nasa.gov/connect

12. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
So What Happened? Curiosity Landing
Aug. 3 to 9, 2012
Week around landing
Tweets related to Curiosity:
374,135 (estimated total)
Reach: 1.2 billion
potential Twitter impressions
Source: Sysomos by MarketWire
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http://www.nasa.gov/connect

13. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
So What Happened? @MarsCuriosity
@MarsCuriosity Aug. 3 – Aug. 9
Mentions: 195,000+
Followers gained: 813,300
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http://www.nasa.gov/connect

14. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
But how where we able to do all this?
• Pre-coordination and proactively planning
places for engagement
– Getting out in front of the news is important
– People will talk. If you give them a hashtag or a
place to chat, they will generally use it.
• Make it relevant
– We used the NASA Flagship accounts for the
more formal organization news in a formal tone
and the program accounts for the rover-persona,
very conversational
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http://www.nasa.gov/connect

15. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Two different approaches…
Both approaches work but speak to
different audiences, thereby
amplifying your exposure.
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http://www.nasa.gov/connect

16. Follow the social media team at @NASASocial for the
latest opportunities to connect and collaborate with NASA
Your Title Here 16
http://www.nasa.gov/connect