Social Media Assignment #1

The following questions must be answered in case study:

1. Describe the campaign. Provide background information.

Ans. Background: With levels of pollution, environmental degradation and other earthly problems on a

constant rise, the need to have a systematic and environment-friendly approach is essential. In the

recent past, there have been numerous government and non-government initiatives that crusade to

protect the planet.

NASA, the premium organization for space and aeronautical research and design, also decided to

celebrate Earth Day 2014, albeit with a slightly quirky twist. They noticed the trend of the selfie

revolution, has encouraged people to do just what they love.

In addition to this global selfie campaign, NASA also designed five missions to gather critical data about

the Earth in 2014: according to the report of Space.com and NASA officials, Global Precipitation

Measurement (GPM) rain-mapping mission would provide real-time rainfall and snowfall observations,

improving scientists' understanding of climate change and the global water cycle. Orbiting Carbon

Observatory-2 (OCO-2) would make detailed measurements of carbon dioxide, improving researchers'

understanding of this greenhouse gas and how it cycles through the land, air, and sea. Soil Moisture

Active Passive (SMAP) mission would be designed to map the planet's soil moisture, helping scientists

better predict agricultural productivity, weather, and climate. ISS-RapidScat would gather data about

ocean winds around the ground, aiding climate research, and improving the tracking of storms and

hurricanes (Wall, 2014).

The Campaign:

NASA being the first one to capture images of the planet from space, today their satellites captures

various images of the planet. On Earth Day in 2014, to get the more conducive image of the earth and
not just satellite mugshots NASA asked people all around the world a simple question – “Where are you

on Earth Right Now?. They asked the people all over the world to click a selfie in their respective

environments using hashtag ‘#GlobalSelfie’. The place where the picture is taken must be evident, either

by a signboard, a written connotation or by merely representing the printable signs created by NASA.

The goal was to use each picture as a pixel in the creation of a “Global Selfie” – a mosaic image that

would look like Earth appeared from space on Earth Day (DNA, 2014).

NASA combined these images and on Earth Day released a ‘Blue Marble’ - a mosaic of the earth build bit

by bit with all the collected images. The image was built using 36,422 individual photos that were posted

on social media and tagged #globalselfie on or around April 22, 2014. People from across the globe (113

countries and regions in all) posted their selfies on social media platforms. From Antarctica to Yemen,

Greenland to Guatemala, Micronesia to the Maldives, Pakistan, Poland, Peru – and on. The image was

assembled after weeks of curating more than 50,000 #globalselfie submissions (NASA, 2014).

The mosaic was hosted on the Web by GigaPan. The mosaic was based on views of each hemisphere

that were captured on April 22, 2014, by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite instrument on

the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite, a joint NOAA-NASA mission. Not only did

people submit their selfies to NASA but they also made one for their pets. There were a lot of

adaptations to it. Not only did they send a selfie of where they live and where their pets live but also

from their work and schools (NASA, 2014).

2. What social media platforms were used throughout the campaign? Do you feel that they were

missing on a particular platform?

Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, Facebook and Google+ from 113 countries and regions
The Earth mosaic image and a video using the images will be released in May. According to NASA, it will

monitor photos -- with the hashtag #GlobalSelfie -- posted to five social media sites, including Twitter,

Instagram, Facebook, Google+ and Flickr. Users can also post photos to the #GlobalSelfie event page on

Facebook, #GlobalSelfie Google+ event page, or the #GlobalSelfie group on Flickr.

On Earth Day, NASA will monitor photos posted to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+ and Flickr.

Photos posted to Twitter, Instagram or Google+ using the hashtag #GlobalSelfie or to the #GlobalSelfie

Facebook event page and the #GlobalSelfie Flickr group will be used to create a crowd-sourced mosaic

image of Earth - a new "Blue Marble" built bit-by-bit with #GlobalSelfie photos.

3. Explain how each platform was used and if it was used correctly.

Nasa Primarily used five social media platforms to connect, engage and spread awareness around

Earth’s day. They used different media platforms to tap into different audience with the use of images,

and hashtags.

Twitter: Global Selfie page dedicated to the designated hashtag #globalselfie on Twitter that captured

all of the selfies used in NASA’s photo.

To add another unique aspect to the campaign

besides the hashtag, NASA’s social media team

created a downloadable sign for everyone to use

if they did not want to create one themselves,

and it comes in more than 20 languages, for

people to write on all over the world and get

their selfie recognized and used as a pixel in the

world’s selfie.
Instagram: NASA previewed one photo directly to Instagram, where it generated over 100,000 likes in

only a few minutes.

Facebook/Flickr/Google+/Instagram: The Facebook event page was very popular with participants

commenting on each other’s selfies and appreciating images from around the world. Young generations

were tapped in by Nasa over Facebook. The #GlobalSelfie event page on Facebook, #GlobalSelfie

Google+ event page, or the #GlobalSelfie group on Flickr.

4. Describe three strengths of the campaign. Explain.

The campaign garnered massive support and participation and was a huge success. NASA went primarily

to Facebook for this campaign, so people could comment and post their selfie’s with where they were at

that time for their piece of the “global selfie.” The hashtag was also posted and promoted on Twitter,

Google+, Instagram and Flickr. Anyone who used the hashtag and uploaded their selfie of where they

were on Earth ‘right now’ was used for the final product.

 Globalization

More than 50,000 selfies were tagged using the hashtag #globalselfie from almost everywhere around

the world.

 No Hard Sell:

The global selfie campaign aimed to create awareness about the environment and promote the agency’s

ongoing work to protect the Earth. It succeeded in these goals, but it wasn’t through inundating people

with promos and messages. More, it was by creating something fun for them to do that got them

participating and talking.

  Visualization

NASA used five social media sites for the campaign which used visuals to communicate hence it

benefitted in huge potential reach and engage them in a meaningful way. Visuals are great way to get

people excited and spreading the word about what you do.

 Media Influence

NASA’s global selfie was a great idea that garnered lots of social media conversations and picked up

many mentions in the mainstream press.

 Multi-Platform

NASA took 36,422 of the selfies from Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+ and Flickr and used them to

create an entire Earth, symbolizing how everyone on this planet is a part of it.

 Call to Action:

The campaign gave their audience a direct call to ask, something to do by wanting you to take photos

with its #GlobalSelfie sheet and share online.

 Down to the Public

NASA being totally scientific organization there was detach between public and NASA but this campaign

was a lesson for any large organization trying to understand how to break down the barriers between

itself and its public.

 Catch the Selfie Trend

NASA observed and utilized the trend and obsession of selfie revolution and turned it into a campaign

for a noble cause. Tapping into the world’s obsession with selfies and social media, NASA did a fantastic
job in capturing a trend to highlight the beauty of the world around us and all of the amazing things they

have accomplished to provide global insight to the Earth, climate change, worldwide environmental

effects and the ultimate passion that our scientists have.

 No Language Barrier

NASA's campaign was international campaign, which did not have language barrier. In this photo,

countless seemingly unconnected people are connected to form this huge picture of the Earth. NASA

brought everyone on a common platform.

5. Describe three weaknesses of the campaign. Explain.

Based on the particularity of NASA's #GlobalSelfie campaign, this campaign has some limitations and

weaknesses in its development.

Extensibility

NASA’s #globalselfie is a short-term and one-time event. Based on the form of this campaign, it is

difficult to cause long-term discussion and topicality in the media among the public. It was not easy for

NASA to extend the period of the campaign, or do the same form of the campaign with creative again in

the future.

Low Interaction between Participants

In the campaign, participants’ interactions and links with other participants are very weak. The only

thing they did is uploading a photo and seeing their photo was in Mosaic earth image.

Data Statistics

NASA launched this campaign for spreading awareness; it did not end up calculating an increased

awareness. They should grab these all data and demographic of the participants to analyze, and use this
information to promote more campaigns. If NASA were to improve upon this campaign, we would

encourage the company to reach out (via social media) to each of the 50,000+ campaigners, inspiring

them to further their contributions to NASA and offering them resources to do this.

Limitation of Technique

The major feature of this campaign was using 36,422 photos to make a mosaic earth. People can zoom

in and zoom out this mosaic earth to see individual photos on GigaPan website. However, this technique

of feature cannot be used on social media platforms. People who want to take a look at these photos

have to click the link to the GigaPan website. The pictures shown on social media were only the big

mosaic earth.

References:

https://www.ibtimes.com/earth-day-2014-nasa-celebrates-occasion-globalselfie-campaign-1574574

https://sites.psu.edu/enh5074/2015/11/19/part-a-case-study/

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/play/nasa-calls-on-people-to-take-global-selfie-for-earth-day

https://qz.com/420267/how-a-bunch-of-government-space-geeks-at-nasa-won-the-internet/