Social Media: What’s the point?

You may have heard the buzz about the @MarsPhoenix twitter phenomenon. @MarsPhoenix has become extremely popular with an online audience of 20,000+. What makes @MarsPhoenix particularly engaging is its stream of regular first-person updates about life as a spacecraft on Mars. One of my personal favorite updates so far is this one:

“I know it LOOKS easy, but you try following instructions sent from 182 million miles away!”

I heard about Mars Phoenix… Saw something about that on the news the other day. What’s this Twitter thing all about anyway?

Well, to start, Twitter is online micro blogging service that allows you to write and follow short messages (up to 140 characters) via the web, email, IM or text. Each user can subscribe to status messages of other users. The Mars Phoenix mission made the news because the people behind the mission have done something particularly creative. They’ve use “social media” to give their spacecraft a personality which has allowed them to directly connect with thousands of people on a very personal level. Since landing on Mars, @MarsPhoenix has been interviewed by the media, has answered questions from individuals all over the world, and has managed to cut through the day-to-day noise and inform those otherwise to busy to pay attention to “just another NASA mission.” If you don’t believe me, just visit summize.com and read the transcripts from the ongoing online conversation. Here’s a link, I did the search for you already. @MarsPhoenix is the most popular application of Twitter for NASA, but a number of current and upcoming missions will be using this new medium as well – including @STS124 (which just landed) and @hubble. In addition, there are hundreds (if not thousands) of space people who are using social media tools to share the inspirational message about space exploration with others.

So what’s the point? Why should we really care about social media?

Good question. I’ve heard this quite a bit lately from everyone from scientists to marketing majors. It’s safe to say that many people are skeptical of social media – and understandably so. We’ve even discussed the negative implications of technology here on openNASA. When it comes to corporate resources, time, money, and effort to try new activities takes risk. From a marketing standpoint, there is a major concern about losing control of a brand or message. But as we see from @MarsPhoenix, that risk can pay off. When people are passionate about a topic, the want to talk about it and social media has become “the” way a growing number of people communicate.

Do you use it? What for?

Yes, you can actually follow me here if you are interested. But, to answer your second question, let me share a few examples of how I personally use twitter. I could just as easily talk about any other social media application as well, but I’ll use Twitter since we are on the topic.

There are several applications for Twitter. Some use it to keep in touch with their friends. Some use it s a professional tool, for information gathering and creating a conversation with a community. Some use it as a notification service for their podcasts listeners or blog readers about new material. And some just use it as an open chat platform.

Here are a few reasons I use it on a personal level:

1. Communication: It’s much easier than blogging (which I’m not very good at regularly doing) and I can quickly and efficiently share my thoughts, upcoming events, news, ideas, links or feedback with anyone who cares to listen. I can also follow others who are sharing information that I’m interested in.

2. News. Twitter users regularly link to useful sites or articles and this can be a source of breaking news even before other websites or the media pick it up. I subscribe to Twitter feeds for specific events/conferences, which allows me to receive and view content quickly.

3. Networking. The “social” part of social media – Twitter has a built-in function for me to meet others and get to know them 140 characters at a time. It’s a very easy way to connect with people outside of your usual circle. I can easily follow thousands of other people and listen in on conversations they are having. Twitter can be used as a networking platform to meet other like-minded people, such as those in the same industry as you that you may not have met otherwise. If you are looking for a contact in another industry, it’s also a way to meet someone.

4. Notes. Twitter provides you with an easy way to record important ideas or concepts you want to explore further. If I want to remind myself of something, I can mark it as a “favorite.”

5. Time Management and Analysis. Twitter can simply be used to keep a detailed record of what you are doing. This is particularly useful when I want to analyze how I spend and manage my time, or when I’m trying to summarize what I’ve done recently (or annually in the case of when I write my Christmas Cards).

6. Feedback. Sometimes I really appreciate an alternative perspective on everything from a good place to visit when traveling to what tool I might use to better do a job. Simply sending out a request asking for advice will usually result in some useful replies from other users. This collective intelligence can be used to make better decisions.

Okay, but what’s this about NASA using Twitter?

Using social media tools such as Twitter for professional application can be extremely beneficial. A few months ago, a few of us brainstormed about how we’d to improve NASA. Below is the list that we came up back then. Using social media tools like Twitter addresses each one of these items.

• Create a transparent and connected government
• Encourage a modern communications structure
• Employ innovative technology to collaborate on and solve our challenges
• Improve how teams integrate to solve problems
• Improve employee retention and recruitment
• Ensure full and free access to information
• Bring NASA to the American Public
• Share our compelling story with the Public
• Flatten organization structures
• Change our approach to advertisement and marketing

There is no doubt that we live in a complex and technologically sophisticated society and Twitter offers an easy and effective way to take advantage of that environment. Social media can be used as an effective tool whether the task is simply communicating our latest innovation or exciting mission, or collaborating on a complicated undertaking requiring the coordinated contributions of many talented people working together.

Here are some thoughts on how NASA ,as well as any other organization, can benefit from becoming an early adopter of social media on a bigger scale:

1. Leveraging Social Media.

Just by utilizing twitter, NASA can reach out to thousands with its brand. In terms of sharing a message with an audience, there may not be a more effective way than personally connecting with others. As the business world becomes more familiar with social media tools, and starts blogging, facebook-ing, twittering, or whatever is next – the same core skills in understanding how to reach stakeholders are similar. Learning how to do it on twitter is a skillset that can be applied to feature social media mediums.

2. Keeping Track of the “Linkerati” (Highly vocal and connected influencers).

“Despite the buzz and activity of Twitter.com, their membership of just over 1 million users seem a paltry sum compared to MySpace, Facebook , Bebo and others. However, Twitter is definitely on the bleeding edge of early adopters, specifically the “Linkerati” (as coined by Rand Fishkin). The Linkerati are the special type of early adopters who are very vocal on the Internet – be it twittering, blogging or doing a Yelp/Amazon review of your business or product. Current Twitter members, due to their Linkerati demographic, may have a higher than average say on influencing your brand.”Note: The above was very well written elsewhere, so I just re-published word-for-word from this great article

3. Two-Way Conversations.

A number of businesses such as H&R Block and Comcast are incredibly innovative in how they use twitter as a conversational & microblogging platform. H&R Block reaches out to Twitter members complaining about taxes and assist as customer service for those dissatisfied with their H&R Block experience. Comcast does the same and actually responded to a comment that I wrote a few months back when I was frustrated with their customer service. @comcastcares personally called the Comcast Houston office and had someone come out to my house immediately and fixed my problem two weeks quicker than would have otherwise happened. NASA, although not in the customer care business, can use Twitter to converse with stakeholders around the country who may benefit from the many educational materials NASA produces. @MarsPhoenix and @STS124 are great examples of how a mission can be communicated via conversation.

4. News Distribution.

Just like the New York Times or CNN, NASA can utilize Twitter as another distribution platform to send their audience updates. The best part is that it takes a matter of minutes to stream an RSS feed into a twitter account. Anyone can then subscribe via mobile or RSS for instant notification and have the news delivered to them in whatever electronic medium they prefer. This is definitely not very *social* media, but it allows yet another route by which to reach their audience in a relatively low cost method. This is how NASA currently uses the @NASA account – it streams the 12 RSS feeds from http://www.nasa.gov/rss website.

5. Reputation Monitoring.

NASA can also use twitter to monitor it’s reputation on a very personal level. It wouldn’t take much to monitor and track Twitter comments and then analyze them for trends. Understanding feedback about NASA via Twitter will give those planning future programs and projects, such as outreach programs, a first hand glimpse into what might work best.

6. Recruitment and Retention.

Sounds crazy, but it’s not. As the NASA community looks for new talent, they may consider using Twitter to both advertise a position or find the talent they require. This is pretty common for those looking to find logo designers, marketers, programmers, or freelancers – and I’m sure there are already companies out there using Twitter this way.

7. Directing Traffic.

Twitter can be used to direct traffic to the nasa.gov website. There is a viral nature to how news spreads these days.

8. Internal Communication Management.

Twitter can also be used as a company intranet that connects employees to one another. This is particularly useful when employees want to collaborate but are not located in the same office, city, state or country! Updates can be set to private for security reasons.

9. Event Updates and Live Coverage.

NASA can use Twitter as a means to inform its audience of upcoming events, such as launches. This is a hassle-free way of disseminating information. Twitters message size limit is perfect for real-time commentary, which may help to spark further discussion or interest on the event as other Twitter users spread the message. I’m personally looking forward to following the first space mission when Astronauts twitter from space.

Wow, that’s interesting. There might be some value in using social media. Do you know of any NASA projects or missions that already use Twitter besides @MarsPhoenix?

Sure do! Here’s a list and I’ll keep updating this as I find out about others. If you know of any other project or mission twittering, please let me know. **Note that not all of these are “NASA managed” accounts.

• @NASA
• @MarsPhoenix
• @hubble
• @STS124
• @STS125
• @LCROSS_NASA
• @LADEE_NASA
• @LRO_NASA
• @TESS_NASA
• @NASAkepler
• @NASA_EDGE
• @NASA_MAAT
• @NASAGLAST
• @nasacolab
• @SSDiscovery
• @SSAtlantis
• @NASA_SDO_HMI
• @NASA_SDO
• @DESERT_RATS

What about space people that use Twitter?

There are a quite a few “space people” already using social media (especially on Facebook and LinkedIn) but here’s a list of eleven space people who use Twitter from all parts of the space world. If you want to find more, take a look at who they are following on Twitter.

• Keith Cowing (@keithcowing) – Editor of NASAWatch / SpaceRef
• Jeff Foust (@jeff_foust) – Editor of The Space Review and SpacePolitics.com
• William Pomerantz (@PomerantzReport) - X PRIZE Foundation, Google Lunar X PRIZE
• Peter Diamandis (@PeterDiamandis) – X PRIZE Foundation, Zero G Corporation
• Andrew Hoppin (@ahoppin) – NASA Colab, aerospace scientist
• Robbie Schingler (@medido) – Social entrepreneur and NASA innovator
• Tim Bailey (@tim846) – Zero G, National Space Society (NSS), Space Generation (SGAC), Yuri’s NightWayne Hale (@waynehale) – Former Flight Director/Space Shuttle Program Manager
• Leroy Chao (@AstroDude)– Former NASA Astronaut
• Ken Davidian (@kdavidian) – Exploration Systems Mission Directorate Commercial Development Policy Lead
• Robert Pearlman (@RobertPearlman) – Editor of collectSpace.com
• Nick Skytland (@skytland) – me
• I could highlight others but this gives you a flavor of who you might find on Twitter.

The concept of Twitter sounds great, but I’m not so excited about that “open and transparent” part. We do top secret work here! What about ITAR?

Twitter is not for everyone and those who choose to participate online with social media need to be professionally responsible and aware of corporate guidelines and in the case of us government folks, laws such as ITAR or the Hatch Act.

On a personal level, note that there are some privacy options when it comes to social media. With Twitter, for example, you can choose to “protect” your posts so that only people you approve can view them.

If your organization sees a value in using “social media” to connect, collaborate, share resources and information, but hasn’t yet warmed up to the complete “open and transparent culture,” there is a simple solution for them as well! The guys from Wordpress created Prologue – a template that works just like twitter. Using this template on an intranet, behind the firewall, platform, you can quickly setup an internal site for your office.

Cool – how much does that cost?

Like most great things online, nothing. Just install wordpress on your corporate server, add that theme, and you are good to go.

Oh, one last question. How do I make meaning out of the Twitter-sphere?

There are some really good resources that have been created to help you leverage the twittersphere. Here are a few of the ones I use daily:

• http://summize.com/ - The ultimate twitter search tool. If you want to take this all one step further, use Google Reader to convert your search to RSS.
• http://www.twitterfeed.com/ – If you are just becoming familiar with twitter and are having a hard time voluntarily posting your stream of consciousness online, may I suggest twitterfeed? This site takes an existing RSS feed and plugs it into twitter. Although not “ideal”, it is a good place to start.
• http://www.twitterholic.com/ - Find out who everyone else is following
• http://www.tweme.com - By using the # sign before a word, others can follow a conversation about a particularly subject or sub-conversation. Tweme.com uses the # sign to coagulate topics and then offers a sub-conversation search capability. As an example, search ISDC on tweme to follow the conversation held a few weeks ago at the ISDC conference in DC.
• Twitterberry for Blackberry – this application is invaluable for anyone with a blackberry.

Where can I get more information about all this?

I knew you’d ask! So here are a few articles worth reading if you have time:

• I encourage you to visit Loretta’s latest post at Wired.com highlighting the value of twitter to NASA missions. She’s much more eloquent and concise than I am.
• Here’s an insightful article about what Dell’s Bob Pearson is doing to deal with the changing world of online communication.
• Here’s an article on “what not to do” and corporate “worst practices“.
• Here’s an Editorial Policy Guidance Note from the BBS regarding their presence on social networks. In this policy, it emphasizes the importance of “conversations, participate online; don’t “broadcast” messages to users.
• Much of the content on how to use Twitter was inspired from the Dosh Dosh blog and Jeremiah Owyang. Both websites are a wealth of information
• If you already have Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, but don’t understand the benefits/implications of tagging yourself, read this article about owning your online name.

Hey, I gotta run, but lets keep in touch! Would love to talk about this more.

Excellent and if you have a moment, I’d love to hear from as you well on how you are using social media in the workplace. How about we just meet up online? It’d be much easier for me to communicate in the future with you that way!