3002502001501005002001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013WebsitesTable 7: Number of Yuri’s Night Event WebsitesIV.Conclusion and ImplicationsAs space is becoming increasingly mainstream, and to some perhaps routine; thus it isimportant for space advocacy groups to leverage all resources at their disposal. This case studydemonstrates that there is indeed a correlation between social media efforts and obtaining desiredoutcomes of space related outreach. Yuri’s Night has made an impact with its use of Twitter andYouTube, as determined by the somewhat increasing number of views of its YouTube videosand the clear rise in retweeted information by the Twitter community. Metrics of success, asmeasured through event counts and web-traffic, also support the assertion that the organization ismaking a larger impact each year and increasing the population’s awareness of humanspaceflight. Social media is clearly helping Yuri’s Night accomplish its mission.While some of these metrics are somewhat limited, this report provides a platform forfurther investigation. The next step includes attempting to examine the organization’s use ofsocial media tools with lower adoption rates such as Google+ and Flickr, as well as a more indepthlook at current tools to determine reaction to various styles and types of messages by thepublic as well as Yuri’s Night’s base of supporters. 43 Additionally, the metrics of successexamined here are somewhat limited. In the future, Yuri’s Night hopes to track more metrics ofengagement by encouraging local event organizers to report information about individual eventssuch as accurate attendee counts. 4443 The Yuri’s Night social media footprint extends to Google+, Tumblr (Yuri’s Night Live,previously hosted on Posterous), Pinterest, Flickr, Foursquare, and several others are notdiscussed in this analysis.44 Alles, Jeffrey W. & Kobrick, Ryan (2014, June 17). Interview by author.© 2015 Astrosociology Research Institute52
The most important observations are how to improve the effectiveness of Yuri’s Night’ssocial media presence, and what lessons other space advocacy groups can learn from this study.What we have seen is that integration into the Twitter community rather than just postingmessages leads to people becoming more interested in sharing the organization’s message.Additionally, retweeting popular information rather than just reporting rote organizationalinformation allows for a more successful engagement within the Twitter community.For YouTube, the conclusions are less clear due to the limited data provided by Google.A handful of videos appear to be driving the total views. Meanwhile, Yuri’s Night seems to bedoing well with Facebook, given that there were over 3,000 new fans in the last 12 months (overone quarter of the total Yuri’s Night page fans). The organization should focus on giving thepublic what it wants, by targeting posts to a more mainstream audience in the geographies inwhich Yuri’s Night is most popular, rather than catering specifically to the space community, bystudying the highly liked, shared, and watched posts on these social media platforms in order todetermine what makes specific posts comparatively popular.As evidenced by events such as Felix Baumgartner’s sponsored stratospheric, supersonicskydive, billed as a “jump from the edge of space,” space is again, if slowly, becoming moreinteresting to the public. For example, the YouTube video of this event has gathered over 35million views 45 which is over 100 times as many views as the NASA YouTube video of the finalshuttle landing, STS-135, only a few years earlier. 46 The effective use of social media andcontinued analysis of social media efforts allow space advocacy organizations to help makespace common in the minds of members of the public by leveraging these events and connectingthese events with the public in an interesting and accessible way. These efforts will not exist in avacuum. Instead, the possibility exists that these social media initiatives could catalyze spaceevents themselves.Continued exposure to social realities such as regular suborbital tourism flights, miningasteroids, and sending increasingly smaller, cost effective payloads to space via social mediamay increase space interest and thus space activity. Additionally, an elevated social interest inspace may be due to a revived interest in space by the entertainment industry. While it is notpossible to prove anything about the public’s interest in space beyond this conjecture, it remainsan avenue for future research. For example, shows and movies such as the revived Cosmosseries, Interstellar (2014), Gravity (2013), and The 100 (2014-Present) use space as a plot device.Continued societal exposure to space, enhanced by social media saturation, could have sweepingeffects on society as a whole. 4745 Red Bull (2012, October 14). Felix Baumgartner's supersonic freefall from 128k’ - Missionhighlights. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHtvDA0W34I.46 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (2011, July 21). Atlantis's final landing atKennedy Space Center. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLDG5sNMX2M.47 Kate Lanau writes in a softer piece on astronaut Chris Hadfield that the use of social mediafrom space has proven an effective way to introduce space into the mainstream and engage newand diverse audiences, while reconnecting with the usual audiences (e.g. teachers). Lunau, K.(2013, March 11). Canada's man in space gets a little help from home. Retrieved fromhttp://www.macleans.ca/society/life/our-man-in-space. In addition, some support is providedthrough the lens of NASA. See Friedman, P. (2014, August 13). How to Make NASA Cool© 2015 Astrosociology Research Institute53
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