#SanctuarySelfies: Using social media to engage

the public in your conservation goals

Quackenbush, A.M.
California State University, Monterey Bay
Despite the growing popularity of social media,
many organization have not effectively
incorporated this technology into their public
relations strategies. By developing social media
campaigns there is potential to engage the public,
foster personal connections, and change behaviors
toward ocean conservation. The methodology
employed for the Get Into Your Sanctuary Day
campaign and lessons learned may be
incorporated into the promotion of similar events.

Lessons Learned

Reaching a larger audience

Be Creative

Figure 4. Olympic Coast posted

pictures of visitors answering What
does the NMS mean to you?

Actual Reach

Get Into Your Sanctuary Day

Utilize multiple social media outlets

Figure 5. By engaging partner institutions on Twitter

Cordell Bank increased their reach by 28,495 .

#HashtagTracking
By encouraging the community to post with
#VisitSanctuaries we were able to track public
involvement in the campaign across multiple social
media outlets.
Additional metrics tracked included:
Facebook and Twitter followers
Amount of posts/tweets and their reach
Facebook likes, shares and comments Twitter
favorite tweets, @mentions, retweets, and
replies
Referring traffic flow and top influencers

Add a personal touch

Post Engagement

Figure 1.(left). Get Into Your Sanctuary Day poster distributed across West
Coast national marine sanctuarylocations. Figure 2 (right). Example post of
Olympic Coast promoting Get Into Your Sanctuary Day. Figure 3 (below).
Example post from Channel Islands NMS promoting sustainable tourism.

Across all sites a combined 80% increase

in potential reach and engagement.

Figure 6. Monterey Bay made the

public feel like a special components of
the event by sharing content from local
community members.

Tell a story

Figure 7. Channel Islands followed a

volunteer for the day and showcased
recreational
opportunities
and
educational opportunities.

Graph 1 (top). All sites had an increase in post reach over the duration of
the campaign. Graph 2 (bottom). Daily engagement increased across all
sites on the Get Into Your Sanctuary Day.

Future Campaigns
The additive effects of the
campaign indicate that
national marine
sanctuaries ability to
achieve its mission to
promote sustainable
tourism and recreation
opportunities was
enhanced by the use of
the Get Into Your
Sanctuary Day social
media campaign. This
case study demonstrates
how social media
campaigns can be applied
across organizations to
successfully promote
messaging.

Figure 8. One of the largest

tourism draws to sanctuaries is
the incredible wildlife, posts such
as this one from Monterey Bay
showing wildlife and linking to
stories were some of the most
successful content posted.