NASA Pluto Flyby Internet Statistics

“Potential reach and Number of Mentions of all social media posts(NASA & non-NASA) across 21 different social media platforms using one or more of the following keywords between July 13-17, 2015: Pluto, “New Horizons”, #PlutoFlyby, or #Pluto:”
– Download NASA presentation
– NASA’s Pluto Web Stats, earlier post
NASA’s Social Media Strategy Is Genius And Kinda Maddening, Wired
“Organizations can sometimes let social media metrics obscure their core goals and mission. (Trust us on this.) On the evening of July 14, the world was waiting for New Horizons to phone home and say it had successfully passed by Pluto. With less than two minutes until the message was scheduled to arrive, the cameras cut to (drumroll) a NASA social media representative, who proceeded to tell the world how high New Horizons was trending on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The Pluto Press Corps was not too amused. The camera cut to New Horizons Mission Operations Manager Alice Bowman in the nick of time, seemingly the moment she received the I’m-OK signal from New Horizons. For a moment, it seemed, NASA’s ace team of publicists had forgotten that the cameras were supposed to be on Pluto.”
4,800 engagements on Google+? Why that’s practically the entire user base!
NASA really needs to fire these PR specialists and let scientists speak for themselves.
Some of NASA’s PAO people are very good. Some are awful. Some scientists are articulate and present their missions well. Others are clueless. Its a mixed bag. When it works – it works. When it doesn’t, well…