At the Monterey Bay Aquarium, our social media presence has grown faster than an algae bloom over the last few years. Our Facebook audience alone has gone from a few thousand to more almost 220,000. We’re pushing 200,000 followers on Google+, 60,000 on Tumblr and 26,000 on Twitter. When we post to Facebook, we typically get 1,000-plus responses. For a conservation non-profit—albeit, one of the world’s most prominent—that’s not too bad.
So people ask: what’s your secret? People are sure that I, and my colleagues, must be very clever indeed to have accomplished all this.
The truth is, I’m not so clever. (Just ask my wife.) Here at the Aquarium, we have one, overarching advantage: great stories. Every day, there are amazing things taking place on our exhibit floor, behind the scenes, in our research laboratories, and right out my office window, in Monterey Bay. (When was the last time someone yanked you out of your office chair to look at whales breeching?)
So here’s the real secret: our social media vehicles are just the conduits through which we pass the awesome events taking place all around us, every day. We’re the messengers. The power is in the message.
Here are a few examples:
- An Aquarist gets a hug from an Octopus. Have you ever had an affectionate, eight-arm hug? Right. Neither had we. But as a social media story, it’s hard to resist. Result: More than 17,000 responses on Tumblr.
- A pregnant dad. Did you know that in the seahorse family, it’s the dad that gets pregnant? Many in our audience (and my wife) think that’s a kind of poetic justice. Result: 10,000 Facebook responses, over two months.
- An octopus goes on a midnight ramble across the floor of the Aquarium. Hey, we don’t make this stuff up. Result: thousands of Facebook interactions, and national media coverage.
You get the idea. When it comes to storytelling at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, it’s not the messenger—it’s the message that resonates.
So what does this mean for you? Mainly, that everyone has a story to tell. Even if your job is overseeing social media for the Acme Widget Foundry, there must be something that will engage, inspire, and entertain your audience. Did someone go above and beyond in their interactions with a customer? Tell their story, in an entertaining but unassuming way. Did your widget enable a customer to achieve something that never would have been possible? Tell that person’s story, preferably with a great photo. (Or better yet, let them tell it. ) Can you provide solid, free advice (with photos or a short video) on how someone can make better use of your widget? Give it away, on social media, and it will set your free. People will love you for it.
There are stories all around. You just need to find them. And then give them away. Then watch your audience grow.
(photo Randy Wilder/Monterey Bay Aquarium)