NASA landed a rover named Curiosity on the surface of Mars early this morning, and although this isn't their first successful Mars landing, it is the first one where the rover had its own official twitter account. Tweeting as @MarsCuriosity, NASA has given its rover a personality while providing real time updates to its over 600,000 followers (up from just 150,000 a few days before the landing). Curiosity's first tweet after landing was retweeted a staggering 70,000 times.
One of the biggest moments for NASA in the past few years, NASA had to compete against the Olympics for attention. But officials at NASA decided to embrace social media instead of NBC's strategy of ignoring it (and seeing the #NBCfail hashtag trend for days with people disappointed with NBC's coverage) or even worse, fighting social media by getting a journalist that was harsh in NBC criticism banned from twitter.
By embracing social media, NASA was able to amplify their success, distribute information and content, and entertain their followers across the world.
A couple more tweets from @MarsCuriosity below the jump.
I'm safely on the surface of Mars. GALE CRATER I AM IN YOU!!!#MSL
— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) August 6, 2012
One of the biggest moments for NASA in the past few years, NASA had to compete against the Olympics for attention. But officials at NASA decided to embrace social media instead of NBC's strategy of ignoring it (and seeing the #NBCfail hashtag trend for days with people disappointed with NBC's coverage) or even worse, fighting social media by getting a journalist that was harsh in NBC criticism banned from twitter.
By embracing social media, NASA was able to amplify their success, distribute information and content, and entertain their followers across the world.
A couple more tweets from @MarsCuriosity below the jump.
No photo or it didn't happen? Well lookee here, I'm casting a shadow on the ground in Mars' Gale crater#MSL twitter.com/MarsCuriosity/…
— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) August 6, 2012
It once was one small step... now it's six big wheels. Here's a look at one of them on the soil of Mars#MSL twitter.com/MarsCuriosity/…
— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) August 6, 2012
Eye in the Sky: MRO's@hirise camera caught this shot of me & my parachute during landing at Mars#MSLtwitpic.com/ag8j1w
— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) August 6, 2012
To the entire team & fans back on Earth, thank you, thank you. Now the adventure begins. Let's dare mighty things together!#MSL
— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) August 6, 2012
1 comment:
As someone fairly new to twitter, I am constantly amazed by the power this tool has. It is absolutely changing the way we get information and it is reshaping media and the way we communicate yet again. I think most people wouldn't care so much about us landing on and exploring Mars again. Maybe they'd skim an article, but the interest would die after that unless there's some major discovery. But science is smart by engaging youth and the technologically advanced in its use of twitter. Giving the Mars Rover a personality (if done right) could keep people otherwise disinterested interested in an arguably dead subject matter. It's pretty cool to get "real-time" updates on Adventures From Mars and maybe even learn something in the process. Increased awareness and bringing space exploration back into the conversation could benefit NASA in different ways. As people are overwhelmingly consumed by their digital "realities" and losing touch with the tangible world, I think it's interesting to note that the controversial field of space exploration has used the made-up world of twitter to help bring some people back in touch with our terrestrial neighbor, thereby bringing us back down to...Mars.
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