This presentation presents tips and lessons learned by NASA for creating content on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

1. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Sharing Our Universe:
Tips for Social Media Content
John Yembrick and Jason Townsend, Office of Communications

2. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Sharing our Universe: Twitter
• Try to stay at least 10-20 characters below the 140-
character limit — this facilitates retweeting
• Content is king: provide information, insight and
clarification. But remember to be clear and catchy..
• Don't procrastinate about whether to tweet.
Timeliness matters.
• Respond to questions, but stick to your area of
expertise. People might ask you questions you can't
answer; refer them to another colleague who can.
• Reply and retweet — the more you engage, the
more people will respect you. If you want your
replies seen by all, use a dot-reply – place a period
before the @account name so it looks like
‘.@accountNAME.’ Be careful to not claim a tweet as
your own if you're retweeting.
• Link to more in-depth content, such as a webpage,
podcast, news release, etc.
• Use the go.nasa.gov URL shortener to save space on
your tweets and provide NASA branding.
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http://www.nasa.gov/connect

3. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Sharing our Universe: Twitter
• Cover an event by "Live tweeting" -- meaning
multiple, real-time tweets. It can be a powerful way
to convey a sense of "being there."
• Cover only one point and provide only one link per
tweet. To get people to more comprehensive
information, link to a page that then links to
multiple pages.
• Tag topics of ongoing interest using a hashtag to
allow for easy searching (e.g., #MSL). Use the same
hashtag on all tweets related to specific outreach
campaigns.
• Check your spelling. You can't correct errors. You
can delete a given post, but it will still appear
somewhere on the internet.
• Check your links. Do they work before clicking
publish? . You can't correct errors. You can delete a
given post, but it will still appear somewhere on the
internet.
• Don’t talk like this is a one-on-one conversation. Be
colloquial and use the royal ‘we,’ but never ‘I’.
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http://www.nasa.gov/connect

4. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Sharing our Universe: FB/G+
• Content is king: provide
information, insight and
clarification
• Share paragraph or longer
updates that have enough
information, but also have a
call to action for users to get
more info
• Add visuals & video to posts to
generate more shares
• Remember that most folks
won’t see the update in the
context of your page, but
rather in a feed of updates on
their news feed or stream
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http://www.nasa.gov/connect

5. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Sharing our Universe: FB/G+
• While being timely is
important, don’t post multiple
things back to back on the same
topic. Be strategic. Post it when
the time is right and you have
everything necessary to post.
• Link to more in-depth
content, such as a
webpage, podcast, news
release, etc.
• Cover an event by providing a few
comprehensive updates. Don’t
‘live post’ events on these
platforms unless the event lends
itself to that format based on your
audience. This is viewed as spam
and will cause followers to
uncircle us. 5
http://www.nasa.gov/connect

6. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Sharing our Universe: FB/G+
• Cover multiple points and
provide a few links per post, if
applicable. Most folks will not
click on a link to find out more
– provide them enough
information that they have the
big picture and the news
nuggets.
• Respond to comments if
you can help
someone, but avoid
arguing with people
trying to bait you
(referred to as "trolls" on
the Internet). 6
http://www.nasa.gov/connect

7. Follow the social media team at @NASASocial for the
latest opportunities to connect and collaborate with NASA
Your Title Here 7
http://www.nasa.gov/connect