From the twisted minds who brought you the Upwell Sharkinar, comes the latest in our infamous webinar-inar series. The Acidinar is about using the internet for ocean acidification communications, including what can be done about it.
If you talk about acidification online, or if you're acidification-curious, check out the Acidinar and join our merry band of activists, scientists, bloggers, journalists, super-tweeters, and nonprofits to discuss how we can change the online conversation about ocean acidification in the best way, together.
The Acidinar was held on Wednesday, February 4th, at 11am pacific / 2pm eastern.
A video recording and related resources are available at http://upwell.us/oceanacidification
During the Acidinar we:
• Shared findings from Upwell’s new report, Ocean Acidification: The State of the Online Conversation (http://upwell.us/oceanacidification)
• Answered your questions and discussed your takeaways, with an eye toward mutual communications support
• Provided tips for increasing the volume and engagement level of ocean acidification online mentions
The Upwell #Acidinar: Ocean Acidification Through the Eyes of the Internet
1. The #ACIDINAR
Ocean Acidification through
the eyes of the internet
February 4th, 2015 #ACIDINAR
Dial in to the audio at
866-740-1260
Participant code 3005900
4. The Upwell Team
Rachel Weidinger
Executive Dir.
@rachelannyes
Ray Dearborn
Campaign Lab Dir.
@rdearborn
Matt Fitzgerald
Attention Lab Dir.
@fitz350
(Slide may or may not have been cribbed from a previous ___-inar)
25. Some of your favorite ways
to explain acidification
Ocean acidification is:
• “rising ph levels in the ocean, which make it
difficult for shellfish to form their shells”
• “global warming’s evil twin”
• “a widespread change in ocean chemistry that
makes life harder for many ocean creatures …”
• “what happens to baby teeth in a glass of coca
cola”
(Selected quotes from #Acidinar registrants)
31. Equally evil twin
New
climate
threat
Dissolving shells
in the Southern Ocean
WA State
OA plan
Ban Ki Moon
calls for
ocean action
Arctic faces
further threat
Coral extinct
by century's
end?
OA will make
climate change
worse
Highest rate
in 300M years
OA Summary for
Policymakers 2013
10M
scallops
Robs fish
of fear
Dissolving
pteropods
Our Ocean
conference
20
coral
listed
under
ESA
CO2 surged
in 2013
Carbon
raised
acidity
a 1/4
UK science
chief warning
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
4,000
4,500
Apr '12 Jul '12 Oct '12 Jan '13 Apr '13 Jul '13 Oct '13 Jan '14 Apr '14 Jul '14 Oct '14
Ocean Acidification
Sea
Change
Ocean Acidification Social Mentions (5/10/2012-11/30/2014)
32. Equally evil twin
New
climate
threat
Dissolving shells
in the Southern Ocean
WA State
OA plan
Ban Ki Moon
calls for
ocean action
Arctic faces
further threat
Coral extinct
by century's
end?
OA will make
climate change
worse
Highest rate
in 300M years
OA Summary for
Policymakers 2013
10M
scallops
Robs fish
of fear
Dissolving
pteropods
Our Ocean
conference
20
coral
listed
under
ESA
CO2 surged
in 2013
Carbon
raised
acidity
a 1/4
UK science
chief warning
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
4,000
4,500
Apr '12 Jul '12 Oct '12 Jan '13 Apr '13 Jul '13 Oct '13 Jan '14 Apr '14 Jul '14 Oct '14
Ocean Acidification
Sea
Change
Ocean Acidification Social Mentions (5/10/2012-11/30/2014)
Go deep at bit.ly/
acidificationSOTC
33. Ocean Acidification Moving Average and Linear Regression (5/10/12-11/30/14)
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
4,000
4,500
Apr '12 Jul '12 Oct '12 Jan '13 Apr '13 Jul '13 Oct '13 Jan '14 Apr '14 Jul '14 Oct '14
Ocean Acidification Linear (Ocean Acidification) 30 per. Mov. Avg. (Ocean Acidification)
34. Ocean Acidification Moving Average and Linear Regression (5/10/12-11/30/14)
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
4,000
4,500
Apr '12 Jul '12 Oct '12 Jan '13 Apr '13 Jul '13 Oct '13 Jan '14 Apr '14 Jul '14 Oct '14
Ocean Acidification Linear (Ocean Acidification) 30 per. Mov. Avg. (Ocean Acidification)
FINDING 2.
Volume and
spikiness
are up
35. Equally evil twin
New
climate
threat
Dissolving shells
in the Southern Ocean
WA State
OA plan
Ban Ki Moon
calls for
ocean action
Arctic faces
further threat
Coral extinct
by century's
end?
OA will make
climate change
worse
Highest rate
in 300M years
OA Summary for
Policymakers 2013
10M
scallops
Robs fish
of fear
Dissolving
pteropods
Our Ocean
conference
20
coral
listed
under
ESA
CO2 surged
in 2013
Carbon
raised
acidity
a 1/4
UK science
chief warning
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
4,000
4,500
Apr '12 Jul '12 Oct '12 Jan '13 Apr '13 Jul '13 Oct '13 Jan '14 Apr '14 Jul '14 Oct '14
Ocean Acidification
Sea
Change
Ocean Acidification Social Mentions (5/10/2012-11/30/2014)
36. Equally evil twin
New
climate
threat
Dissolving shells
in the Southern Ocean
WA State
OA plan
Ban Ki Moon
calls for
ocean action
Arctic faces
further threat
Coral extinct
by century's
end?
OA will make
climate change
worse
Highest rate
in 300M years
OA Summary for
Policymakers 2013
10M
scallops
Robs fish
of fear
Dissolving
pteropods
Our Ocean
conference
20
coral
listed
under
ESA
CO2 surged
in 2013
Carbon
raised
acidity
a 1/4
UK science
chief warning
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
4,000
4,500
Apr '12 Jul '12 Oct '12 Jan '13 Apr '13 Jul '13 Oct '13 Jan '14 Apr '14 Jul '14 Oct '14
Ocean Acidification
Sea
Change
Ocean Acidification Social Mentions (5/10/2012-11/30/2014)
FINDING 3
New and alarming
science spikes!
37. Equally evil twin
New
climate
threat
Dissolving shells
in the Southern Ocean
WA State
OA plan
Ban Ki Moon
calls for
ocean action
Arctic faces
further threat
Coral extinct
by century's
end?
OA will make
climate change
worse
Highest rate
in 300M years
OA Summary for
Policymakers 2013
10M
scallops
Robs fish
of fear
Dissolving
pteropods
Our Ocean
conference
20
coral
listed
under
ESA
CO2 surged
in 2013
Carbon
raised
acidity
a 1/4
UK science
chief warning
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
4,000
4,500
Apr '12 Jul '12 Oct '12 Jan '13 Apr '13 Jul '13 Oct '13 Jan '14 Apr '14 Jul '14 Oct '14
Ocean Acidification
Sea
Change
Ocean Acidification Social Mentions (5/10/2012-11/30/2014)
FINDINF 3
New and alarming
science spikes!
Curate hard
and amplify
breaking news
38. Equally evil twin
New
climate
threat
Dissolving shells
in the Southern Ocean
WA State
OA plan
Ban Ki Moon
calls for
ocean action
Arctic faces
further threat
Coral extinct
by century's
end?
OA will make
climate change
worse
Highest rate
in 300M years
OA Summary for
Policymakers 2013
10M
scallops
Robs fish
of fear
Dissolving
pteropods
Our Ocean
conference
20
coral
listed
under
ESA
CO2 surged
in 2013
Carbon
raised
acidity
a 1/4
UK science
chief warning
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
4,000
4,500
Apr '12 Jul '12 Oct '12 Jan '13 Apr '13 Jul '13 Oct '13 Jan '14 Apr '14 Jul '14 Oct '14
Ocean Acidification
Sea
Change
Ocean Acidification Social Mentions (5/10/2012-11/30/2014)
39. Equally evil twin
New
climate
threat
Dissolving shells
in the Southern Ocean
WA State
OA plan
Ban Ki Moon
calls for
ocean action
Arctic faces
further threat
Coral extinct
by century's
end?
OA will make
climate change
worse
Highest rate
in 300M years
OA Summary for
Policymakers 2013
10M
scallops
Robs fish
of fear
Dissolving
pteropods
Our Ocean
conference
20
coral
listed
under
ESA
CO2 surged
in 2013
Carbon
raised
acidity
a 1/4
UK science
chief warning
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
4,000
4,500
Apr '12 Jul '12 Oct '12 Jan '13 Apr '13 Jul '13 Oct '13 Jan '14 Apr '14 Jul '14 Oct '14
Ocean Acidification
Sea
Change
Ocean Acidification Social Mentions (5/10/2012-11/30/2014)
FINDING 4
Government
makes spikes
53. Where are the people in this story, what’s the wow
factor, what’s surprising, and what’s actually new?
Because people get inundated by certain kinds of
language. ...If you’re talking about ‘ocean acidification,’
you can only say that a certain number of times before
people start to tune it out.
You have to keep trying to talk about it in a new way.
“
”
Amelia Urry, Grist
* when pitching
*
54. #1 One phrase to rule them all
Set your awesome detectors to
"ocean acidification"
#2 Volume and spikiness are up
#3 New and alarming science spikes!
Curate hard and amplify breaking news
#4 Government makes spikes
#5 Spikes star a recurring cast of species
Species impacts are evergreen.
Pay attention to research.
Go deep with the full report, bit.ly/acidificationSOTC
55. #6 A recurring set of places
Localize when possible
#7 Few human impact stories
Expand the roster,
tell stories through specific individuals
#8 Absence of calls-to-action
Go beyond education
#9 A sea of stock photos
Create sharable visuals
Use before/after to clarify the action
#10 Few outlets give consistent coverage
Support and amplify the acidification beat
Go deep with the full report, bit.ly/acidificationSOTC
56. #1 Listen for "ocean acidification” mentions.
Most volume is on that phrase
(or even “acidification” alone).
#2 Curate hard and amplify breaking news.
New and alarming science spikes conversation.
#3 Prep handy content before government
takes action. Government news drives
attention.
#4 Pay attention to research, know the impacts
on specific species and places. Specificity
increases conversation.
#5 Localize acidification stories where possible.
#6 Tell stories through specific individuals.
If you don’t use their name, it’s not that specific.
#7 Keep the story fresh, expand the roster of
individuals speaking about acidification.
#8 Go beyond education. Use calls-to-action.
#9 Create sharable visuals. Don’t over-rely on
stock photos.
#10 Use before/after images to clarify impacts.
#11 Amplification matters. Reward the
acidification news beat with attention.
OCEAN ACIDIFICATION
through the eyes of the internet
The State of the Online Conversation
upwell.us/oceanacidification
Communications Cheat Sheet
57. Ocean Acidification On Twitter
• News articles are
most sharable links
• Images drive sharing
• Top tweets that didn’t
have images came from
highly influential accounts
62. Tweets with video
• Recent video hasn’t registered
• Most shared video in 2014
was made in 2009
63. 3 categories of top tweets
Recent video
not performing
News articles
are most
sharable links
Images drive sharing
Get the full report, bit.ly/acidificationSOTC
Influencers Twitter list
bit.ly/OAinfluencers
64.
65.
66.
67. Ocean Acidification:
The State of the Online Conversation
Launching today!
Full Report
bit.ly/acidificationSOTC
Executive Summary
bit.ly/acidificationSOTCx
On more bit of housekeeping, we promised you an answer about who won the SuperBowl.
Left Shark won the Super Bowl.
Context: Media Matters found that the Kardashians receive 40X the press coverage of ocean acidification.
30 months of big data from social listening. Dozens of minimum viable campaigns. The result: Ocean Acidification: the State of the Online Conversation upwell.us/oceanacidification
Who’s is on the call? Here’s just a sample (orgs, institutions, also a lot of individuals)
Bit.ly/acidinarlist
How we work.
The ocean is our client.
Upwell is a social media PR agency, forging new models for listening and shaping cause conversations at scale.
The ocean faces complex issues that need big new ideas to break through. This idea is huge.
http://Upwell.us
We curate hard, finding and filtering the best ocean-y stuff on the internet for sharing and amplification to drive change through our distributed network of individuals and organizations with love for the ocean in their hearts.
Upwell is charged with conditioning the climate for change
WE lay a foundation so ocean orgs can go faster.
To do that, we’ve had to invent a kind of meteorology of issue conversations online. With big data tools available, we can actually peer into the swirling currents of online conversation by monitoring social mentions, or posted social items like Tweets, blog posts and facebook shares. This data is out there, and having it as context levels you up above competitive campaigning to a bigger issue-wide perspective. Peers start to look a lot more like really awesome help for overfishing gaining more attention.
Our one metric that matters.
We try to answer a basic question that has been shrouded in mystery for way too long in the world on online communications.
We work in a dynamic and rapidly evolving environment. And we finally can KNOW the shape of it. This is what 2012 looked like. Each line represents the social mention volume in one of our 8 primary issue keyword sets.
We suspected that the ocean conversation was pretty big, and that jagged blue line often hangs out at 120000 unique social mentions a day. That pair of pink lines is sharks and cetaceans. Sharks get 30K mentions a day, but whales and dolphins get more.
Hanging out on the bottom of the graph are tuna, overfishing, the Gulf of mexico, ocean acidification, sustainable seafood and tiny tiny MPAs. The relative scale of these conversations is really different.
Shark Week is the biggest attention spike within the eight ocean issues we monitor. Off the chart big, up to 180K mentions/ day. We saw it as an opportunity to expand audiences, and to grow our distributed network. Its like a forecast for big wave surfing, we could predict this one, watch it roll in, and really surf it.
Active ambassadors for the ‘shark’ brand, drawing on the power of the broad grassroots to create aggregate impact.
Can we set an ambitious goal to spike a conversation?
This work identifying opportunity points in a conversation is what we’ve been approached about by several other foundations.
Who is on your big team? How can you listen big to the conversation you care about?
Many of you chose to respond to the prompt “what’s your favorite way” to explain OA by sharing some process.
A few of those responses:
“I love using a hot tub test kit and a sodastream to show that there isn't much controversy: add CO2 and the pH goes down.”
“with facts, with photos, with witnesses, with case studies, with urgency, with consensus, and without politics.”
“Over a big plate of raw oysters”
WHAT DO PEOPLE SAY WHEN THEY TALK ABOUT OA ON THE INTERNET?
(Observed, not necessarily what we think they *should* say)
Changing chemistry
Acid (acid trip, acid test, oceans of acid)
Dissolving (dissolving shells, dissolving bones)
Corrosive waters
Sour/souring (hot and sour, souring seas, sour seas)
Osteoporosis of the sea
Evil twin (equally evil twin of climate change, climate change’s evil twin, …
These terms bridge online and offline actions (if there’s really a distinction at all).
Commercial fishermen and other mariners join together to send an urgent message to save the oceans from ocean acidification caused by fossil fuel emissions in Homer, Alaska, on September 6, 2009.
Over a hundred boats and hundreds of members of the fishing community participated in the event. (UPI/ Lou Dematteis/Spectral Q)
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2014/02/26/10-million-scallops-dead-in-Canada-thanks-to-overly-acidic-water/9281393441719/#ixzz34r69MeAF
(Used to accompany 10M scallops but actual picture from 2009)
This conversation is primarily centered around two words: ocean acidification
This makes listening easier than in more fractured conversations.
This conversation is primarily centered around two words: ocean acidification
This makes listening easier than in more fractured conversations.
30 months of social data from 9 media types. Compiled using custom-developed keywords sets in Salesforce Radian6. Each labeled moment in unpacked in our report (upwell.us/oceanacidification).
On an average day in 2014, ocean acidification volume was 81% higher than on an average day in 2012.
The online conversation has also gotten more spikey. Our data shows a 39% increase in the total frequency of spikes from 2012 to 2014, and a 28% increase in the frequency of the biggest spikes.
There were 4.6 spikes in an average thirty-day period in 2014, of which 1.8 were particularly big. Each of those moments represents a significant surge in conversation for the issue of ocean acidification.
On an average day in 2014, ocean acidification volume was 81% higher than on an average day in 2012.
The online conversation has also gotten more spikey. Our data shows a 39% increase in the total frequency of spikes from 2012 to 2014, and a 28% increase in the frequency of the biggest spikes.
There were 4.6 spikes in an average thirty-day period in 2014, of which 1.8 were particularly big. Each of those moments represents a significant surge in conversation for the issue of ocean acidification.
Specific species impacts have caused spikes.
People get “Dissolving shells” shellfish are central.
Specific species impacts have caused spikes.
People get “Dissolving shells” shellfish are central.
AL, Maine, Oregon, Washington, are the ones shown in this slide but it’s not an exhaustive list by any means. New research brings focus to new places.
What you’ve done to create stories about these places is good and it’s paying off. We can continue to tell those stories, while also expanding the geography of acidification to new places on the map. Many of the data viz videos do this well.
We love the good folks at Taylor Shellfish but at a macro level we need more individual ambassadors for this human impact story.
From the report: “There is an inconvenient absence of calls-to-action. Over the past three years, Upwell has analyzed an array of social and environmental issues through the lens of online conversation. While we’ve centered our research portfolio on ocean issues such as overfishing and marine protected areas, through our consulting practice we’ve extended our “big listening” approach to topics as varied as voting rights, government surveillance, and African elephants. In all of that work, we have never seen a conversation like ocean acidification, and not for the reasons you might expect.
The difference between acidification and those other issues is that, as seen through the lens of conversational spikes, ocean acidification is the only one where advocacy campaigns did not make a discernable impact on conversation levels in recent years. While conservation groups do capitalize on breaking news to push out educational information about ocean acidification or reducing carbon emissions, from our perspective the existing menu of acidification “calls to action” is thin and often focuses on weak asks to “learn more.” If campaigners are looking for compelling actions related to reducing emissions, lively conversation about carbon reduction exists within the growing climate movement. However, ocean groups rarely link acidification to climate actions - in some cases in an effort to avoid the polarization or divisiveness embedded in climate change conversation. The lack of resonant, people-powered calls-to-action on ocean acidification means that ocean organizations are constantly challenged (and perhaps missing opportunities) to deepen engagement with supporters or to expand their audiences. Building a constituency empowered to tackle ocean acidification will require additional, and more substantive, pathways to engagement than education alone. At the moment we don’t see spiky online evidence of an ocean movement to tackle acidification, let alone one shaping national narrative.”
Online coverage employs limited acidification imagery. Modern websites and online platforms are increasingly showcasing and prioritizing visual content (images and videos).
This means that creating content that gets noticed depends more and more on what it looks like. In our research we found widespread use of generic or stock photos of coral reefs and clownfish,
and - aside from maps or pteropod images from scientific papers - not much else.
Infographics depicting the chemical process behind acidification are in abundance, but not shareable (or shared). Pictures of a healthy ocean reinforce a message of a healthy ocean.
Yes, ocean acidification is difficult to visualize, but the need for good visuals is not going to go away.
This imbalance between supply and demand means that more attention should be paid to creating compelling visual content for new research or reports,
optimizing that content for amplification, and creating pathways for the best content to be reused and repurposed.
Online coverage employs limited acidification imagery. Modern websites and online platforms are increasingly showcasing and prioritizing visual content (images and videos).
This means that creating content that gets noticed depends more and more on what it looks like. In our research we found widespread use of generic or stock photos of coral reefs and clownfish,
and - aside from maps or pteropod images from scientific papers - not much else.
Infographics depicting the chemical process behind acidification are in abundance, but not shareable (or shared). Pictures of a healthy ocean reinforce a message of a healthy ocean.
Yes, ocean acidification is difficult to visualize, but the need for good visuals is not going to go away.
What do we mean by “sharable”?
(eg Maps are useful as long as the color-coding matches people’s interpretation, red = bad)
(Make charts and maps simpler, one version for the paper, one for the blog)
This imbalance between supply and demand means that more attention should be paid to creating compelling visual content for new research or reports,
optimizing that content for amplification, and creating pathways for the best content to be reused and repurposed.
Online coverage employs limited acidification imagery. Modern websites and online platforms are increasingly showcasing and prioritizing visual content (images and videos).
This means that creating content that gets noticed depends more and more on what it looks like. In our research we found widespread use of generic or stock photos of coral reefs and clownfish,
and - aside from maps or pteropod images from scientific papers - not much else.
Infographics depicting the chemical process behind acidification are in abundance, but not shareable (or shared). Pictures of a healthy ocean reinforce a message of a healthy ocean.
Yes, ocean acidification is difficult to visualize, but the need for good visuals is not going to go away.
This imbalance between supply and demand means that more attention should be paid to creating compelling visual content for new research or reports,
optimizing that content for amplification, and creating pathways for the best content to be reused and repurposed.
This is a caveat to the earlier advice about one phrase to rule them all (which was *listening* focused).
This is advice for pitching.
This 1 page Ocean Acidification Communications Cheat Sheet is available at upwell.us/oceanacidification
13 of the top 15 links in the past year had news links
7 of 10 most RT’d tweets had a pic
These are the exceptions – top tweets without links (came from highly influential accounts)
FOLLOWER COUNTS (for context): McKibben 143k, 1.94M ! For Bill Nye, 324k for UNEP
If you have 100K+ followers you can get probably away without an image (but do it anyway when you can)
“you” are the influencers as well – that’s why we made the Acidinar Registrants tw list, bit.ly/acidinarlist
People who are focused about talking about OA all the time are not as influential as these accounts who mix it in.
Goal could be to amplify their OA messages more to encourage that behavior.
Three categories
Stock photos of a healthy ocean
Pictures of dissolving snails
Sherman’s Lagoon (really!)
Reminder: images should be sharable
This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t make new acidification videos, but more attention should be paid to designing that video with the audience in mind
Screenshot of Matt’s TweetDeck columns for acidification
two super-recent things that we found this morning
Your Challenges / Plans / Excitement
What have you seen work?
How are you talking about OA?
What are your reactions to this research?
Reminder: bit.ly/acidinarnotes
But wait, isn’t Upwell closing down. Well, yes. But in these last couple months we’ll be….
OF SOTC / Overfishinar
Blog posts, tools, community gatherings,
Continued Tide Reports – best way to stay in touch
Join the Tide Report list to join the discussion about how to keep Team Ocean going after Upwell closes down.