Surfrider Foundation Social Media Analytics

Surfrider Foundation ADPR 5750: Social Media Analytics Izy Dobbins Lauren Heise Thomas McMullen

SeeSuite.uga.edu @SeeSuiteUGA

isabella.dobbins@uga.edu lauren.heise@uga.edu steven.mcmullen@uga.edu

Surfrider.org @Surfrider

Table of Contents Executive Summary.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Organization Introduction Data Overview Top Insights and Recommendations

Part 1: Twitter Engagement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Comparison Top Posts Spike Analysis Post Optimization Actionable Insights

Part 2: Surfrider Conversation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Spike Analysis Key Themes Influential Users Conversation Sentiment Actionable Insights

Part 3: Competition Conversation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Share of Voice Top Hashtags Top Mentions Conversation by Competitor Actionable Insights

Part 4: Plastic Pollution Conversation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Spike Analysis Top Conversation Key Themes on Twitter Key Themes on Tumblr Actionable Insights

Part 5: Overall Recommendations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Appendix

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Executive Summary Organization Introduction Surfrider Foundation is “dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world’s oceans, waves, and beaches through a powerful activist network.” This nonprofit group strives to encourage public action to fight ocean threats like plastic pollution, protect clean public beaches, and take measures for a more sustainable future. Surfrider achieves this through public events, communicating about ocean-related problems and solutions, and providing information and support for ocean-protecting legislation.

Statement of Business Problems

Primary Goals

Surfrider receives low engagement rates across its social media accounts and lacks an identifiable voice in the ocean conservation realm. Based on careful analysis of this organization’s social media spaces, this report presents key insights pulled from four distinct data sets. These insights are combined into recommendations, aimed at strengthening the Surfrider brand image and increasing its overall social media activity and engagement.

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Boost Surfrider’s below average engagement rates on Twitter.

Identify key topics of interest among followers and competitors.

Expand the organization’s existing audience across platforms.

Increase its overall share of voice within relevant conversations.

Solidify key strategies useful in furthering the Surfrider mission.

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Executive Summary Data Overview Timing May 1st 2019

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Tools Used Jan. 1st 2020

Crimson Hexagon

Keyhole

Platforms

Twitter

Tumblr

Facebook

Number of Posts Part 1: Twitter Engagement (239) Part 2: Surfrider Conversation (24,088) Part 3: Competition Conversation (272,516) Part 4: Plastic Pollution Conversation (1,040,369)

1,337,212

Key Performance Indicators Engagement:

Measured by combining retweets, replies, and mentions on Twitter; and shares, comments, and likes on Facebook.

Engagement quantifies an audience’s interaction with Surfrider.

Share of Voice:

Measured by comparing a given organization’s post amount to the overall total posts. SOV demonstrates how well Surfrider is penetrating a given conversation.

Reach:

Defined by the number of unique individuals who see a post; and counted when it appears in their news feed. Reach helps to better define Surfrider’s audience size.

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Top Insights and Recommendations Introduction The following recommendations stem from analysis of Surfrider’s Twitter content, conversations around Surfrider, conversations around competitors, and conversations around plastic pollution. They are connected to the key insights within the report to follow.

Which Surfrider posts are engaging the most people? How can this engagement be maximized?

Posts with action-based hashtags saw 15% higher average engagement and videos received 30% higher. Using these can help boost Surfrider’s mission to educate.

Make Environmental Efforts Actionable

Surfrider activity photos received 35% higher and posts with location-based hashtags received 56% higher average engagement.

Combining these practices is recommended.

Utilize Locals in Activity Updates

Calls to visit the Surfrider shop saw 40% lower average engagement. This can be enhanced with ambassador photos and mentions, which saw 27% higher engagement.

Display Merchandise with a Model

What are people saying about Surfrider? How can the organization enhance these conversations?

57.3% of the total conversation on Tumblr stemmed from a single post praising Surfrider’s role in plastic pollution reduction. It featured a whale made of plastic.

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Tie Surfrider Efforts to Wildlife

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Top Insights and Recommendations What are other ocean conservation organizations talking about? How can Surfrider expand their share of voice?

The top 4 posts by Surfrider’s competition included lighthearted topics like cute sea life, sharing love for the ocean, and #WhaleWednesday.

Increase Playful Content and Tone

The top 3 posts on Tumblr included citations of Surfrider’s competitors. These organizations were referenced as support for a user’s point, showing they’re regarded as trustworthy.

Act as a Source of Credible Info

What are the most popular conversations around plastic pollution? How can Surfrider become a part of these?

80% of the main topics within the plastic pollution conversation were controversial and demonstrated users taking sides on an issue.

Spark Debate and Take a Stance

In 21.11% of posts about plastic pollution, hard facts and graphic imagery were used to capture the attention of a fleeting and passive audience.

Let Strong Visuals Tell a Story

Plastic straws saw 18.97% more engagement by those under the age of 35 than other, less trendy topics. Other hot topics include reusable bags and sustainable fashion.

Reply to Trending Conversations

Each of the nine proposed practices for Surfrider improvement are expanded upon in the “Overall Recommendations” section starting on page 31.

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Part 1: Twitter Engagement The following report explores Surfrider’s owned content on Twitter – this is the organization’s sent posts, retweets, and replies.

Time period between May 1st, 2019 and January 1st, 2020.

Crimson Hexagon was used to pull and analyze Twitter data.

Keyhole was used to analyze Twitter data and follower data.

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Twitter Engagement Overview The following analysis was completed using Crimson Hexagon social media analytics software and Keyhole social listening tool. Total engagement is measured by adding retweets and comments for each post, and the graphs display this number as an average for each category.

Original Tweets Tweets

Engagement

Followers: 127,000 Count: 65 Cadence: 5-7 per week

Average Retweets: 18 Average Likes: 65 Avg. Engagement: 0.07%

This data set includes all tweets by @Surfrider during the given time period. The organization receives engagement year round, with peaks in the summer months as well as late December.

It’s worth noting that overall, Surfrider is not doing well in terms of engagement. However, this report offers strong, data-based recommendations to help Surfrider overcome this shortfall.

Retweets and Replies Characteristics

Demographics

Count: 12,327 Cadence: short bursts around hot topics

35 or Older: 87% Age 18-34: 6% 17 or Younger: 7%

United States: 63% France: 15% United Kingdom: 3%

Male: 25% Female: 23% Undefined: 52%

This data set includes retweets and replies of @Surfrider content during the same time period. At 72%, the majority of Surfrider’s retweets and mentions have a neutral sentiment.

Interestingly, 11% of these data points are written in French. It is important to note that only 14% of these data points had an identifiable age.

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Twitter Engagement Comparison

Images that showed Surfrider activity did significantly well, with an average engagement rate of 12.9. Images depicting an activity from non-Surfrider photos also did relatively well at an average of 9.85, with the remaining categories not performing much differently from one another.

Posts concerning environmental topic awareness received the highest engagement at an average of 13.45, followed closely by ambassador updates with 12.00. Posts that called viewers to visit the shop did significantly poorer than other categories, with an average total engagement of 4.93.

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Twitter Engagement Top Posts This tweet received a total engagement of 32. It features a video, mentions a Surfrider ambassador, and also uses a specific hashtag – all of which are elements found to increase engagement.

This post received the highest total engagement of all posts analyzed. It includes Surfrider original photos, a call for environmental action, and connects to a greater network with its mention and hashtag.

Post Types Most Frequent

The above graph categorizes each tweet into one of four types and expresses their percentage of the total set. Most frequently, Surfrider creates its own, original text posts. It retweets often as well, but does not place much emphasis on quote or reply posts.

Most Engaging

The above graph demonstrates average engagement across post types. The type of tweet that received the most engagement during this time was text, followed by quotes.

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Twitter Engagement Spike Analysis The following graph shows Surfrider Twitter engagement over time, with the red line showing number of likes and retweets and the salmon bar showing number of posts that day. Four popular posts have been selected as examples and analyzed below.

Jun 18:

At 79 likes and retweets, Surfrider’s recap tweet about a World Ocean’s Day cleanup garnered a spike in activity. It featured stats and photos.

July 4:

Two posts on this Independence day garnered a combined 241 engagements.

They centered around the “United States and Oceans” movement.

Sep 24:

Four tweets on this single day helped boost engagement, reaching 108 total likes and retweets. The most popular quoted Chad Nelson, Surfrider CEO.

Dec 4:

Surfrider shared an article celebrating a legislative victory in Oahu, receiving 131 engagements. It aligns with their mission to reduce single-use plastics.

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Twitter Engagement

Engagement by Hour and Day

Post Timing

131 Avg. 174 Avg.

135 Avg.

This graph shows the optimal times for Surfrider to post based off of the average of previous posts’ engagement. If these trends hold true, the best times to post would be Thursday at 8am, Saturday at 6pm, or Wednesday at 11pm.

Post Optimization Most Frequent

Most Engagement

Surfrider’s most frequent post length is 91-140 characters.

Posts 0-45 characters long receive the highest average engagement.

1. #usoa 2. #oceanfriendly 3. #risingseas 4. #smallactsoflove

1. #plasticfreejuly 2. #breakfreefromplastic 3. #worldoceansday 4. #oceanpavilion

Surfrider’s optimal post length is significantly smaller than they tend to write.

Additionally, the organization’s most frequently used hashtags do not align with the hashtags which receive the highest average engagement. The optimal number of hashtags, based on its higher level of engagement on average, is 1-2.

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Twitter Engagement Influential Users @JackJohnson:

Musician and surfer who is an active Surfrider ambassador.

He is mentioned in partnership activities and merchandise.

@SurfriderLA:

A local Surfrider chapter. They are frequently tagged in activity photos that happen along California’s coast.

@ChadNelson:

Surfrider CEO and activist. Chad is most often tagged in speaking events.

Actionable Insights From Crimson Hexagon Videos received 30% higher engagement on average than other content types.

Calls to visit the Surfrider merchandise shop saw 40% lower engagement on average.

Posts with actionbased hashtags saw 15% higher average engagement.

Surfrider activity photos received 35% higher engagement than others on average.

Surfrider ambassador mentions saw 27% higher engagement on average.

Posts including location based hashtags received 56% higher average engagement.

From Keyhole Posts with linked media received 37% less engagement than those with photo/video.

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Surfrider posts receive higher engagement later in the day, but they most frequently post at noon.

Part 2: Surfrider Conversation The following report explores conversations that exist around the Surfrider Organization across Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook.

Time period between May 1st, 2019 and January 1st, 2020.

Crimson Hexagon was used to pull and analyze Twitter data.

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Surfrider Conversation Overview All posts related to the Surfrider Foundation and @Surfrider from May 1, 2019 - January 1, 2020 were analyzed in order to gather insight on how much, where, and with what contexts people are participating in the conversation about the organization.

Volume: 24,088 Sentiment: 63% positive, 37% negative

US: 44.8% (7,080) France: 31.8% (5,029) Los Angeles: 9% (789)

Key Themes 1. Surfrider Local Events and Public Engagement (8,055 posts) 2. Ocean Pollution and Related Conservation Efforts (1,978 posts) 3. G7 Environmental Conference in Biarritz, France (1,636 posts) 4. CEO Chad Nelson and Ambassador Jack Johnson (999 posts)

53.5% of Total Volume

Conversation by Platform The conversation about the Surfrider Foundation largely took place on Twitter, although Facebook and Tumblr/other blogging platforms are notable.

Volume: largest at 22,348 posts (92.8% of total) Demographics: most are 35 or older (89.1%) Sentiment: mostly positive at 63.5% Influential Users: @Oceana, @ZeroWasteFR, @MayorOfLA Volume: second largest at 1180 posts (4.9% of total) Demographics: most are from the US (59.2%) Sentiment: mostly positive at 78.9% Popular Topics: Bruges whale, surfing, water quality Volume: smallest at 560 posts (2.3% of total) Demographics: 100% male Sentiment: mostly positive at 65.8% Popular Topics: oceans, clean water, protecting coasts

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Surfrider Conversation Spike Analysis Conversation about Surfrider tends to peak in relationship with national events such as National Surfing Day on June 20th and the G7 Summit in Biarritz on August 24th through 26th. Additionally, top mentions tend to occur when some sort of pollution is occurring and the public wishes to garner Surfrider’s attention for help.

June 15:

No surprise here, it’s international surfing day! Surfrider received 247 mentions on this day alone. 67% of those came from the US.

July 22:

Surfrider received 339 mentions this day. Two posts led the conversation; one about cigarette butt waste, and the other about fishing waste.

Aug 19:

Conversation over the G7 summit surged here, peaking at 512 mentions.

Surfrider was involved by speaking out about climate change.

Dec 23:

The account @StreetPeopleLA garnered 374 Surfrider mentions when they posted a photo showing litter and human waste washing into the ocean.

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Surfrider Conversation Key Themes Public Events

Over the designated time period, Surfrider hosted and supported several events such as World Oceans Day beach cleanups and International Surfing Day meetings. These public activities regularly garner significant user-generated content.

G7 Conference

Ocean Pollution One of Surfrider’s key missions is to elimate plastic in the ocean. Recently, the organization has been mentioned in posts about pollution legislation and environmental cleanup efforts. These topics were often given a negative sentiment and dealt with calls to action.

CEO and Ambassadors Chad Nelson Surfrider CEO, and Jack Johnson musician and surfer, serve as recognizeable faces for the organization across platforms.

The 45th summit met in Biarritz, France in 2019. Surfrider Europe organized its own conference focused on environmental action here, gaining the organization a large amount of media coverage.

Influential Users @Surfrider: @SurfriderEurope: @ZeroWasteFR: @MayorOfLA:

Surfrider Foundation’s official Twitter account which updates followers on its activities, supported legislation, and missions.

This is the account for Surfrider Europe, a branch of the organization that represents the region.

A French organization promoting zero waste action. It was a main player in the G7 Conference conversation.

Twitter account for Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti. He was frequently mentioned regarding pollution issues here.

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Surfrider Conversation Conversation Sentiment Positive

Negative

The majority of Surfrider conversations involved positive sentiment – 63.5% of all tweets, 52.5% of all Facebook posts, and 78.9% of all Tumblr posts. Popular topics of positive conversation included mentions of Surfrider’s activities to protect the ocean and an art installation called the “Bruges Whale” which garnered international attention.

Negative conversations around Surfrider were fewer – 36.5% of tweets, 47.5% of Facebook posts, and 21.1% of Tumblr posts. These arose most often when Surfrider was mentioned in relation to a pollutant or a piece of legislation. Street People of LA is a thought leader in the negative buzz, and the G7 conference was the most talked about event.

Actionable Insights One of the most popular subtopics of conversation involved LA homelessness, with @streetpeopleLA as the most influential user. The sentiment was 90.9% negative and called for action by Surfrider.

Younger demographics are not participating in the Surfrider conversation proportionately. 18-34 year olds are responsible for only 10.9% of the conversation, while 89.1% is from the 35+ group.

57.3% of the total conversation on Tumblr stemmed from a single post praising Surfrider’s role in plastic pollution reduction. The platform is particularly fond of the organization – with 78.9% positive sentiment.

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Part 3: Competition Conversation The following report explores conversations that exist around Surfrider’s top competitive organizations across Twitter and Tumblr.

Time period between May 1st, 2019 and January 1st, 2020.

Crimson Hexagon was used to pull and analyze Twitter data.

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Competition Conversation Overview In effort to understand Surfrider’s share of voice relative to its major competitors, a third set of data was analyzed consisting of posts about Surfrider, plus 5 other ocean and wildliferelated non-profit organizations.

Competing Organizations 1. Oceana (@Oceana) 2. The Nature Conservancy (@Nature_org) 3. World Wildlife Fund (@WWF)

4. Ocean Conservancy (@OurOcean) 5. Sea Shepherd (@SeaShepherd) 6. Surfrider Foundation (@Surfrider)

Total Volume: 272,516 Posts Leader: Oceana with 102,492 posts (38%)

Leader: Oceana with 37,722 posts (59%)

Share of Voice Because all of these organizations share a similar mission, it is understood that they are competing for the attention or monetary value of a shared audience. Based on the following graph and data, Surfrider Foundation falls in last place for the attention of that audience.

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Competition Conversation Top Hashtags The following graph explores the distribution of top hashtags within this conversation.

Wildlife-related tags were used by Surfrider’s competition over 26,000 times, making up almost 60% of the total volume. These tags were used on many of the top performing posts within this entire data set.

#TurtleTuesday #WhaleWednesday #FinBanNow

#ClimateChange #Sustainability #ShareOurPlanet

Top Mentions @Nature_Careers:

The Nature Conservancy’s internal staff account. It was mentioned in this conversation to promote job postings by the organization itself and other users.

@Oceana:

Oceana is one of the largest and most well-known oceanfocused nonprofit organizations. It was often referenced by other organizations with which it collaborates.

@OurOcean:

This is the Twitter account for the Ocean Conservancy, which frequently shares both scientific findings and cute animal photos.

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Competition Conversation Comparison This graph shows each organization’s post per follower on Twitter. This means the amount of posts each organization’s followers would have contributed if the total was split evenly among them. The metric illustrates loyalty of followers; a higher posts per follower count means a more conversationally engaged audience. Oceana’s followers are very active in conversation about the organization.

Organization

Post Per Follower

Conversations by Competitor Oceana

World Wildlife Fund WWF also posts lighthearted content such as this video of released bison, which received 3.2K retweets and 14.3K likes, making it the peak in this total data set. The bison even garnered media attention for WWF further. Their hashtag #ShareOurPlanet is unique to the organization and is instantly recognizeable.

Volume: 140,366 Twitter: 73.1% Tumblr: 26.2% Peak: Aug 4th (19,816) As the volume leader in this data set, Oceana utilizes strategies that Surfrider could mimic. They frequently use the tag #TurtleTuesday and #WhaleWednesday to increase conversation. Additionally, Oceana enjoys breaking up heavy informational content by providing lighthearted photos of sea creatures.

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Volume: 34,217 Twitter: 50.1% Tumblr: 40.6% Peak: Aug 18th (3,452)

Competition Conversation Conversations by Competitor Sea Shepherd

The Ocean Conservancy The Ocean Conservancy follows popular Twitter trends to increase their social media presence. They also participate in #TurtleTuesday and #WhaleWednesday, much like Oceana. This photo shows their second most popular tweet in this data set – a cute reply to another account’s content.

Volume: 16,034 Twitter: 86.2% Tumblr: 7.3% Peak: Jun 30th (952) Sea Shepherd has a few key issues they focus on, and they draw attention to them most often by posting graphic images. For example, to draw attention to whaling they posted this image of a dead whale.

This technique can lead to strong negative responses among the audience, but can capture otherwise passive audiences.

Volume: 33,907 Twitter: 66.4% Tumblr: 30.9% Peak: May 5th (4,122)

Actionable Insights Oceana, the leading competitor by share of voice, takes advantage of loveable captions like #TurtleTuesday and #WhaleWednesday to start conversation. The top 4 tweets by @Oceana included these tags.

An overwhelming majority of wildlife-related tweets received positive sentiment. The top post of this set portrayed bison being re-released into the wild, followed by ABC coverage of the same story.

The comment section of Tumblr posts frequently includes citations for sake of argument. The top 3 posts on this platform cited Oceana and World Wildlife Fund as sources of information.

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Part 4: Plastic Pollution Conversation The following report explores conversations that exist around plastic pollution, one of Surfrider’s main organizational concerns.

Time period between May 1st, 2019 and January 1st, 2020.

Crimson Hexagon was used to pull and analyze Twitter data.

An alorithm was trained to identify key themes.

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Plastic Pollution Conversation Overview The following is a study of conversations surrounding one of Surfrider’s main concerns, plastic pollution. It covers various media from May 1, 2019 - January 1, 2020 in order to determine the characteristics of the conversation and the role that Surfrider plays in it. The data studied was limited to conversations in the United States.

Characteristics

Demographics

Volume: 1,040,368 Sentiment: 52% neutral, 42% negative

Age: 75% of the conversation came from users 35+

United States: 100% New York City: 14.2% Los Angeles: 6.8%

Male: 48% Female: 52% Undefined: 30%

Conversation by Platform The conversation on plastic pollution and its implications occurred in nearly even amounts on Twitter and Tumblr.

Volume: slighty larger at 493,700 posts (47.5% of total) Demographics: 53% male, 47% female, most 35+ (75%) Location: New York City (13.7%), Los Angeles (7%) Top Hashtags: #BreakFreeFromPlastic, #PlasticPollution Volume: slightly smaller at 489,042 posts (47% of total) Peak: week of June 9th – right after World Oceans Day Emotion: 41% neutral, 29% disgust, 15% joy, 6% anger Top Tags: environment, pollution, ocean, important

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Plastic Pollution Conversation Spike Analysis

May 13:

A tweet by @MackenMurphy sparks massive debate over trendy plastic bans.

He argues that the real problem in the ocean is fishing equipment.

June 8:

This spike kicks off the conversation for summer, as June 8th is World Ocean’s Day. CNN, Greta Thunberg, and other leaders use the tag #WorldOceansDay.

June 15:

The Center for Biodiversity shares an article about plastic pollution today.

Additionally, @ReaperTreez gets over 20k retweets but it’s been deleted.

Sep 25:

A Tumblr thread showcasing animals surrounded by plastic received over 11k notes. Users attached links to donate by buying whale pins.

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Plastic Pollution Conversation Top Conversation

The largest spike in the conversation relating marine life to plastic pollution occurred between July 4th and 6th, 2019 when posts on each platform about plastic straws sparked debate. One called for bans of straws, while the other emphasized their importance for the disabled. The main trend – people were highly opinionated and emotions ran high.

Influential Users The following accounts received above average engagement in the plastic pollution conversation, serving as potential thought leaders and partners for Surfrider.

@SCJohnson: @BOpinion: @PlasticBank:

A corporation that sells cleaning products. It talked about their environmental efforts in this conversation.

Bloomberg Opinion news platform. Had an article on plastics and corporations that performed well.

An organization focused on ending plastic pollution. They were mentioned as a top 50 green corporation.

@4Ocean:

Startup that makes and sells bracelets of reclaimed plastic from America’s oceans and coastlines.

@AdidasRunning:

A subsection of Adidas footwear on Twitter. They produced a running shoe made completely of recycled plastic.

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Plastic Pollution Conversation Key Themes on Twitter Single-Use Plastics This theme dominated the overall conversation, taking up 31.6% of posts. It refers to posts specifically about plastic straws, plastic bags, or other consumer plastics.

94.2% negative sentiment 5.8% positive sentiment 70% 35 years or older 60% female 40% male Tags like #BreakFree and #EndPlastic were used most frequently to call consumers to action.

The single-use plastics theme is dominated by this post on May 11th, 2019 which perfectly demonstrates the type of humor that does well on Twitter. It is unexpected and anything but serious; however, it still conveys a message that is against the use of consumer plastics.

Accounts like @BOpinion were cited as sources of info and @POTUS were ridiculed for actions.

Legislation Governmental dealings and fact-based calls to action make up this theme. At 22.4% of all posts in the plastic pollution conversation, it is the second largest within this conversation.

98.7% negative sentiment 1.3% positive sentiment 83% 35 years or older 54% female 46% male Top mentioned accounts @UN, @Change, and @GlblCtzn reflect an international cry for help in the fight for legislation.

The above post was retweeted hundreds of times by different users to encourage the United Nations to consider anti-plastic pollution legislation. It is the most popular within this theme.

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Plastic Pollution Conversation Key Themes on Twitter Marine Life Posts in this conversation focused on how plastic bags, straws, and pollution in general hurt marine life. These posts made up 18.2% of the conversation on plastic pollution.

95.6% negative sentiment 4.4% positive sentiment 81% 35 years or older 52% female 48% male Parley for the Ocean, an environmental creative group, partnered with Adidas Running. The shoe’s launch was very popular on Twitter with tag #RunForTheOceans.

Due to the nature of this conversation, the sentiment is strongly negative and emotions run angry. The above most retweeted photo shows a swan surrounded by plastic. Other popular posts explored the side effects of abandoned fishing equipment.

Key Themes on Tumblr Corporations Tweets from this theme relate to business’ efforts and stances on plastic pollution. 19.5% of the posts studied on Tumblr related to this topic.

96.8% negative sentiment 3.2% positive sentiment 80% 35 years or older 54% female 46% male The top linked article by Intercept “Reveals how Coca-Cola Undermines Plastic Recycling Efforts.”

This subtopic was filled with conversations about the negative impact of corporations.

However, the post which received the most buzz was lines and lines of encouraging environmental updates on Tumblr. In the end, it called for readers to use a search engine, called Ecosia, that plants trees.

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Plastic Pollution Conversation Key Themes on Tumblr Microplastics This theme was particularly popular on Tumblr, making up 40.8% of the total plastic pollution conversation. It explores the harmful effects of microscopic plastic in the ocean.

97.8% negative sentiment 2.2% positive sentiment 90% 35 years or older 50% female 50% male Top tags like “ecological breakdown” stress the importance of this topic.

This conversations peaked around April 28th when this Tumblr post argued that the funds allocated for Notre Dame restoration should have been put towards ocean cleanup.

The most mentioned account was @5gyres – a lesser-known research group on pollution.

Actionable Insights 21.11% of social media activity in the plastic pollution conversation discussed the negative effects on marine life through factual information, visuals, and statements.

Subtopics within plastic pollution tend to result in users taking sides and arguing their point. This is true for 4 out of 5 conversations analyzed in this data set.

Compared to the overall plastics data set, the plastic straw conversation saw an 18.97% increase in the interest of those under the age of 35.

Hot topics tend to engage younger audiences.

Through citation in arguments, many environmental organizations like WWF and Oceana were mentioned in the plastic pollution conversation. Surfrider was mentioned 0 times.

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Part 5: Overall Recommendations Based on the previous four sections of analysis, Surfrider should adhere to the following recommendations to better its social media engagement and presence.

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Recommendations

Tweets about the environment received the highest average engagement of all Surfrider posts. With this content being the most important to the organization, steps can be made to increase the levels of interaction even further. Action-based hashtags should be utilized whenever available. Also, video content is shown to provide a 30% boost in engagement on average, and can easily be implemented.

Mock Post 1

#1: Make Environmental Efforts Actionable

Tweets including photos from Surfrider activities and events reported 35% higher engagement than photos of other content or tweets with no photo at all. Adding location based hashtags, which received 56% higher average engagement, can boost the success of these posts even further. This can serve to strengthen the organization’s mission of local involvement.

Mock Post 2

#2: Utilize Locals in Activity Updates

Posts that involve a call to visit the shop receive much lower than average engagement. Pairing this with elements that trend toward higher engagement, such as ambassador mentions which saw an average of 27% higher engagement rates, can help to boost these low levels.

This will hopefully lead to greater success in Surfrider merchandising.

Mock Post 3

#3: Display Merchandise with a Model

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Recommendations

The most popular plastics conversation, competive conversation, and Surfrider Tumblr conversation all had one thing in common – wildlife. Cute photos of squid or inspiring videos of bison are obviously what consumers (and news outlets) respond best to. Surfrider should tie their mission statement to visuals of wildlife, capturing the audience first and then arguing against plastic pollution.

Mock Post 4

#4: Tie Surfrider Efforts to Wildlife

Many of Surfrider’s top competitors use playful captions like “#turtletuesday” or “retweet if you love whales.” Additionally, one of the top anti-plastic tweets spun the conversation to spark laughter, while also conveying a message. Surfrider should break up their social messaging by mimicing some of these tones and encouraging users to share.

Mock Post 5

#5: Increase Playful Content and Tone

Popular tweets and Tumblr blogs in the plastic pollution conversation cited organizations like Oceana and WWF to increase the credibility of an argument.

Surfrider could mimic this by including hard facts and links to scientific works in its own posts. This would take advantage of the organization’s expertise on environmental issues.

Mock Post 6

#6: Act as a Source of Credible Info

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Recommendations

From homeless pollution in LA to plastic straw use in restaurants, conversations continue to erupt when users see room for debate around a topic. The most popular posts on Tumblr among Surfrider’s competitors involve users arguing their point and citing an organization as a source. Surfrider should know where they stand on issues, make bold statements, and tap into occuring conversations.

Mock Post 7

#7: Spark Debate and Take a Stance

Shocking images can strengthen a call to action, and this is especially true with topics related to animals. Using photos to convey messages can be more effective; posts with 0-45 characters received the highest engagement on average. To strengthen their message on how ocean pollution could affect marine life, Surfrider should include stronger imagery.

Mock Post 8

#8: Let Strong Visuals Tell a Story

Certain sub-conversations, like plastic bag bans, sparked debate amongst younger users. Since 75% of Surfrider’s active audience across all platforms is over the age of 35, it could certainly expand its reach. To do this, Surfrider should pay attention to developing threads of conversation and make sure they reply while these threads are still growing.

Mock Post 9

#9: Reply to Trending Conversations

Surfrider Foundation – 34

Appendix

Competition

(@Surfrider OR @SurfriderEurope OR “Surfrider Foundation” OR #SurfriderFoundation OR ((Surfrider OR “Surf Rider” OR #surfrider OR #surfriders) AND (@chadenelson OR “Street People of LA” OR @streetpeopleLA OR #USOA OR “Jack Johnson” OR “Plastic Monster” OR “Oceana” OR @oceana OR “World Surf League” OR @wsl OR #BreakFreefromPlastic OR “Gillian Anderson” OR @ GillianA OR @SurfriderSD))) AND -(“Surf Rider Restaurant” OR “Fortnite” OR @ SurfRiderPoquoson) “plastic pollution” OR #plasticpollution OR “Plastic Monster” OR #plasticmonster OR #BreakFreefromPlastic OR #stopplasticpollution OR “Break Free From Plastic” OR “ocean plastic” OR ((Plastic OR plastics OR #noplastic OR #stopplastic OR “Rethink plastic” OR #rethinkplastic) AND (pollution OR #protecttheocean OR #oceanwaste OR ocean))

Subtopic Filters

Plastic Pollution

Surfrider Buzz

Boolean Search Terms Used

• • • • • •

(Microplastics OR Microplastic) AND (pollution OR “water quality” OR ocean) “Marine life” AND (ocean OR animals OR rescue OR conservation) Companies OR corporate OR corporation OR CSR (Bag OR Bags OR #bag OR #bags) AND (Grocery OR Ban OR Reusable) (Straw OR Straws OR #straw OR #straws) AND (Reusable OR “single use”) (Legislation AND plastic) OR (government OR (congress AND plastic))

“Surfrider Foundation” OR @Surfrider OR #surfriderfoundation OR “World Wildlife Fund” OR @World_Wildlife OR “#worldwildlifefund OR “Nature Conservancy” OR #thenatureconservancy OR #natureconservancy OR @nature_ org OR (Oceana AND (“ocean conservation” OR ocean)) OR @oceana OR #StandForOceans OR #oceana OR “Ocean Conservancy” OR @OurOcean OR (“Ocean Conservancy” AND #TeamOcean) OR “Sea Shepherd” OR #seashepherd OR #seashepherdconvservationsociety OR @seashepherd

Surfrider Foundation – 35

Now, go catch a wave.

Surfrider.org @Surfrider

SeeSuite.uga.edu @SeeSuiteUGA

Izy Dobbins | Lauren Heise | Thomas McMullen