People Love Photos: The Power of Social Media

The following is a perfect example of how employees at USGS are not only able get recognition for the great work they do (in this case photography) but also give the USGS recognition as providing quality and engaging content! Do you have ways for your employees to participate in your social media efforts?If you’d like to contribute great photography that USGS could potentially share, then join our USGS Science in Action Flickr group.

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Early Friday morning at 8:14 AM (Eastern), we posted an absolutely stunning owl photo taken by our own Dennis Demcheck in the Louisiana Science Center to our USGS Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, and Google+ accounts.

Then 47 minutes later at 9:01 AM, I get an IM from the Director of New Media at DOI:

Now, if you haven’t seen DOI’s Instagram account, they’ve got a major following on social media and have been written about over, and over, and over again. No…I’m not jealous at all (*shakes head in jealousy*). Tim wanted more info so I said I could dig it up for him. He then says:

Score! To be featured by DOI is a fantastic opportunity for USGS. I sent a note off to Dennis to get more info and in the meantime, I went ahead and posted the photo to our own accounts. Dennis was very appreciative of his photo being used…and why shouldn’t he be…it’s a fantastic shot!

Suddenly, likes, favorites, retweets, comments, and followers start going up! Later on I pass on the description info from Dennis to Tim and he posts the photo to their coveted Instagram account and Twitter feed.

At about 1:30 PM, I sent a note to Dennis with a breakdown of all the numbers across all the accounts to show him how popular his photo was.

Below are the numbers as of about Sat, March 22nd 10:45 AM (Eastern). I have to note the time here, though, because the numbers just keep going up!

Nice job, Dennis! Forward this post to Dennis and let him know he did a great job!

Facebook (USGS)
https://www.facebook.com/USGeologicalSurvey/posts/673815772664409
1430 likes
134 comments
272 shares

Twitter (USGS)
https://twitter.com/USGS/status/446983230458056705
142 retweets
92 favorites
7 replies back

Twitter (DOI)
https://twitter.com/Interior/status/447036875484962816
314 retweets
312 favorites

Google+ (USGS)
https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/112624925658443863798/112624925658443863798/posts/ZHfQkMpSEew
1673 +1s
206 shares
108 comments

Instagram (USGS)
http://instagram.com/p/lzd53TR2g2/
1430 favorites
64 comments

Instagram (DOI)
http://instagram.com/p/lz2PtMgu_E/
10.8K favorites
394 comments

Flickr (USGS)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/usgeologicalsurvey/13306867315/
107 views
8 favorites