social tv activation: driving engagement & viewership for a pbs documentary premier

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Space Shuttle Columbia: Mission of Hope tells the remarkable story of Colonel Ilan Ramon, a fighter pilot and son of Holocaust survivors who became Israel’s first and only astronaut – a payload specialist aboard space shuttle Columbia. The award-winning documentary focuses on Col. Ramon’s "mission within the mission," detailing the space shuttle’s connection to the Holocaust through a miniature Torah scroll, initially hidden in a concentration camp. To symbolize the possibility of rising from the depths of hell to the heights of space, Col. Ramon brought the Torah with him on the shuttle – inspiring a nation in the process. Situation: Space Shuttle Columbia: Mission of Hope premiered on select local PBS stations on Thursday, January 31. The film’s director, Emmy Award-winning veteran journalist and documentary filmmaker Dan Cohen, hired Geben to assist with building and activating Mission of Hope’s online network through social media and online media/blogger outreach. Approach: In just three weeks, Geben developed and executed a highly targeted social activation plan to drive viewership and discussion during Mission of Hope’s premiere. The plan focused first on educating our audience about the story behind the film, plus building relationships with online influencers and bloggers who would ultimately help share our story. Once we had begun building the network, we shifted gears and began activating our audience to watch the premiere of Space Shuttle Columbia: Mission of Hope on their local PBS station, plus share their thoughts, reactions and reflections to the film during a Virtual Viewing Party hosted on Twitter. Challenges:

• Starting from scratch: Mission of Hope had just joined Facebook and Twitter in mid-December 2012, so the network was very limited – 246 fans and 20 followers – when we began managing their community in mid-January. We were literally challenged to build Mission of Hope’s network from the ground up – and to do it in three weeks.

• Limited demographic: PBS’ programming typically reaches a narrow demographic – namely, upper-class, educated and Caucasian. Since diversity was a central theme in the Columbia crew’s story, we wanted to extend our reach beyond that demographic. (Fun fact: The five-man, two-woman crew included an Israeli, an African-American and an American woman who was born in India, plus covered religious backgrounds from Christianity to Judaism, Catholicism, Hinduism and Unitarian Universalism),

• Sensitive subject matter: Some of the central themes and subjects weaved throughout the documentary – like Middle East politics, the Holocaust and the Columbia disaster – are challenging to discuss via social media. As such, we needed to delicately balance our desire to foster conversation with a sensitivity to emotionally charged topics.

Space Shuttle Columbia: Mission of Hope


Strategy and Tactics: Community Management Mission of Hope had just joined Facebook and Twitter in December 2012, so the cornerstone of our community management strategy was to build their networks from the ground up. Then, as the premiere drew closer, we shifted our focus toward activating our fans and followers to share, watch and discuss the film. In the beginning … On Facebook, we posted 2-3 times per day, sharing relevant articles and facts about space exploration and the Columbia crew, plus facilitating conversation among potential viewers. Additionally, we leveraged a small amount of Facebook advertising that targeted people with relevant likes/interests. Though the budget was small, this targeted outreach not only helped grow the fan base, but also ensured new likes came from potential viewers.


On Twitter, we focused on tapping into the existing online space community and facilitating conversations between potential viewers. To do this, we planned 4-5 posts per day, coupled with very frequent interactions with the community. We relied heavily on targeted hashtag searches (i.e.: #STS107, #NASAsocial, #spacetweeps, etc.) and Twitter lists (i.e.: space influencers, space media) to monitor and engage in relevant conversations that would help grow our Twitter footprint and sync up with overall goals.


As the premiere drew closer … On Facebook, we continued to post 2-3 times per day, but focused on promoting the film (i.e.: sharing Col. Ramon’s story, highlighting local airdates and times, etc.) and encouraging viewers to join the Virtual Viewing Party – detailed below – during its premiere.


On Twitter, we promoted the film and Virtual Viewing Party 4-5 times per day, but focused mainly on nurturing relationships with the influential “space tweeps” that we had identified and connected with through our targeted searches and lists. We continued to monitor and engage in relevant conversations, but began using those conversations as a means to identify potential viewers and invite them to participate in the Virtual Viewing Party chat.

On both networks, we created and shared custom links whenever we discussed the film or the Virtual Viewing Party. The custom website link (http://bitly.com/ColumbiaMOH) was clicked 635 times, while the custom Virtual Viewing Party link (http://bitly.com/WatchColumbiaMOH) was clicked 401 times. We also created a social media news release that was viewed 525 times. The Virtual Viewing Party While getting fans and followers to watch the film was a large piece of the campaign, our ultimate goal was encouraging viewers to share their thoughts, reactions and reflections during its premiere. To do so, we organized and invited our online community to participate in a Virtual Viewing Party on Twitter. This allowed us not only to take the film’s powerful message beyond what was seen on television but also to:


1. Reach a broader audience than the “traditional” PBS viewership 2. Facilitate a real-time conversation about the documentary’s themes and stories, and 3. Engage people who weren’t able to watch the film live

The hosts: When we initially began building our Twitter following, we had identified highly influential, active members of the online space community that could potentially work with us as viewing party “hosts.” As the premiere drew closer, we interacted and built relationships with these people before reaching out and asking them to participate. Four community members – @flyingjenny @ageekmom @adcunningham and @heathernaut88 – signed on as hosts. They promoted the Virtual Viewing Party in the days leading up to it, plus helped facilitate the discussion as it happened. Promotion: We created a Facebook event explaining how fans could participate in the Virtual Viewing Party, and then shared the details with our networks leading up to the premiere. Our “hosts” shared the details with their networks as well. In addition, we used Promoted Posts and Facebook advertising to drive participation from viewers in key geographic areas (the ads targeted cities premiering the documentary during the Virtual Viewing Party) with relevant likes/interests. Just in case: While planning the Virtual Viewing Party, we realized that certain subject matter in the documentary could lead to negative comments and feedback during the discussion. In the unlikely event that a participant began talking about Middle East politics, “Holocaust Denial” or anti-NASA, we drafted “crisis messaging” tweets that would steer the conversation back to the purpose of the documentary – celebrating the lives of Columbia’s crew. Execution: We moderated the viewing party through the @ColumbiaMOH account, and asked our “hosts” to help lead the discussion. Plus, we added a layer of personalization to the discussion by inviting the film’s director, Dan Cohen, and producer, Christopher Cowen, to participate and interact with viewers on their own during the chat. We planned questions throughout the film and invited participants to tweet their thoughts as well. Additionally, we created a detailed “script” of quotes and sound bites from the documentary that we could share throughout the premiere. Finally, we asked viewers who couldn’t watch live (or, who lived in cities airing the documentary at a later date or time) to share their thoughts, reactions and reflections using the #ColumbiaMOH hashtag. This hashtag helped track the entire conversation.


More than 175 people participated in the Virtual Viewing Party, posting 885 tweets with the #ColumbiaMOH hashtag. Blogger/Online Outreach The final piece of the puzzle was blogger outreach, specifically targeting blogs whose readers would be interested in broader messages from Mission of Hope: embracing diversity, the resilience of the human spirit and working together to accomplish a greater goal. We pitched guest posts from the film’s director to select blogs and online media outlets. Additionally, we used these guest posts as an opportunity to share how people could connect with the film on social media and participate in the Virtual Viewing party.


Results: Network growth & reach:

• According to social media measurement platform Sysomos, more than 1,000 tweets using the #ColumbiaMOH hashtag reached nearly 2 million people throughout the course of the three-week campaign, and nearly 400 @ColumbiaMOH mentions reached 1.5 million people.

• Plus, Mission of Hope’s Twitter following increased 580%.

• On Facebook, Mission of Hope’s network increased 210%.

• Throughout the campaign, the page’s number of people “Talking About This”

increased 386% and reach increased 634%.

On the night of Mission of

Hope’s premiere, 80% of our fanbase

was talking about our

page.


Viewing party reach:

• The #ColumbiaMOH hastag reached approximately 1.5 million people, according to Sysomos. Plus, 279 @ColumbiaMOH mentions reached 555,000 people.

Guest posts: Guest posts secured on Mashable, Forbes, Huffington Post and Moonandback.com were shared a total of 771 times.

• In the Ashes of Space Shuttle Columbia, an Untold Story (Mashable) • 10 Things to Reflect On About Space Shuttle Columbia 10 Years Later (Forbes) • Reflecting on Space Shuttle Columbia, 10 Years Later (Huffington Post) • “Space Shuttle Columbia: Mission of Hope” Airs Thursday, Jan 31 (MoonandBack.com)

social tv activation: driving engagement & viewership for a pbs documentary premier

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