Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Monica Fonorow
Benjamin Gross
David Haldeman
Rebecca Ortenberg
Preston Stone
Introduction
#CosmosChat was a weekly, hour-long Twitter chat to discuss Cosmos: A
Spacetime Odyssey in the context of the history of science, hosted by the
Chemical Heritage Foundation. The projects objectives were to:
Models
We chose two simple models for #CosmosChat:
#breakforart by the Phillips Collection, a weekly, hour-long Twitter livechat moderated by a Phillips Collection curator to discuss a single work
of art
Resources
Our intent from the outset was to conduct #CosmosChat as a low-resource
project with well-defined goals and milestones. The resources we had on hand
were:
Snacks
Outcomes
At the conclusion of the project, we collected and analyzed measurable
outcomes. These included:
1. staff time,
2. effectiveness of outreach,
3. performance of the project against a comparator project,
4. effect of the project on the ChemHeritage Twitter presence,
5. team take-aways,
6. obstacles and impediments,
7. new resources created, and
8. new individual and community connections.
Staff Time
Staff Member
Total Hours
Ben
35
3.9
Rebecca
33
3.7
Monica
36.5
4.1
David*
40
6.7
Preston
30
3.3
Total
4.3 avg
!
*Note: Davids average weekly hours are calculated against 6 weeks
(because he took a monster European vacation in the midst of the project).
Conclusion: Members of CHFs social media team (i.e. David and Monica)
dedicated the largest number of working hours to the project. Most of this time
was spent promoting #CosmosChat on Facebook and Twitter, composing and
editing discussion questions, and compiling accounts of each weeks
conversation on Storify.
Associated Costs for #CosmosChat: ~$160.00
Outreach
!
Total run of #CosmosChat: 22 April 24 June 2014 (9 weeks [10 weeks with 1
week off])
Total Tweets: 2,001 (31.27 tweets/day)
Sessions Only: 1,552 (194 tweets/session)
Peak hashtag usage: 343 (Jun. 10th in connection with discussion of the Cosmos
finale)
Note that this includes retweets.
!
Conclusion: #CosmosChat sessions performed well in comparison to
#breakforart, demonstrating the enormous popularity of Cosmos as well as a
demand to explore Cosmos in a specialized history of science context.
!
Conclusion: #CosmosChat sessions were the only instances in which
@chemheritage Twitter traffic was on par with #histsci community traffic. During
its run, #CosmosChat was also one of CHFs most consistent points of
engagement with the #histsci community.
!
* Includes tweets by and about @chemheritage
Conclusion: #CosmosChat contributed significantly to overall Twitter traffic for
@chemheritage, and was one of the primary contributors to follower acquisition
and engagement.
Take-aways
1. #CosmosChat confirmed that CHF possesses the internal resources and
expertise required to promote and execute an extended, well-defined
social media campaign. It also demonstrated the importance of obtaining
early buy-in from different sections of the organization.
2. Although #CosmosChat built upon CHFs established Twitter presence, its
success depended upon the participation of staff with a wide range of skillsets. The time, energy, and staff resources required to promote and
execute a social media project of this sort should not be underestimated.
3. The use of Storify to archive each #CosmosChat session proved effective
as both a promotional tool and an online archive for individuals unable to
participate in the live discussion.
4. Because the project team treated #CosmosChat as an experiment from
the outset, they were careful to incorporate time for retrospection. These
discussions enabled the group to develop more effective metrics to
evaluate the overall impact of the project.
Non-scholarly staff:
Steven Holtzman offered unique insight and exclusive behind-thescenes content while participating in CHFs first live Twitter interview.
Educators, curriculum designers. #CosmosChat served as a model,
showcasing how educators could make use of social media to
structure discussion of historical or scientific topics. It also served as a
forum where educators with an interest in science communication,
could find like-minded partners for future collaborative projects. One
example of an educator made use of #CosmosChat is Clarissa Ai Ling
Lees #Cosmoschat for Writing in the Natural Sciences Unit.
!
* not pictured because he was in Europe.
The Wire, Neil deGrasse Tyson Asks Us to Think About the Future in This
Week's 'Cosmos' (quotes tweet by Ben Gross)