USING SOCIAL MEDIA PAID ADVERTISEMENTS, SHARING, AND ENGAGING POSTS TO REACH A WIDER AUDIENCE AND INCREASE CLIMATE CHANGE AND EVOLUTIONARY THEORY LITERACY

Time Scavengers is a site to engage the public in learning climate change and evolution through a series of pages and blogs. Several methods are implemented to reach a broader audience, including releasing blog posts on our Facebook and Twitter pages and using paid Facebook ads. To gauge the success of these endeavors and how best to communicate science to the public, site traffic data is gathered using Google Analytics. To date, 3 boosted posts and 1 advertisement have been released on Facebook. The three boosted posts reached a total of 7,607 people. The paid advertisement reached a total of 4,993 people. Among the boosted posts, the first was shared into three Facebook groups, which garnered the ad with 3 link clicks, 15 shares, and 77 post likes. The other boosted post was not shared into groups, but received 24 link clicks, 1 share, and 14 likes. The third boosted post was a video, which reached 3927 people with 3296 views. The results indicate that boosted posts are just as effective as paid ads, and sharing of posts into groups received more shares. However, video ads may reach a wider audience. Data from Google Analytics indicate site views did not increase substantially when we boosted a post or during a paid ad. Instead, releasing new content on the blogs, which was then posted onto our Facebook and Twitter pages, attracted traffic to the site. To date, 56% of all site users are directed to Time Scavengers from search engines, 6.2% from Twitter, and 14.8% from Facebook. Google Analytics data indicates that 78% of users are new, with 22% returning. The site is reaching users of all ages, with an equal split men and women. The site is accessed by people in 154 different countries. Regardless of social media ads and posts, site content, keywords, and phrases picked up from search engines are most important for reaching broad audiences interested in climate and evolutionary sciences.