For the most recent AZA Social Media Report, click here.
AZA member zoos and aquariums are using social media in many innovative ways – to drive visitation, to develop closer connections with members, to communicate conservation and animal care messages to the public, and to engage in issue advocacy. In an effort to support its membership in these endeavors, AZA now offers the Social Media Report.
AZA will provide this Social Media Report on a monthly basis. It shows individual institution Facebook Likes, Twitter Followers and Klout scores – and top performers in each of these categories. We’ve also created a new metric, which looks at the social media following of an institution relative to its annual attendance. While there are many factors in the size and growth of a zoo’s or aquarium’s online following, there is value in identifying institutions big or small that have a large social media presence, and then examining the best practices that supported their efforts.
Here a few highlights from the most recent report:
- There are 215 AZA members on Facebook and 184 AZA members on Twitter.
- Combined AZA members, along with AZA, have 7,533,664 Facebook Likes
- Combined AZA members, along with AZA, have 950,387 Twitter Followers
- The average zoo or aquarium has 35,040 Likes on Facebook and 5,165 Followers on Twitter
While reading this report, please note:
- AZA staff visited each member’s website, and we hope we were thorough in gathering all the right member social media channels. If you see an institution that is active on Facebook or Twitter but is missing from this report, please email Jessie Greger, jgreger@aza.org.
- We are currently in the process of adding in Related Facilities and other AZA member organizations.
- Some AZA members with multiple institutions share one social media account for all of their entities (e.g. Zoo New England, Audubon Nature Institute). In these instances, it will be noted in the first column.
- The “factor” number does not indicate anything other than Facebook or Twitter rank relative to annual attendance. It is great to see some of AZA’s larger members grow exponentially, but it is just as instructional when a smaller zoo experiences relative growth.
If you would like to preview the Social Media Report, the November 2011 edition is available.
For the most recent AZA Social Media Report, click here.