Jason Townsend Online space communicator by day who craves good friends, food + wine by night
News Clips
"There Goes the Sun: NASA Upgrades Technology to Prepare for a Total Solar Eclipse" - Fed Tech Magazine
"The new website puts more emphasis on accessibility and mobile readability, as well as faster page load time and search engine optimization. Topics have been organized in a user-friendly way so that searches such as “What time is the eclipse?” get people where they need to be, says Jason Townsend, NASA’s communications manager. “We’ve really tried […]
"3 Government Agencies Doing Innovative Things on Social" - Sprinklr Blog
"The team’s success centers around the concept of what NASA deputy social media manager, Jason Townsend, calls “brute force coordination” – regular communication across teams and levels, both top-down and bottom-up." Read more: https://blog.sprinklr.com/government-agencies-social-media-engagement/
"5 Social Media Marketing Lessons from NASA" - B2C: Business 2 Community
“Everybody has that little bit of childlike wonderment in them,” says Jason Townsend, the agency’s deputy social media manager on Twitter’s blog. “If we can find that curiosity in every person out there and pull it out of them, then we can really engage with an audience that is interested in what we’re talking about.” Read […]
"Behind the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing" - Google Doodles
View the Doodle: https://www.google.com/doodles/50th-anniversary-of-the-moon-landing
"Watch this space: we meet Nasa’s stars of social" - The Drum
For Yembrick and Townsend it’s just another hectic day at the space-faring government agency. “We’re looking at the best ways to connect with people, so as to reach the widest audience possible,” says Townsend, explaining how the brand continues to contribute to the zeitgeist. “We really do think our audience is all of humanity, so […]
"How Space YouTubers Are Keeping Astronaut Ambitions Alive" - Super Cluster
Even NASA — which has more than 5.2 million subscribers across its channels — utilizes the platform as an invaluable tool for increasing public awareness. The agency produces YouTube content specifically geared toward kids to spark early interest — it knows it has to, because this is the place to reach them. NASA also sees […]
"NASA uses Twitter audience insights to take fans to new frontiers" - Twitter Partners
“At the end of the day, if you’re not measuring what you’re doing, you’re not succeeding at being able to improve, learn from what’s going on, and roll that up into your next actions.” - Jason Townsend, NASA’s deputy social media manager Read more: https://partners.twitter.com/en/partner-resources/nasa-uses-twitter-audience-insights-to-take-fans-to-new-frontier
"How NASA Taps Into Curiosity to Build an Engaged Social Community" - Sprinklr Magazine
We might never know what space sounds like if it wasn’t for NASA’s social media strategy. After auditing its social audience, the government agency realized it had a built-in group of audiophile fans that it just wasn’t engaging. It seems NASA got so caught up in posting beautiful, out-of-this-world photos to show us what space looks like […]
"NASA Is Proving That Space Might Be the Final Frontier for Organic Social Content" - AdWeek
NASA deputy social media manager Jason Townsend and digital engagement strategist Brittany Brown recently discussed the agency’s social media strategy, which includes traditional platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat, as well as less-frequented destinations like Reddit and even SoundCloud. Since NASA is a government agency, its social posts are all organic out of necessity, […]
"Nasa's social media deputy talks IGTV, VR and govt control" - The Drum
Has social media finally moved away from being a ‘nice to have’ option and become an integral part of the marketing mix? "Social has to be integrated. Fans of your brand are already talking about you, even if you aren't on social. It's much healthier to be a voice in the conversation, assisting fans & […]
"Digital Summit DC Showcases Top Minds, Latest Trends in Media and Digital Marketing" - Tech In DC
Jason Townsend, NASA’s Deputy Social Media Manager, presented on NASA’s efforts to consolidate its communication channels and social presence, which left many attendees stunned by the fact that a government agency seemingly has a more sophisticated communications operation than most private enterprises. Read more: https://techindc.com/2018/08/30/digital-summit-dc-showcases-top-minds-latest-trends-in-media-and-digital-marketing/
"Twitch, Pinterest, Instagram, chatbots and video are the future of social media say Social Buzz judges" - The Drum
"What we should be looking out for is the next evolution of video. It has become such a juggernaut in the social media space and when you look at the players out there like Roku, Chromecast and Apple TV, they are going to become more interesting because they are full screen, sit at home and […]
"How Nasa is reshaping video, influencers and taking on the world" - The Drum
For Nasa’s deputy social media manger, Jason Townsend and his team, data is one of the biggest areas that they work in and are constantly analysing what's working and what’s not. For the past couple of years, they’ve also been retooling how they make video. Before, they would repurpose TV content that ran for seven […]
"What’s the most important metric for online science communicators?" - 2017 Winston Churchill Fellowship Project
Jason Townsend at NASA sees analytics for hundreds of accounts, each with thousands or millions of followers. What’s the one key metric he’s looking for? Shares. A key goal for them is reaching more people and shares take you beyond your immediate followers and into their networks. It’s also a great measure of whether your […]
"Tech Talk with Jason Townsend" - Travel Insider by Qantas
A NASA social media manager explains how the space agency keeps its 29 million Instagram followers intrigued... ...What advice would you give to other organisations about using social media? Find what’s unique about you, put it out there and listen to feedback to make it better. I realise not everyone has access to spaceships and […]
"Need some 'space' in life?" - Brand Equity from the Economic Times
NASA runs a total of 527 social media accounts across 16 platforms ... How does that help with their “shareability” objective, one wonders? Townsend says: “If you look at some of our accounts - like the International Space Station (ISS) account in relation to the big NASA account, the audience overlap between the two is […]
"How Publishers and Brands Can Navigate Social Media Publishing in 2018" - NewsWhip
"In 2018, I expect to see more experiential media-rich content on social media. With more augmented and virtual reality technology getting into the hands of audiences, I expect to see more content produced that takes advantage of this and allows people to be embedded in ways that can transport them to everything from galaxies far, […]
"La NASA présente sa stratégie Social Media" - Le Blog du Modérateur
La gestion des réseaux sociaux de la NASA est un exemple pour beaucoup de community managers. L’agence gouvernementale responsable du programme spatial américain diffuse du contenu sur plus de 500 comptes, sur 16 plateformes différentes. Pour en savoir plus sur la stratégie de la NASA sur les réseaux sociaux et sur l’organisation du community management, nous […]
"Why Do We Treat Our Spacecraft Like They're Humans?" - Newsy
"There's a lot of people who follow us because it taps back into that childlike wonderment that they had when they were a kid," said Jason Townsend, deputy social media manager at NASA. "I think we can really connect in a way that is relevant and resonates really well with our audience." Watch: http://www.newsy.com/stories/humans-treat-spacecraft-like-other-humans/
"Why NASA’s social media is out of this world" - NewsWhip
"We’re always looking for opportunities to be part of the bigger, overarching conversation that’s happening on social media, because there’s a certain audience that already follows NASA and they’re kind of naturally gravitating toward us. But there’s definitely other audiences out there that if NASA was part of a conversation that they’re talking about, rather […]
"IBD @ SXSW: Lockheed Martin Ventures' HeloPitch; VR At Home Depot, NASA" - Investor Business Daily TV
Watch: http://www.investors.com/news/ibd-sxsw-lockheed-martin-ventures-helopitch-vr-at-home-depot-nasa/
"How Virtual Reality and Social Media Are Helping Buzz Aldrin and NASA Educate the Masses" - Ad Week
“We [are promoting] our presence in Austin on our social media channels and encourage the sharing of NASA-related content using the #NASASXSW hashtag during the event,” remarked Jason Townsend NASA‘s deputy social media manager. Read more: http://www.adweek.com/digital/how-virtual-reality-and-social-media-are-helping-buzz-aldrin-and-nasa-educate-the-masses/
"Communicating science in the clickbait era" - ScienceWriters Magazine
Jason Townsend, NASA deputy social media manager, said his team takes advantage of trending topics, anniversaries, and other connections in the news to draw in new audiences. For instance, it allowed British boy band One Direction to shoot a music video about a space mission to Mars at NASA facilities. NASA’s social media team filmed […]
"Experts Outline Three Ways to Boost Science Communication" - AAAS
Jason Townsend, NASA deputy social media manager, said his team takes advantage of trending topics, anniversaries and other connections in the news to draw in new audiences. For instance, it allowed British boy band One Direction to shoot a music video about a space mission to Mars at NASA facilities. NASA’s social media team filmed […]