Jason Townsend Online space communicator by day who craves good friends, food + wine by night
News Clips
"An Inside Look at NASA’s Wildly Successful Social Media Program" - Sprinklr
Jason Townsend, NASA’s deputy social media manager, says the organization’s social media strategy has grown in “leaps and bounds” in recent years. And much of that success boils down to a simple, yet beautiful, concept – “brute force coordination.” By this, he means that communication happens regularly, across all teams, and across all levels. Not […]
"Messages from space: a Q&A with NASA’s social team" - The Verge
"Jason Townsend: People can be embedded along with the mission. Using the tools and all the features that we have, we’re able to take everybody along for the ride, which is very different than having something go out as a press release. [That puts you] kind of at a distance and kind of detached from […]
"How Social Media is Defining the New Era of PR" - Social Driver
Last week, Chief Strategy Officer, Anthony Shop led a panel at #PRSummitDC called “Beyond Interruption: How Social Media is Defining the New Era of PR” to discuss this exact shift in PR. The awesome group of panelists included: Julie Weber, Briana Washington, and Jason Townsend. They shared their tips for creating winning public relations efforts […]
"Inside NASA's Social Media Machine" - Bloomberg
Jason Townsend, NASA's deputy social media manager, discusses NASA's social media efforts with Bloomberg's Cory Johnson on "Bloomberg West." Watch video: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2016-06-01/inside-nasa-s-social-media-machine
"The meteoric rise of NASA's social media program" - Tech Radar
And they'll continue shooting for the stars. In fact, Townsend seems to think the agency's still light years away from its full social media potential. "The bottom line," he says, "is that wherever people are getting their news from, where people are getting information, NASA wants to be there." Read more: http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/the-meteoric-rise-of-nasa-s-social-media-program-1320130
"Speaking Freely" - Newseum at SXSW
Jason Townsend, deputy social media manager of NASA, talks about engaging the public on current space initiatives via social media, as well as how NASA is using virtual reality and robotics in their astronaut training programs.
"Sunday at SXSW: Profiting from Live Streaming, Honing Leadership Skills, and Building Brand Ambassadors" - Oracle Blog
NASA’s Jason Townsend described how major events can spawn ambassadors. If you provide memorable experiences that are approachable, you can covert casual space enthusiasts to collaborators and advocators. NASA has the added value of talking about space, which is pretty cool in and of itself. However, when the government shut down for budgetary reasons and […]
"State of Federal Blogging 2016" - Digital Gov
At NASA they do not have a single or “main” blog for the agency, but they have many blogs managed by staff. Jason Townsend, Deputy Social Media Manager, states that their strategy is “to enable the ease of sharing content through a centralblogs.nasa.gov site but with a myriad of authors and voices covering a wide […]
"FEDtalk: Roundtable With Agency Communications Professionals" - Federal News Radio
With the public obtaining news and information from a growing array of sources, federal agencies are adjusting their communications strategies to inform and engage the public about agency missions, programs, and the people who carry them out. Host Jason Briefel will be joined by Jason Townsend, NASA Deputy Manager for Social Media, Danielle Brigida, U.S. […]
How NASA brings excitement about outer space to social space - PR Week
Jason Townsend, NASA's deputy social manager, explains how the agency builds buzz around science and discovery on social media. How did you tee up social media around the announcement of water on Mars? The day before the event, we had #MarsAnnouncement trending on social media. That morning, everyone was buzzing around what NASA was going to […]
"How NASA Turned Astronauts into Social Media Superstars" - Popular Science
According to Jason Townsend, NASA’s social media manager and the person in charge of NASA’s organizational accounts, the choice of platforms is a “multi-factored” discussion. He rattles off a list of questions that he and his colleagues ask when helping astronauts post to social media: “Do we have the capacity for that? Is it bringing […]
"The Brand As A Content Producer: Where Does Social Fit In?" - Social Bro
“We have a great team of science writers that work at our different centres, who sit down with the scientists and basically interview them. The writers try to get to the heart of the research that the scientists have done and what they’re talking about. They then create a document on how best to communicate […]
"El equipo detrás de las más de 480 cuentas de social media de la NASA" - Audiense
Hablamos con John Yembrick, Social Media Manager de la NASA, y Jason Townsend, Deputy Social Media Manager de la NASA, para descubrir cómo lo hacen. No solo nos han contado detalladamente cómo organizan un equipo de social media de más 150 personas en todo el sistema solar… Compartieron con nosotros las cosas tan sorprendentes que […]
"NASA’s Social Media Strategy Is Genius—And Kinda Maddening" - WIRED
“This mandate to reach as many people as possible has been in NASA’s charter since 1958,” says Jason Townsend, Yembrick’s deputy on the social media team. ... For example, the Pluto photo was not only NASA’s most liked photo, but it also gained them 300,000 new followers. “Now 300,000 new people are learning about NASA,” […]
"How a bunch of government space geeks at NASA won the internet" - Quartz
The masters of this social-media universe are John Yembrick and his deputy, Jason Townsend. Both are veterans of other government agencies. In addition to being the sole tweeters from NASA’s flagship account, the pair oversee 500 other accounts on 12 different social-media platforms and coordinate the other managers across 10 field centers. It’s a cosmic […]
"Why is Social Critical for NASA?" - Sprinklr Video
In this video, Sprinklr explores how NASA shares space exploration with their ambassadors over 490 social media channels. Watch: https://youtu.be/6pSvJtq0Ofw
"The Team Behind NASA’s Star-Studded Social Media Accounts" - Social Bro
With over 480 social media accounts on 12 platforms, including over 170 Twitter profiles, co-ordinating an active, award-winning social media team is an astronomical task. For NASA, social media isn’t just about posting the prettiest pictures of space to rack up retweets, the team are also on a mission to turn their 30 million plus […]
"In Space, No One Can Hear You Sample" - NPR's All Things Considered
NASA just released a collection of sound effects from both this world and deep, intergalactic space into the Public Domain. They are now available for all of us to enjoy and perhaps use to make music. Listen: http://www.npr.org/2014/11/08/362588083/in-space-no-one-can-hear-you-sample
"NASA's new SoundCloud account will make you feel spaced out" - The Verge
...Best of all, NASA's SoundCloud files are in the public domain, like the majority of NASA's content, meaning you can download and re-use them in your own otherworldly music compositions or sci-fi films. And more NASA sounds are on the way — as Jason Townsend, NASA's deputy social media manager, told me in a quick phone […]
"How Social Media Strategies of NASA Made Many Brands a Booming Success?" - Business to Community
As Jason Townsend said to Zipcar, “On a routine basis, when we make big scientific announcements and discoveries, we are literally re-writing textbooks — and that happens more times than not as we figure out more about our home planet and our place in the universe. So the educational momentum of what we do has […]
"How Did NASA Build Communities of Space Lovers? Answer: It’s Written In The Stars" - Ziptopia
Zipcar had the opportunity to speak with the two head managers of social media at NASA, John Yembrick and Jason Townsend, about how — through astounding imagery, breaking discoveries, and innovative Twitter Meet-Ups— they engage, enlighten, and inspire their legions of space-loving followers. Read more: http://www.zipcar.com/ziptopia/future-metropolis/nasas-social-media-manager-john-yembrick-and-jason-townsend
"First Vine in Space" - The Weather Channel
Jason Townsend talks about how astronauts are using social media in space. Read more: http://www.weather.com/video/first-vine-in-space-49756
"Tweeting From Space: Q&A With NASA’s Social Media Team" - SparkSheet
John Yembrick and Jason Townsend head over 500 social media channels at NASA, but it’s mostly the physicists, engineers and astronauts who steer the ship. We spoke to the duo about the agency’s award-winning social media strategy. Read more: http://sparksheet.com/tweeting-space-qa-nasas-social-media-team/
"NASA’s Super Smart — and Awesome — Instagram Take on Cosmos" - TIME
"And watching and posting was just what was happening: Jason Townsend, deputy manager for NASA’s social media team, tells TIME that last night’s Instagram posts were NASA capitalizing on a moment of high interest in space, not any sort of official tie-in with the show. NASA’s Instagram feed launched last September and now has about 700,000 followers; […]