This end-of-the-year infographic I designed in Canva helped tell the 2021 story of the reach our work earned while also showcasing our science in an effort to generate donations.
Building Deep Isolation & Berkeley Earth’s Social Media Channels
When I took over management of the social media platforms for Deep Isolation and climate science nonprofit Berkeley Earth, very little attention had been paid to either organization’s social channels. My goal was to bring my storyteller’s eye and my strong visual aesthetic to create a more professional modern look and feel. For example, for Deep Isolation I wanted the audience to build trust in our scientific expertise while feeling that we were willing to engage on a personal level about the emotional and, for some, the scary topic of nuclear waste. For Berkeley Earth, we needed to ensure that the work of our two internationally respected scientists was being more widely and more routinely promoted on more channels.
I brought a number of new applications to the table to help ensure we could publish timely content with appealing visuals, videos and infographics. These included a social publishing and listening platform, key for engaging with our audiences, and a graphics design tool. This enabled me to improve what we were publishing and, most importantly, who we were following, which helped us diversify our content and attract new fans.
In two and a half years we saw our social metrics steadily improve. Highlights include:
* 108 percent increase (mostly organic) in fans and followers;
*228 percent increase in impressions;
*Average engagement rates increased from 3.6 percent to 5.7 percent, higher than the average industry range.
*227% organic increase in Berkeley Earth Twitter followers in 24 months.
Launching a Nuclear Waste Podcast
My second week on the job at Deep Isolation I was tapped to launch, produce, design and host a brand agnostic nuclear waste video and audio podcast — a somewhat tall order given I was new to the topic and new to podcasting. But I dove in headfirst, confident that my skills as a former journalist would help make this venture successful.
A positive review of the 5-star rated Nuclear Waste: The Whole Story podcast.
I helped shape an internal company focus group to choose interview subjects and came up with a production format that guided the episodes from start to finish. As of January 2023, we had completed 23 episodes and three highlight reels, with 20 episodes hosted by myself. I’m proud it has a 5-star Apple rating.
Visit my video page to see an episode.
Email Marketing Program Thrives at Deep Isolation
At Deep Isolation I combined my strong editorial skills with newsletter best practices to successfully improve our monthly email newsletter metrics. I redesigned the newsletter both visually and content-wise to better leverage the original work we were producing, from our successful 5-star rated podcast to blogs, event promotions, press releases and CEO updates.
Given that a good open rate for marketing emails is between 17 to 28 percent, a 40 percent open rate is quite successful.
These Mailchimp stats tell the story of the Deep Isolation monthly subscriber newsletter YoY performance in 2022.
Social Media Strategy: Inspiring Content Inspires Engagement
As SunPower’s social media manager for nearly five years, I built our channels from a handful of followers to an audience of more than 265,000 highly engaged renewable energy advocates. Via a smart paid strategy, I helped earn the channels as many as 500,000 annual engagements. I did this by demystifying the technology while inspiring brand pride and loyalty via awe-inspiring tales of our innovations, such as a SunPower-powered robot collecting data in the harsh conditions of a polar icecap (below right) to a solar airplane flying ‘round the world (below left) or a solar ship breaking world records circumnavigating the globe by sea.
At Deep Isolation, I similarly needed to demystify our topic of interest, one which in this case was highly emotional. For example, I worked with our designer to produce this infographic to help explain and show the safety of our nuclear waste disposal solution. It was useful across multiple platforms, including in the PowerPoint decks our Chief Operating Officer uses in public presentations about the company.
I collaborated with Deep Isolation scientists to design a graphic that simplified a highly technical concept while still maintaining accuracy.
SunPower Social Media Posts
One of SunPower’s all-time most engaging Facebook posts.
Grover the NASA Ice Rover
Finding interesting content that goes beyond the obligatory “happy holiday” social post can be challenging in the renewable energy vertical, so I liked how this message was authentic to our brand and in the true spirit of the day.
"SolarStratos has an opportunity to push the limits of what we think is humanly possible and prove that renewable energy has the capacity to power our lives while preserving our planet” — Pilot Raphael Domjan. SunPower is proud to supply the solar cells that will power this airplane 80,000 feet above Earth by 2020 without a drop of fuel.
#SolarStratos #solarplane #SunPower #renewableenergy #cleanenergy #solarcells #future #innovation #airplane #space #science #adventurer #astronautsuit #pilot #aviation
It’s important to humanize a brand by telling customer stories in their words.
I grabbed this surprise customer photo opp and quote and posted it on the fly while attending a training for solar dealers in New Jersey.
When I found out that nine people in one neighborhood went solar, I arranged an event there where we parked a 40-foot custom solar trailer/showroom for a block party that gave our local dealer visibility and leads and was a rich source of social content and customer testimonials.
When I heard that one of our dealers had provided almost all of the solar on Martha’s Vineyard, I decided to honor Earth Month by launching an in-depth look at why this beautiful place was embracing clean energy. We published three blog posts, two videos and multiple social posts.
My journalism background makes live event coverage a breeze.
SunPower Instagram Posts
