Effective Outreach Activities Using Twitter

─ Astronaut Soichi Noguchi as an example

Abstract

In recent years, outreach activities, in which researchers in science and technology directly communicate their achievements to the public, have been attracting attention. In contrast to conventional public relations, which is a one-way communication, outreach is required to be interactive. Twitter, which is widely used, has the characteristics of openness, mass media functions, and interactivity, making it suitable for outreach. Moreover, it can be done by individuals. The purpose of this research is to show the conditions for effective outreach using the example of an astronaut with a large number of followers on Twitter. In order for information to be widely disseminated, it needs to be retweeted repeatedly. Therefore, I investigated what kind of tweets made by the astronaut were often retweeted. Specifically, I examined whether the results of advertising research and other studies could be applied, and I also added new elements. I also confirmed the phenomenon that when a very large number of retweets were made, the number of followers increased.