Mackenzie Attridge & Scarlett Chang

ADPR 5750

Spring 2018

Final Report

Executive Summary

• The purpose of our analysis was to discover what type of content drives engagement, in order to create more meaningful posts across platforms.
• Research Questions?
• What kind of content receives the most user engagement?
• What kind of mentions gain the most interaction?
• What events triggered the most response from the ACLU’s followers?
• Where are the ACLU’s followers posting from?
• How can the ACLU become more relevant in the Travel Ban discussion?
• Who are the key users influencing important conversations in the network?
• Key Actionable Insights
• Tweets relating to the ACLU’s activities generate the most engagement.
• Tweets mentioning politicians receive more retweets.
• The ACLU’s followers are more active after major political events.
• The bulk of the ACLU’s instagram audience are posting from New York and California.
• The ACLU is a very small part of the Travel Ban conversation.

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American Civil Liberties Union

Mission

• The ACLU’s goal is to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the U.S.
• They take on the toughest civil liberties cases and issues to defend all people from government overreach and abuse.

Themes

• The ACLU covers issues such as:
• Immigrants’ Rights
• Women’s Rights
• LGBTQ Rights
• Free Speech
• Racial Justice
• Privacy & Technology

Social Media Platforms

@ACLU_Nationwide

282k followers

ACLU

2.2 million followers

@ACLU

1.46 million followers

ACLU

701 readers

ACLU

ACLU

17,400 Subscribers

Data Overview & Timeframe

Timeframe

January 1st, 2017-December 31st, 2017

Tools Used

Boolean Search Terms

@ACLU OR #ACLU OR #ACLUMember OR ACLU OR "American Civil Liberties Union"

"Travel Ban" OR "Muslim Ban" OR "Executive Order 13769" OR #travelban OR #Muslimban

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Owned Data

Key Insight #1

• Twitter users are more likely to retweet when a politician is mentioned over an organization, a celebrity or another Twitter user.

Key Insight #2

• Tweets informing users about ACLU related activities have the highest total engagement.

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• These tweets include activities like the ACLU getting involved in court cases, suing companies, or Q&A forums on major events.

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• Users are more likely to reply, retweet or like tweets that inform them on what the ACLU is currently doing to protect human and civil rights.

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Earned Data

Spike Analysis

A judge grants the ACLU’s request for a nationwide temporary injunction blocking the deportation of all people stranded in U.S. airports.

January 28/29th, 2017

The enactment of the travel ban caused a huge spike in Twitter activity for the ACLU.

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There were a total of 890,643

posts surrounding the ACLU

on these two days.

Spike Analysis

Bandcamp donates 100% of proceeds to ACLU.

Feb. 3,2017

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AHCA passed.

May 4th, 2017

Travel Ban 2.0 & SB4 in court.

July 26th, 2017

Joe Arpaio pardoned.

August 26th, 2017

Net Neutrality.

December 14th, 2017

Geography - Instagram

• ACLU is not as active on Instagram as they are on other platforms, such as Twitter.
• The bulk of the ACLU’s Instagram audience are posting from New York and California.
• New York and California are major destinations for protests and large scale events.

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25% of the ACLU’s audience.

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27% of the ACLU’s audience.

*All other states only comprise of 1-2% of posts each.

Network Analysis

Network Analysis

Journalist

Educational Foundation

News Outlets

Research Institute

Politicians

Insights

• There is a large network of conversation surrounding the Travel Ban.
• The ACLU’s followers are passionate about the Travel Ban, yet the ACLU is a very small part of the conversation.

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Top URLs across clusters.

• These articles represent two main topics represented throughout the top clusters.
• They were absent from the ACLU’s cluster.

Recommendations

• Keep posting updates on their efforts, especially after major political events. This is when their followers are most engaged.
• Increase the amount of politician mentions. They should try and connect issues to the politician/politicians associated with that issue.
• The ACLU should focus more attention on promoting and holding events in New York and California. Creating event specific hashtags and encouraging followers to post photos from events would be a way for them to increase their following on Instagram.
• The ACLU needs to be aware of key news stories circulating, so they can keep up with the conversation.
• The ACLU should develop a good relationship with key influencers, such as Kyle Griffin, to help expand their network.

Questions?