Blog Feed
Shark Week 2014: Not Moar Shark?
Press release proclamations to the contrary, Shark Week experienced a massive drop in online attention this year.
Online mention volume for Upwell's 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 'Shark Week All' keyword groups.
Total volume fell more than 47% from last year's record-setting levels. As seen below, post volume peaked on Sunday, Shark Week's opening night, and fell off thereafter.
The graph above shows total social mention volume for Upwell's 'Shark Week 2013 All' and 'Shark Week 2014 All' keyword groups in Radian6. Data points were aligned by day-of-week.
While there are many theories for the decline in Discovery Channel's online fortunes - ranging from Megalodon-sized deceptions to Sharknado bandwagon fatigue - what's undeniably clear is that a big shift has occurred.
Could there be an answer in the (word) clouds? We leave it to you to decide.
Word clouds for the six biggest days of Shark Week 2014 (generated using Upwell's 'Shark Week 2014 All' keyword group in Radian6).
That's all for now, Team Ocean, but stay tuned for more shark-y analysis in the days and weeks ahead.
In the meantime, we invite you to send us your theories at tips [at] upwell [dot] us
The Official Upwell Toolkit for Saving Sharks During Shark Week 2014
// This Toolkit is in progress.
// Have suggestions for what should go in here?
// Get in touch
Welcome to your home for shark-saving resources to help you defend, protect and celebrate sharks online during Shark Week (starting Sunday, August 10 at 9pm ET)!
There's a lot in here, so we've packed all the action-y goodies at the top, and pushed the background information to the end.
I. Being a Super Engager
- The 2014 Shark Week Cheat Sheet (a one-page pdf packed with tips, info and the Shark Week schedule):
- Shark Week 2013 by the Numbers Social media stats from last year's Shark Week
- It’s Sharkinar Time: Are You Ready? Our promo blog post explaining the sharkinar
- Recordings (July 24th and August 7th), Slides, and Notes from the two 2014 Sharkinars (Shark Week online briefings among conservationists)
- Follow and engage with Shark influencers (Twitter lists to follow during Shark Week)
- Rapid Response Kit for Busting Shark Myths (For when Twitter's going too fast for you to keep up)
- #SharkWeek Social Media: How to Hack It (Social media tips for spreading science and conservation during Shark Week)
- The best-est shark photos and videos to share and amplify
- Don’t forget to ask you boss for flex time during Shark Week! Download our letter: I'll be in at noon, because sharks.
II. Background Information
- Shark Week 101
- Wikipedia
- Shark Week 2014: The Good, The Bad And The Bloody
- Shark Week Lineup
- Shark Week Partners
- Mashable’s Shark Week Feed
- Discovery’s Save the Sharks Resources
- Shark Week Official Online Channels:
- Twitter| Facebook| Tumblr| Website| TVTag(formerly GetGlue)
- Shark Week Debunking
- Shark Week Doubles Down On Its Lies
- Shark Week Opens With Fake Megalodon Documentary
- Sharks Aren’t in the Great Lakes, but Testicle-Nipping Fish Are
- The Best and Worst of Shark Week: Good for Sharks, Bad for Science
III. Even More Sharky Resources!
Where to find good, public domain and creative commons images (be kind to your content creators, always credit images!)
This toolkit is a living, breathing thing, so please send us suggestions for additions and alterations. Also, let us know what this toolkit helps you do, and we'll repay the favor by driving more attention to your content!
Shark Week Twitter Influencers
Can you hear the BAAAAH-dum-beats of summer? Shark Week is coming! August 10 marks the beginning of the biggest spike in the online ocean conversation all year. To get you prepped and pumped for our Sharkinar, we’ve compiled the best, most influential users driving the shark discussion on social media. This time we’ve got a double dose of awesome, with our continuously updated list of “Shark Saving Influencers” and a new feature for this year, our list of the “Shark Week Super Tweeters”, those who led the pack in mentions and retweets from Shark Week 2013.
Subscribe to Upwell's "Shark Saving Influencers" and “Shark Week Super Tweeters” lists on Twitter to keep tabs on these influencers from the comfort of your own Twitter feed. We recommend setting up a column for each one in your Twitter monitoring tool of choice (we use tweetdeck) and keeping an eye on it starting now, and going all the way through Shark Week. Retweet, respond, and engage.
Some of our favorites from “Shark Week Super Tweeters”
Some of our favorites from “Shark Saving Influencers”
Shark Week 2013 by the Numbers
Because those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat #Megalodon, here are some of our favorite stats from Shark Week 2013.
Shark Week is Big, and Getting Bigger
2013 delivered the most watched Shark Week in Discovery Channel's history. Much like the ratings, online conversation about Shark Week has grown significantly every year. In other words...
To put those numbers in perspective, the infamous "Red Wedding" episode of Game of Thrones pulled in about 1.4 million tweets. Shark Week has formidable internet chops, er, chomps.
Tweeps <3 Sharks
Twitter is the most popular platform for Shark Week discussion, however the data is limited by Facebook's privacy settings (not that we're complaining about privacy). A simple search for Shark Week (and its variants) illustrates just how much conversation is being driven through the platform.
Since the dawn of Twitter the week has generated more than four million tweets about its name alone.
In 2013 each Shark Week show had its own hashtag. Below, you can see how the shows stacked up by mentions.
We have it on good sources that the not-so-good Shark After Dark live nightly talk show will return in 2014. For the record, we are big Bob the Shark fans.
Shark Week is a Great Time for Shark-Saving
Even though the overall Shark Week conversation is growing like kudzu, the shark science and conservation conversation (represented below by Team Ocean) is actually growing faster. In fact...
With your help, we can keep that trend going and help connect shark fans with shark-saving action.
If you're looking forward to this year's Shark Week, sign up to attend Upwell's third annual Sharkinar and get ready to save some sharks.
Remember,
See you on Team Ocean!
I'll be in at noon, because sharks.
We keep going on and on about how important Shark Week is - "It's the Super Bowl of the ocean," "It's an unparalleled opportunity to connect with a massive shark fan base," "Sign up for the Sharkinar already," etc. - but don't think we haven't noticed one important detail.
Yeah, Shark Week happens at night. It's when you want to be vegging out, or having dinner with your family, or taking a long bath, or getting your groove on at the local club (ok, that one's for me). You may not necessarily want to extend your working hours so you can livetweet and make memes during shows that promote fake science. Or maybe you do, but you aren't getting the comp time or the overtime pay for all your awesome shark campaigning.
Well, Upwell's got your back. Send this letter to your boss, and if they have any questions, you can direct them straight to us.
