Nature meets social media: how National Geographic blends the two seamlessly

Over the years, social media has quickly skyrocketed to one of the most popular uses of media, content creation, and a new use for advertisement. Due to this evolving media, TV Shows and Channels have had to expand and adapt to continue reaching their target audience. An example of a brand that has adapted swiftly with success into the social media world is National Geographic.

National Geographic started in 1888 as just a consistently published magazine. It has seen successfully expanded throughout television, both live and streamed, to a National Geographic Society, to now social media. This non-profit has kept consistent over the years with its personal brand: spreading knowledge on exploration and geography while emphasizing the importance of protecting nature. National Geographic captures the beauty and essence of nature and encapsulates it on their digital media pages for others to experience like bringing the outside onto the internet.

National Geographic takes a categorizing approach to its social media pages by using numerous platforms and pages on each to create niche communities and break up its target audience into specific interests and connecting groups. With 9 company ran Twitter pages alone, this company shares an abundance of information a day with its audience, reinforcing its brand and brand values regarding the spread of exploration and geographic knowledge. Their social media pages are very active, ranging from 3 to 12 posts a day depending on the platform, and have accumulated a large following with their Instagram having 242 million followers.

So what do they post?

Based on their brand and company goals, their content is mainly informative and educational; however, they are known for using a storytelling method intertwined with their strategy while also considering what content caters to each platform’s advantages and audiences.

For every platform, National Geographic has a main page that covers a variety of topics and social changes with numerous branching accounts that cover niche topics more in-depth. Through an analysis, their Facebook and Twitter content have similar strategies. Much of the content discusses an article from the National Geographic site that is linked to the post. The caption is created to give the followers an idea of what the article is about while drawing their attention enough to click on the article to learn more.

This method is also used with short video clips posted from their TV series to entice followers to expand their National Geographic consumption across media. Not only are the company’s voice and tone within their writing of these linked articles important to their storytelling strategy, but so are the short captions on their social media platforms. These short captions and blurbs are critical for advertisement conversions and further engagement with the brand; therefore, National Geographic portrays intriguing and strong emotions through their writing.

The portrayal of emotions is also thoroughly planned out within their photography and Instagram content. The brand has numerous platforms like travel, your shot, and platforms for specific countries. All of these niche accounts’ content portrays a specific researched aesthetic that showcases the essence and appeal of that region or topic to their specific followers and target audience. These accounts also showcase information and social changes that are specific to that region that its target audience would be most interested in and could directly affect the most.

National Geographic has showcased its brand and strategies throughout several of its campaigns like the Heroes of the Ocean and Photo camp live campaigns. While informing and educating its audience through its content and campaigns, the brand also breaks down ways in which to be active in such social changes discussed, making the act of participating seem easier and more digestible to consumers leading to more action towards change. No wonder they have been successful for over 130 years!

What are your thoughts on the storytelling strategy and how National Geographic utilizes it towards their company values and social change? What other brands do you know that use this strategy? Discuss in the tab above!