Using social media to engage with park stakeholders
Proactive engagement around specific management actions or campaigns go a long way towards educating and raising awareness amongst the public.
As part of a project supported by Table Mountain Fund, Alison Kock developed a two-week awareness campaign, KnowYourMPA, from 28 Jan to 13 Feb 2021, on SANParks Table Mountain Facebook page. Project funding enabled purchase of advertisings space for each post. The response from the public was very impressive. Each posts had an average reach of over 21000 views. Five posts had more than 800 likes or other reactions. Some comments and questions in response to the posts were very informative, e.g. park stakeholders requested signage and maps to indicate the location of the marine protected area. The public were also interested in posts that suggested how they could help protect the marine environment.
Inspired by this success, SANParks Scientific Services developed a 10-day awareness campaign, for the SANParks Table Mountain Facebook page, with a focus on fire and fynbos in the build up to the prescribed burns planned for March/April 2022. Developing this awareness campaign involved input from several people, including park staff involved in fire management in the park. The campaign was well received by the public. The most popular post was about Fynbos being adapted to fire (i.e. pyrophylic), and it had a reach of over 44000 people with many shares and substantial commentary on other people’s Facebook pages. The #FocusOnFireAndFynbos campaign seemed to improve people’s perceptions and understanding of the prescribed burn when it took place in Tokai and stakeholders shared appreciation for the information provided.
This article was originally published in the 2021/2022 Research Report.
