National Park Service (NPS) is a government organisation within the U.S. Department of the Interior founded in 1916. It manages all national parks, most national monuments and other special places that need safeguarding.
Recently the organisation gained a lot of popularity on its social media platforms for the hilarious posts. The most successful one is Instagram where 4.4 million people follow what they post, the Facebook account has 1.7 million followers and on Twitter they are nearing 1 million followers.
The mind behind the unexpectedly funny posts for this government agency is Matthew Turner. He started managing the accounts in 2018 and he saw a quick growth on Instagram. As he told Trust For Public Land, “The account hit a million followers last summer [2019] and crossed 2 million this past fall [2019].”
Matthew Turner has a degree in History and Anthropology, so he wasn’t exactly aiming for the social media manager position. He started out as a Visitor Use Assistant at Fort Pulaski National Monument in Georgia. A little bit later, he worked as a guide and front-line interpreter at Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Illinois and Harry S Truman National Historic Site in Missouri. These positions naturally pushed him to use social media as a way to interact with visitors and potential visitors.
Now he really enjoys this job and he revealed the best parts of it when talking to Rachel Karten of Link In Bio: “Social media really keeps you on your toes. It’s changing all the time which can be exciting to navigate your way through the challenges of sustaining an audience, looking to expand your offerings, and staying on brand and message.”
There is no denying that the posts are truly funny, but you may feel that it’s inappropriate for a government organisation to become too similar to a meme page. Matthew, however, knows what he’s doing.
He told AAA, “Across the platforms, it's about holding that fine line of government agency pushing out important messages and educating people as we welcome them. The humor is often used to draw people in. But beyond the funny, there is usually a safety message, a deeper dive into park resources or policy, or a fun fact.”
As Matthew explained to Trust For Public Land, the purpose of the funny posts isn't just to make people laugh, but it’s always “to communicate important information: don’t get too close to wildlife, be aware of surroundings, respect the resource, as well as offer travel tips and park news.”
The reason behind the humor and the pop culture references is that it is surprising, it grabs the attention and it resonates with people, especially when the funny captions are coordinated with pictures that were actually taken in the national parks the organization manages. It shows that there is a person behind the social media handle and you get curious what they will post next.
There is no doubt that people who work with social media are fun and creative personalities, but usually, they are not allowed to go wild and have to maintain a certain image, portraying a certain vision of the company they work for.
But what gives them the right to continue with their silly posts is the results it brings. Sarah Southerland, communication and education specialist at the Oklahoma Wildlife Department, said that after they posted a cute picture of a mountain lion with a funny caption that also warned people not to treat them as pets, it went viral.
Because it had over 120k likes and more than 14k retweets, it gave the social media managers “the green light from the higher-ups that like, hey, you know, this works better. Because, you know, 40 million impressions is better than like 200 impressions,” which was the amount before.
The humorous approach really works and people not only get a laugh, but also learn more about national parks, about the wildlife there and what to do when you find yourself face to face with a bear.
Which of these posts are your favorite? Did you know about this side of government agencies? Will you follow NPS for more? Let us know your reactions and what is your opinion about government organizations being more relaxed on social media in the comments.
