Case Study · National Park Service
A Facebook post about the Tuskegee Airmen, published February 26, 2024, was shared 10,819 times.
One ring for each month, September 2023 to October 2024.
Sociallyin ran organic social for six National Park Service civil rights sites in Alabama and Mississippi. It was our first federal contract. Between January and October 2024 the parks earned 3.85 million impressions and 225,800 engagements, with no paid media behind any of it.
- 3.85Mimpressions
- 225.8Kengagements
- 22.9Kshares
Six parks · Facebook and Instagram · January to October 7, 2024
01 · Six Parks, One Contract
One contract, six parks, fourteen contacts.
The National Park Service protects many of the places where Americans won their civil rights. In September 2023, six of those parks in Alabama and Mississippi hired Sociallyin together, through a federal solicitation. The brief came straight from the solicitation: help people from all walks of life learn about those who fought for and achieved constitutional protections of American civil rights.
One contract covered six parks, fourteen contacts and several approval chains. The six park teams met the project, and us, on the same kickoff call. Some park staff were openly skeptical that social media was worth their time.
Birmingham Civil Rights National MonumentBirmingham, Alabama
Freedom Riders National MonumentAnniston, Alabama
Tuskegee Airmen National Historic SiteTuskegee, Alabama
Tuskegee Institute National Historic SiteTuskegee, Alabama
Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National MonumentJackson, Mississippi
Selma to Montgomery National Historic TrailSelma to Montgomery, Alabama
02 · Getting the Keys
It took four months to get all six parks in the door.
Most of the parks’ Facebook pages had been set up by rangers as personal or location pages rather than business pages. A Park Service staffer in Washington had to find and claim each one, and that ran from October to February. The Tuskegee Airmen Instagram had been created by a former employee, and nobody had the login. Our scheduling tool took months to clear federal review.
We posted on whichever pages we could reach while the rest came online. On February 16, 2024, all six parks were finally connected in one dashboard.
Every post also had to meet the rules that come with a government page:
- Section 508 accessibility: alt text on every image, captions on every video, audio descriptions for stories.
- Hatch Act and ethics rules: no partisan politics and no endorsements, on any of the twelve profiles.
- Rights and permissions: required for every photo, recording and quote.
- Park Service standards: NPS brand standards and social media policy.
- Approvals: every month’s posts batched for approval a month ahead.
Archival photographs, the obvious material for civil rights history, were mostly off limits for copyright.
03 · Researched Before Posted
We did the research so the rangers could keep giving tours.
The people who know these sites best spend their days leading tours, answering visitors and keeping historic buildings open. Content calendars were never going to come first.
So we gave each park its own calendar and its own voice, and we did the research ourselves. Every history post started from the documented history of the site: who was there and what it cost them. Where a park’s own images held up, we used them and put the work into the words.
When a post went out with a minor historical error, we fixed it within hours and worked with the parks on how the review should change.
04 · February 26
The image came from the park’s files. We wrote the post.
On February 26, 2024, in the last week of Black History Month, Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site posted a salute to the pioneers who defied prejudice to become some of the most respected airmen in the country’s history.
94,567
engagements on one post
It earned 94,567 engagements, including 62,951 reactions, 3,943 comments and 10,819 shares. By March 14 it had been seen 1.39 million times.
- 62,951reactions
- 3,943comments
- 10,819shares
That one post accounts for 42% of every engagement the six parks earned through October 7. Two other posts showed the same pattern. On January 20, the day Tuskegee Institute’s Facebook page connected, a post introducing Booker T. Washington earned 6,260 engagements. On February 2, an invitation to explore the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home earned 10,437. All three used images from the parks’ own files.
6,260
January 20 · Tuskegee Institute
10,437
February 2 · Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home
94,567
February 26 · Tuskegee Airmen
Engagements per post, shown as circle area
05 · Filling the Gaps
Where a park had few pictures of its own, we sent photographers.
Some parks had very few usable images to post. Between March and May 2024 we ran original photoshoots at Birmingham, Freedom Riders, Tuskegee Airmen and the Evers home. Freedom Riders warned us the site might not fill a 120-photo shoot. We shot it anyway.
The photographers came back with the A.G. Gaston Motel’s neon sign, the trainers in the hangar at Moton Field, and a pair of baby shoes on a dresser in the Evers home.
Birmingham Birmingham Civil Rights
Anniston Freedom Riders
Tuskegee Tuskegee Airmen
Jackson Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home
That footage became the parks’ monthly short-form videos: exhibit walk-throughs in Anniston, artifact close-ups from Moton Field, and a room-by-room walk through the house where Medgar and Myrlie Evers raised their children.
Walk through the Evers home · Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home
History preserved · Tuskegee Airmen, Moton Field
The hangar and its aircraft · Tuskegee Airmen
The family’s things · Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home
Step into history · Freedom Riders
We also worked the pages from the outside. The day we started outbound engagement, Everglades National Park, with 208,000 followers, followed one of the parks.
06 · Through October 7
What six parks earned between January and October 2024
- 3,847,164impressions
- 225,765engagements
- 22,918shares
- 9,602net audience growth
- $0in paid media
Six parks, six cross-sections
Circle area shows each park’s impressions
Tuskegee Airmen
2,146,454 impressions
Tuskegee Institute
717,797 impressions
Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home
686,351 impressions
Selma to Montgomery
123,939 impressions
Freedom Riders
103,570 impressions
Birmingham Civil Rights
69,053 impressions
| Park | Impressions | Engagements | Audience growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tuskegee Airmen | 2,146,454 | 145,231 | 3,358 |
| Tuskegee Institute | 717,797 | 30,095 | 1,422 |
| Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home | 686,351 | 40,288 | 2,550 |
| Selma to Montgomery | 123,939 | 4,603 | 716 |
| Freedom Riders | 103,570 | 2,896 | 395 |
| Birmingham Civil Rights | 69,053 | 2,652 | 1,161 |
Facebook carried the program, with 3.76 million of the 3.85 million impressions. On Instagram, where the audiences were still small, engagement ran between 9.5% and 16.9% of impressions.
It has been so amazing to see. … So I just want to say thank you to you. And all the time that you have taken to not just assist us, but the other civil rights sites.
Park staff, Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument
07 · The Ranger’s Standard
What running six government pages at once taught us
The work was telling these stories accurately and on schedule, at six parks at once, inside the rules a federal page has to keep. People did the rest: the parks’ posts were shared 22,918 times.
A government page earns trust the way a ranger does: by getting the history right.
Running social for a public institution?
Government agencies, museums, parks and nonprofits work under rules most marketing firms never see. We’ve worked under them. Tell us about yours.
Case Study · National Park Service
Ready to Maximize Your Social Media
Potential?
We’d love to hear about your organization’s goals on social media. Get in touch with us today!
If submitting an RFP, please use the email below.
