Five of the most notable climate-related social media strategies we saw in 2023
A roundup of the climate conversation across social media this week
Welcome to Climate Monitor, a weekly, data-driven report on the digital strategies polluters and pro-Climate groups are using to shift public opinion and move legislation. Here’s what we found:
Programming note: This is our last issue of Climate Monitor in 2023. We hope you have a restful holiday, and we’ll be back in your inboxes in the New Year!
Toplines:
Many climate organizations deployed innovative digital strategies in 2023, and to celebrate, we are breaking down some of the most notable examples.
A group called For a Better Bayou is running new ads on Facebook and Instagram calling on people to protect communities in Louisiana from the effects of liquified natural gas.
Longtime environmental advocate Bill Gates posted about his time at COP28 on Instagram.
Some popular wellness influencers have been pivoting to… climate change denial.
Digital Advertising Roundup
Facebook + Instagram 👍
One new and notable climate-related ad campaign this week came from For a Better Bayou. The organization itself is focused on preserving the natural parts of Southwestern Louisiana, but the ads are running nationwide on Facebook and Instagram and focus on how liquefied natural gas (LNG) is harming both the environment and communities in the Gulf.
Another notable campaign this week comes from the Michigan League of Conservation Voters. The ads are running on Instagram and Facebook across Michigan and encourage people to thank their local representatives who voted in favor of the Clean Energy & Jobs Act.
And finally, back on the East Coast, an organization called NC Warn, which builds “people power for a swift North Carolina transition to clean power,” is running ads on Facebook and Instagram in the Tar Heel State. The ads call on Governor Roy Cooper to take action against Duke Energy, which is one of the largest energy companies in the nation and is based in Charlotte, NC.
Google & YouTube 🎞️
There were no noteworthy climate or energy advertisers archived by Google last week.
Snapchat 🤳
There was one new ad climate or energy campaign archived by Snapchat this week. The National Resources Defense Council is running brief video ads calling for all lead pipes across the US to be replaced.
🔦 Spotlight: Five of the most notable climate-related social media strategies we saw in 2023
Many climate organizations did some really cool work with social media and digital advertising this year. So, for our final edition of 2023, we are sharing some of the most notable that we saw >>>
PATAGONIA ON SNAPCHAT
One of climate superbrand Patagonia’s missions is to support and strengthen “grassroots groups on the front lines of the environmental crisis” and this year, they took to Snapchat to do exactly that. Patagonia ran a whopping 524 Snap ad campaigns this year in support of local and regional climate organizations across the US – a super smart way to use the tool and get people (especially Snapchat’s younger audience) engaged in their local climate causes. Here are some examples from their most recent campaigns from the last month:
CLIMATE POWER ON SNAPCHAT
Snapchat was also the site of another interesting campaign this past year. Climate Power, a climate action group founded by CAP Action, the League of Conservation Voters, and Sierra Club, ran 20 Snap ad campaigns (in addition to Instagram and Facebook ads) in 2023 to spread the word and recruit for President Biden’s American Climate Corps. The ads that ran on Snapchat notably make excellent use of the “swipe up” function to create a super streamlined call to action – young people could get to the Climate Corps interest form and sign up in just one swipe.
GOTV ADS FROM VIRGINIA CLIMATE GROUPS
Another highly notable development in the climate-related digital ads space this year was a massive ad push from several Virginia-based climate organizations to turn out the vote for pro-climate candidates in the Old Dominion State’s assembly elections in November 2023.
Clean Virginia (which is known for fighting back against Dominion Energy, the Richmond-based oil company) ran ads in English and Spanish on both Google & YouTube and Facebook & Instagram touting their chosen candidates’ pro-clean energy backgrounds. Similarly, the Virginia League of Conservation Voters also ran ads on Google & YouTube and Facebook & Instagram to bolster pro-climate candidates. And finally, the NextGen Climate Action Committee ran ads on Google & YouTube, Facebook & Instagram, and Snapchat to reach young people and get them to the polls. And it should be noted that on Election Day 2023 in VA, many pro-climate candidates did walk away victorious!
@ENVIRONMENT ON INSTAGRAM
Over on the organic side of social media, one climate-related account that killed it this year and implemented some really interesting strategies was @environment. It is an offshoot of the highly popular, progressive @impact account that focuses exclusively on “all things climate and culture” and has amassed 825,000+ followers. @environment makes excellent use of original reporting or new spins, connections between climate and pop culture, and eye-catching graphics. Their Instagram posts have consistently been amongst the top performing each week. Here’s a look at some of their high-performing posts (all with 90,000+ likes) from just the last month:
@LIVEKINDLY ON TIKTOK
And finally, another notable, organic social media strategy this year came from the sustainable lifestyle brand LIVE KINDLY. Specifically, LIVE KINDLY has taken on the newest and most controversial platform, TikTok, and has gained 156,000+ followers from their anti-waste videos. Here are some recent examples of their TikToks that have performed really well (200,000+ views) in the last month – most of them are “anti-haul” videos that are aimed at de-influencing people from buying from wasteful brands:
Cheers to a great 2023 – and we’re looking forward to all the amazing climate-related digital work to come in 2024!
What’s Trending on Social Media
How are climate and energy issues being discussed by Americans on social media? Every week, we conduct a robust keyword search using CrowdTangle for general terms like “climate change,” “global warming,” “fossil fuels,” and over 40 more specific topics (like “electric vehicles,” “gas stoves” and “pipelines”). Here were the 10 top-performing public posts (by # of interactions) related to climate and energy on Facebook last week:
Last week, over 12,200 public Facebook posts mentioned climate or energy issues, and they earned a cumulative 543,900 interactions.
Bill Gates, a longtime advocate of clean energy, took to Facebook this week to share about his time at COP28. Two of his posts generated a fair amount of attention, garnering between 4,000-5,000 interactions each – and notably, both of these posts emphasize the immense threat posed by climate change.
Conservative commentator Jesse Watters also received a fair amount of engagement on a Facebook video post that… sort of followed along the same lines. In his video, Watters argues that if President Biden was really worried about climate change, he would build more EV charging stations. (Evidently, someone forgot to do a Google search on Biden’s Invest in America plans.) You can check the video out here >>>
And finally, in a similar vein, Breitbart had a well-performing post about the House GOP’s “victory” in blocking tailpipe pollution limits.
Here were the top-performing feed posts (excluding Reels and Stories) related to climate and energy on Instagram last week:
Last week, over 12,600 public Instagram feed posts mentioned climate or energy issues, and they earned a cumulative 10.6 million interactions.
The top three climate-related posts on Instagram this past week (in order) came from @instagram featuring essayist and eco-feminist Kwolanne Felix, @leonardodicaprio about deforestation in Australia, and @natgeo about protecting biodiversity and key, endangered animals and fish, like caribou and sharks, across the world.
Weekly Reading
Want to go deeper? Here’s a quick roundup of news from the past week at the intersection of climate, digital strategy, and advocacy.
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Some popular wellness influencers have been pivoting to… climate change denial (Mashable, 12/8)
A popular Greta Thunberg meme with false information is causing doubt about climate change online (FactCheck.org, 12/8)
The U.S. Postal Service has been accused of ignoring its own extreme heat safety programs, which led to the death of a mail carrier this past summer (POLITICO, 12/11)
That’s it for this week! If you enjoyed reading this week’s issue, feel free to forward it to a friend or colleague.
Climate Monitor is a product of the Digital Climate Coalition + FWIW Media. Tips/comments/questions? Email lucy@fwiwmedia.com