Stephanie Sekich of the MLPA Surfrider Blog

Digital Media Scan:

California MLPA
October 15, 2009

 
  

Digital Media Scan:

California MLPA
October 2009

Purpose

Resource Media was asked to conduct a digital media scan on the topic of California’s
MLPA for The CalOceans campaign. The purpose of the audit is to provide insights
into conversations and trends that are occurring within the blogosphere and top social
media platforms. By analyzing where the identified target audience is congregating and
what they are saying, we can strategically plan communications programs with an
awareness of where the opportunities lie. The CalOceans campaign can benefit from
learning if there are any neutral and/or undecided conversations taking place about
California’s MPAs and the MLPA, what is being said and how opinions are changed
from neutral to either pro or anti MLPA. Current actions being taken through the
CalOceans campaign in this area were also analyzed and recommended actions are also
provided. With the insights gained from this study, we have the opportunity to embrace
social media to improve the quality, reach and the conversations regarding California’s
MLPA.

Methodology

The areas analyzed were as follows: the volume and frequency of conversations by
medium, the authority levels of the most influential voices, the demographics of
communities, the common themes of discussions and where the conversations or social
activities were taking place.

As requested, an emphasis on research and analysis has been placed on the

blogosphere. Special attention was also placed on looking for digital media findings in

 
  

the coastal California area, divided into the following regions: North, Central, North
Central and South.

The following social media platforms were researched:

• Technorati (Blog Search)

• Google Search and Google Insights for Search
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Wikipedia
• Digg
• Delicious

The following keywords and combinations were searched:

• “California” and “marine protected areas”

• “Marine Life Protection Act”
• “California” and “MLPA”
• “California” and “MPA”

 
  

Observations and Recommendations Summary

With social media, the first thing to think

about is who to reach, how to reach them
and why a story or issue would matter to
them. Conversations are pervasive in the
Social Web and can take the form of
videos, podcasts, bookmarks, blog posts
and comments, tweets, pictures, reviews,
meetups and events, news or story
aggregation and so on.

The following recommendations are based on observations and insights gained from
the California MPA and MLPA research.

Technorati (Blog Search)

• The majority of blogs regarding MPA or MLPA found were opinionated. No

results were found for bloggers/blogs/blog posts who could be characterized as
undecided or wavering opinions. Some news resources were neutral and
focused on topics, such as the history of MPAs and the MLPA, MPA maps,
updates on MPA decisions, etc.

• Approximately 75% of opinion blogs and blog posts came from high authority
environmental blogs or organization blogs and forums who were pro-MPA and
MLPA. The other 25% of opinion blogs and blog posts came from commercial
and/or recreational fishing organizations worried their economic viability could
be negatively impacted by progress on oceans protection and were anti-MPA
and MLPA. Therefore, given the larger numbers who are pro-MPA, we
recommend focusing on strengthening the relationships with supporters across
all of their social networks, engaging in link building with top authority pro

 
  

MPA and MLPA blogs, etc. instead of searching for and trying to persuade the
undecided crowd.

• Anti-MPA and MLPA groups are not highly visible online and don’t appear to
be much of a threat in terms of their hosting or involvement with high authority
blogs. Instead, they use blogs and online forums as public mediums, most often
to organize in-person rallies, political actions and petitions. We recommend not
worrying about the minority “angry fishermen” from a social media
perspective, since they aren’t involved with top authority blogs that have the
highest visibility and possible influence on effecting MPA and MLPA mass
public opinions. We do, however, recommend observing their group activities
and paying close attention to:

o Who members of anti MPA and the MLPA target (and have targeted)
politically

o What rallies and city council meetings they’ve attended and plan to
attend so you have time to organize and recruit your pro-MPA/MLPA
supporters and overwhelm the opposition in strength and numbers.

o Another interesting revelation was that these groups tend to post

information about their positioning and their plans to challenge pro
MPA and MLPA supporters (e.g. rebuttal questions for their group
meetings, etc.). This information could help Resource Media and its
partners learn more about what moves the anti MPA and MLPA groups
and strategically plan to address each one of their concerns.

• Out of all the concerns raised in anti-MPA and MLPA blogs and forums, the
two most prominent themes were: the possible negative economic effects
MPAs have on commercial fishing and the claim that the effectiveness of
MPAs and the MLPAs has not been scientifically proven. The CalOceans

 
  

campaign might consider stronger emphasis on the economic impacts

messaging and conducting or citing research results.

• Within Technorati (and other social media analyzed in this scan with the
exception of Wikipedia) we didn’t see many direct references to specific zones
of MPAs, for example: North Coast, Alder Creek near Point Area to Pigeon
Point. Most blogs referenced MPAs in general terms, such as San Francisco
Bay or San Diego County or Southern California. We recommend focusing
discussions on counties and towns instead of on MPA map specific coastal
regions. People will care more about changes to MPAs and the MLPA, taking
actions to preserve them, if they feel things are happening “in their own
backyard.”

• The majority of blogs about MPAs in general (not California specific) didn’t
necessarily focus on the topic of oceans protection. MPA blogs also ranged
from covering international locations (e.g. references to MPAs in Australia
were popular) to just national locales. At a national level, discussions of MPAs
in the Southern California area was common. There is an opportunity here to
create messaging about MPAs in the Northern California region to pique
bloggers’ interest and keep them informed. They, in turn, will help spread
these reports, updates, concerns, victories, etc.

• With the exception of fishermen and women, recreational ocean enthusiasts

(especially surfers) are supportive of MPAs/the MLPA and should continue to
be targeted for relationship building in addition to the more traditional
environment/oceans protection blogs like Guilty Planet and Tree Hugger. One
organization to start or strengthen your relationship with is the Surfrider blog.
We found some anti-MPA and MLPA bloggers who specifically stated they
found the Surfrider organization to be a threat.
• Within the blogosphere, there was far more talk about MPAs than the MLPA.
We recommend focusing CalOceans campaign efforts towards positive updates

 
  

and messages about MPAs since they appeal to a wider audience who could be
converted into supporters.

• Online commentary from anti-MPA and MLPA supporters occurred more

within their own dedicated anti-MPA/MLPA forums rather than on high
authority blogs (regardless of the blogger’s perspective (pro, anti or neutral).
We encourage the CalOceans campaign to support the neutral/informational
and pro-MPA and MLPA high authority blogs with comments that include
links to the CalOceans website and trackbacks. Why? Because there is little
chance “angry fishermen” types will counterattack in these mediums.
CalOceans observing comments in the anti-MPA and MLPA forums is advised
but commenting is not due to the opposition’s strength in numbers and home
base territory attitude. Stay focused on garnering support from the willing
majority and save debates for in-person political events like town council
meeting.

Google Search and Google Insights for Search  

• There was far more information (facts, opinions etc.) about MPAs and the
MLPA found on the World Wide Web than within blogs or social networks
like Twitter or Facebook. If the CalOceans campaign has limited time and
resources, consider focusing efforts on updating the CalOceans website with
fresh and engaging content. Attention should also be placed on optimizing the
CalOceans website for best search engine ranking results so that the website
can be found more easily by anyone searching for related keywords. The
CalOceans website received an SEO grade of 55/100, indicating room for
improvement. Examples of activities to improve your SEO grade and thereby
attract more qualified traffic to your site are: ensuring you have the right SEO
meta data in place and building inbound links to your site from high level
supporters with websites and/or blogs. This is a link to the SEO score for the
CalOceans website, which provides a basic report explaining the variables
behind the SEO score and the areas for improvement.

 
  

• While a Technorati search uncovered far more blog discussions about MPAs
than the MLPA, the popularity of keywords searches for “MPAs” and “MLPA”
conducted by the global public in Google showed similarly high popularity
rates.
 
• While blogs in Technorati tended to reference keywords examined in this scan
spelled out in their full form (e.g. “Marine Life Protection Act”), Google
Search results determined that websites used acronyms freely (e.g. “MLPA”).
Knowing this tells you what language to plug into a particular digital media
engine to find the most relevant content.

• Unlike we found in the blogosphere, a large percentage of websites covering

MPAs and/or the MLPA contained references to California. This further
supports our recommendation in the first bullet above -- spend more optimizing
the CalOceans website and linking to other websites that support your
opinions.
 

 
  

• Searches for the keywords and terms analyzed in this scan most often
originated from Sacramento, followed by areas in Southern California. Bay
Area counties and towns ranked at the bottom of the list of the top ten areas in
which people are searching for MPA and MLPA news line. If the CalOceans
campaign has limited time and resources, focus first on rallying current and
potential supporters in these areas (who may have an increased disposition to
take supportive MPA/MLPA actions) /for both online activities (ex. electronic
petition signing) and offline (ex. beach clean ups). A variety of free social
media tools are available to hone in on exactly who supporters in a particular
county or town are and how to contact them.

• It’s also advised that the CalOceans campaign use Google Analytics to analyze
referring URLs to the CalOceans website to see which organizations are
coming to your site to learn more and take your desired actions.

• In regards to the bulleted list of highly relevant and frequently trafficked

organizations below, the CalOceans campaign should: A) verify that the
CalOceans website has outbound links to each and B) that the CalOceans
campaign has requested inbound links from the organizations to the CalOceans
website:

o California Department of Fish & Game, Marine Life Protection Act:

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/

o Marine Protected Areas – California:

http://www.californiafish.org/mpa.html

o Ocean Conservancy:
http://www.oceanconservancy.org/site/PageServer?pagename=press_c
alifornia_mpa

 
  

o Marine Life Protection Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Life_Protection_Act

o Marine Protected Area - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Protected_Area

 
  

Twitter

@ThePacificOcean is strong in:

o Providing a variety of interesting content fans enjoy “liking” and

commenting on – from technical reports to photos to humorous
musings to “calls to action,” etc.

o Updating the Twitter feed on a regular basis, which gives followers

an incentive to keep coming back

o Using the most relevant, most popular hashtags.

o Using trackable URLs to monitor viral activities taken by

followers.

o Following and building relationships with MPA and MLPA

specific influencers within Twitter as well as larger accounts aimed
at general oceans protection work.

@ThePacificOcean could consider:

o Increasing your support to other like-minded Tweeters through

retweets, @followfridays, @econmondays etc.

o Increasing the level of interactivity with followers like

polling/surveys, asking questions, pro-MPA goodie giveaways
(like screensavers, T-shirts, bumper stickers), etc.

o Continuing to proactively ask for support (more “Please RT”) and

offering incentives to do so.

 
  

o Providing a sense of urgency within your Twitter to get followers

to act.

o Increasing awareness for @ThePacificOcean by registering your

account in Twitter directories, like Twellow and Twitter user group
(Twibes).

o There is far more support for pro MPA and MLPA messages
within the Twittersphere than anti MPA and MLPA messages.
Continue to use Twitter’s search engine and other apps to find new
supporters. Use retweeting apps to frequently review who retweets
your messages, making sure you follow them.

o Always make sure to use the acronyms and associated hashtags for
keywords in this scan (e.g. MPA and #MPA or MLPA and
#MLPA). Since there are more conversations taking place about
MPAs, reference this keyword and hashtag more often in tweets
over MLPA/#MLPA.

o Continue to use wider-range hashtags (see Twitter detailed section

for specific recommendations) to expand visibility.

o Tap celebrities and political influencers who support MPAs and

the MLPA who use Twitter as one of their communication
mediums.

o Don’t waste time worrying about anti-MPA/MLPA groups on

Twitter. There are far more MPA/MLPA supporters, plus the
supporting groups tend to have many more followers as well.
However, we do recommend creating a Twitter “dummy” account
to follow them and learn what messages and strategies they’re
using so you can hone your own activities.

 
  

o Establish protocol guidelines for your Twitter account; document

these community rules within a Wikispace and tweet about the
guidelines once and awhile, providing the Wikispace URL to the
full documentation. Send a direct message to those who don’t
follow the rules and let them know they’re in violation.

o Analyze the data behind the Bitly trackable links used in your
tweets to find out how many people clicked on your link, where
the people clicking on your links are from and what domain
referred them to your link. Bitly can also display any conversation
threads taking place within Twitter, FriendFeed or blog comments
sparked by your sharing of the link.

Facebook

• Create a private Oceans leadership group on Facebook where leads from

various pro MPA and MLPA communities get together to virtually share plans,
activities, messages, strategies etc.

• To reach the largest number of people, the CalOceans campaign should focus
on building relationships with MPA supporters through groups and fan pages
since these communities far out-weigh the numbers devoted to the MLPA. Use
Facebook’s search engine and plug in both keyword combinations “marine
protected area” and “marine protected areas” as each will give you different
results. Start by identifying and then privately contacting group founders, page
administrators, etc. Use a conversational tone and let them know what you
admire about their group or page and share some of your similar goals and
strategies. Have a specific action or two in mind you’d like them to take (e.g.
become a friend of “The Ocean” and/or add a link to “The Ocean” to your
group or page).

 
  

• CalOceans campaign partners have a presence within Facebook and could be

asked to publically support “The Ocean” by providing a link from their groups
and/or pages, referencing “The Ocean” and its URL in their Facebook updates
if they haven’t already.

• Another relationship building tactic for “The Ocean” could be mutual link
building with similar groups. “The Ocean” currently does not link to any pro
MPA and MLPA supporters within their Facebook page. Doing so can improve
overall awareness and easily target members of your intended audience.

• “The Ocean” Facebook page did not show up when associated keywords were
plugged into Google. One way to improve “The Oceans” page search engine
rankings in sites like Yahoo!, Google and Bing is to build more inbound links
from websites, Tweets, blogs and other Facebook groups and pages.

• Engage fans more often and frequently by reiterating the ongoing “calls to
actions” outlined in the “Action” tab of the fan page, as the majority of fans
may only visit “The Ocean’s” homepage and miss some calls to action.

• “The Ocean” should increase their level of interactivity with fans through
popular Facebook apps, polls/surveys/quizzes, the uploading of more videos,
asking fans for feedback on content or site layout/format.

Wikipedia

• Review the Wikipedia pages dedicated to “The Marine Life Protection Act”
and “Marine Protected Area” for their levels of accuracy, value to readers, etc.
Consider editing one or both with previously established, unbiased,
information from high authority sources you can easily cite and ideally link or
reference the work the CalOceans campaign is doing. If time and/or resources
are constrained, focus on the Wikipedia page about marine protected areas first
because it has 4.5 times more traffic that the Wikipedia page on the “Marine

 
  

Life Protection Act.” As news develops and activities taken to protect MPAs
change, the related Wikipedia pages should be updated. Create your own
Wikipedia account, which will keep track of all your editing and page creation
activities, hence building your reputation as a resource on the subjects you
work on. Do take into consideration, though, Wikipedia’s content guidelines
first. Any content that does not adhere to the following rules will be disputed or
removed:

Neutral point of view

Verifiability (click here to learn more)
No original research
Biographies of living persons
Naming conventions

Also note Wikipedia’s policies for external linking.

• Although both of the above Wikipedia pages reference California, there is no

Wikipedia page specifically dedicated to covering marine protected areas in
California. Because the current Wikipedia page on the Marine Life Protection
Act has more of a global focus, consider creating a page focusing on
California, if it fits with overall CalOceans campaign goals and strategies.
Familiarize yourself with Wikipedia’s extensive policies and guidelines, most
specifically the naming conventions and style guidelines sections.

• In addition to the two suggestions above, consider editing pages with a wider
perspective on oceans protection. See list outlined in the detailed Wikipedia
section of this scan for specific suggestions.

• Edits to existing pages need not only be textual, consider adding neutral images
(photos, maps of MPAs, etc) as Wikipedia pages referenced in this scan lack
visuals. Just as you would when adding text, make sure to cite the source
properly.

 
  

Social Bookmarking (Digg and Delicious)

Digg

• A very small number of articles containing the keywords and combinations in

our California MLPA scan were found within Digg and most of the articles
found were from 2008. This represents an opportunity for the CalOceans
campaign to establish themselves as a thought leader within the Digg world.

• To maximize the visibility of articles you bookmark within Digg, however, you
need strong relationships with large numbers of active Diggers since articles
gain higher rankings within Digg (equates with increased visibility) through
votes known as “diggs”, by community members. Utilize the “Friend” feature
and as soon as you add a new friend to Digg you’ll see their bookmarks and
vice versa. There’s an increased chance that your friends will therefore see and
digg your submissions since Digg is in itself a supportive social networking
environment. In turn, support links your friends on Digg bookmark with your
own diggs, comments, etc.

• To build friends, connect with people who have already bookmarked

information about California’s MPAs and MLPAs. In addition, do research
with a wider range of keywords involving these subjects to find new potential
influencers to connect with on Digg. Suggested keywords with a wider reach
include “MPA,” “marine protected area” and “ocean protection.”

• Succeeding within Digg also requires submitting articles from A-list sources.
Do some research on the sources that receive the most diggs and bookmark
articles in Digg from those sources as soon as they appear. Setting up an RSS
Feed for your source and/or a Google Alert for your keywords or the source
will help. Also make sure to select the most relevant category for your digg
article as well as popular, highly targeted, keywords known as “tags.”

 
  

• Every story needs a catchy title and a relevant descriptor, so put time and effort
into these when bookmarking an article.

• Add a “Digg this” widget to your other social networks like Twitter, Facebook,
etc.

• The most popular MPA and MLPA content to bookmark in Digg is political
news at the state or national level. List these articles in the “World & Business”
section for maximum awareness.

• We found more Diggs for keywords and combinations in our scan that were
unabbreviated (ex. “California” and “marine protected area” rather than “CA”
and “MPA”), so be sure to spell keywords out in their entirety when submitting
an article to Digg.
Delicious

• Delicious is a social bookmarking site and similar to Digg so many of the

recommendations for Digg also apply to activity within Delicious.

• Similar to Digg, there were a small number of articles bookmarked with

keywords and combinations analyzed in this scan, which also presents an
opportunity for the CalOceans campaign to become a leader in this area within
Delicious.

• The number of community votes (known as “diggs” within Digg) were much
smaller in Delicious, which we can interpret as a difference in the number of
people within the communities and probably their interests as well. Given time
or resource constraints, we’d recommend focusing efforts on submitting pro
MPA and MLPA articles within Digg for more visibility.

 
  

• As with Digg, refer to the detailed Delicious section of this MLPA scan for
suggested keywords or “tags” to add to articles you choose to bookmark in
Delicious.

• Neither Digg nor Delicious have strong influencers bookmarking articles about
the MPA and/or MLPA. We recommend garnering support from techies in
your other social networking communities like Twitter and Facebook to post
and support your articles with “diggs” (through Digg) or votes (through
Delicious).

 
  

Technorati
 

Technorati is a real-time blog search engine that categorizes

blogs and blog posts by keywords known as “tags.” Technorati
uses a popularity index to categorize a blog’s authority level.

Technorati defines authority level categories by the number of

links by other blogs or Websites linking to it within the past six
months:
• Very high authority level: 500 or more blog links
• High authority level: 100 to 499 blog links
• Some authority level: 10 to 99 blog links

Blog results were analyzed using the defined keywords and combinations within this
scan from October 14-October 21, 2009.

Summarized Results

The high authority blogs covering some to all of the keywords and combinations
(“marine protected areas”, “Marine Life Protection Act”, “California” and “MPA”,
“California” and “MLPA”) included in this scan are:

• Guilty Planet blog

• Green Living Review blog
• Switchboard blog from NRDC  
• Climate Progress  

The most relevant pro- MPA and MLPA blogs are:

• Protect Planet Ocean blog

• Surfrider blog

 
  

The most recent blogs associated with California MPAs and/or the MLPA are:

• Grassroots Organizations (blogs)

o California Fisheries Coalition
o The Daily Ocean
o Your Daily Thread
• Media (blogs)
o Sign on San Diego
o Laguna Beach Independent

• The ration of blogs about marine protected areas that did not reference
California vs. blogs about marine protected areas that did was 29.24:1,
although the authority range for the typical high authority blog writing about
each was similar (around the 130 authority level).

• There were 12,539 posts on “The Marine Life Protection” Act, which is
roughly three times more posts than were found for a search conducted on
marine protected areas in California.

• The majority of the grassroots organizations that are pro or anti-MPA and
MLPAs are in the Southern California area (Los Angeles County and San
Diego County).

• The anti-MPA and MLPA groups are small, but united groups of extremist
individuals who don’t represent the majority opinion. They’re active in
organizing grassroots rallies, challenging pro-MPA and MLPA groups and
conversing with political leader decision makers and participate in town/city
council meetings to make their voices heard, but they have biased views with
invested interests -- they’re almost always groups of commercial and/or

 
  

recreational fishermen. Their blogs were created to provide vital information

about anti-MLPA rallies and to stir members to take actions (examples: signing
a petition, writing local or national government decisions makers). The blogs
themselves do not seem to be places for blog readers to interact as there are
seldom comment sections within blog postings.

• Extremist anti- MPA and MLPA group members don’t tend to comment
negatively on high-authority level blogs. Instead, they stick to their organized
forums and social media networks like Twitter and Facebook. In fact, there
weren’t many comments to blog posts on high- or some-authority level blogs
no matter what the perspective (pro or anti MPAs). This represents an
opportunity for the CalOceans campaign to provide an intelligent voice and
increase their visibility among high-authority bloggers in these areas.

• No “undecided” or “neutral” MPA/MLPA blogs were found. Blog tone was

primarily pro MPAs/MLPA (approximately 75% of those found in this scan)
and about 25% were anti-MPA/MLPA commercial or recreational fishing
blogs and communities with lower authority levels.

Recommendations

• To drastically increase visibility for California’s MPAs and the MLPA,

prioritize outreach to high authority MPA-focused blogs since there is
significantly more interest in MPAs than the MLPA.

• In addition to blog outreach to round out your social media efforts, continue to
devote time and resources to more viral communities like Twitter and
Facebook. These places are where MPA and MLPA supporters participate and

 
  

spread MPA/MLPA information at a much more frequent rate than they do

through blogs.

• Virally spread videos, website or blog links etc. of high profile celebrities
publically supporting MPAs and/or the MLPA (like Pierce Brosnan or Stephen
Colbert or John Stewart). Share the links through your social networks and
add/ask for comments etc. We noticed people listened and blogged about what
celebrities were saying about MPAs. Keep an eye out for upcoming celebrity
events involving MPAs to promote them in your social networks in advance
and/or consider putting together your own high profile fundraiser to benefit
MPAs.

• A blogger the CalOceans campaign should tap into if they haven’t already is
Jennifer Jacquet. She is a high authority blogger at the Guilty Planet and a
post-doctoral research fellow working at the UBC Fisheries Center to protect
oceans and marine life. Jennifer might not only be tapped into for future pro-
MLPA blogs at Guilty Planet, but could possibly introduce you to other new
opportunities within its 60 blog parent network, ScienceBlogs. For example,
ScienceBlogs has other ways to spread the word about pro-MPA and MLPA
ideas – a newsletter, a Twitter feed, email alerts, etc. the CalOceans campaign
might be able to take advantage of. See above for a list of additional high
authority blogs whose authors you could also contact like the Climate Progress
blog, the Green Living Review blog and the Switchboard blog from NRDC.

Research Results

High authority blogs for “marine protected area:”

 
  

A search for “marine protected area” resulted in 120, 297 blog posts from very high or
high authority. Blogs tended to range from 499 authority level to the 110 authority
level, with the average blog containing postings about “marine protected areas” in the
130 authority level range.

Very high – high authority level blogs about “marine protected areas” contained these
common themes:

• Sources and topics ranging from the very local (i.e. specific locations in
California) to the international

Example of a local blog about “marine protected areas:”

Port of San Diego Tenants to “Clean Sweep” Chula Vista Nature Center

Example of an international blog about “marine protected areas:”

Belize the Beautiful

• The overall themes the blogs covered varied from general green living (ex.
“Green Living Review” blog) to general fish and ocean news (ex. “The Aquatic
Community” blog) conservation to preservation of specific ocean areas (ex.

 
  

“Port of San Diego” blog) to ocean recreationists/enthusiasts (ex. “Dive

Happy” blog) to travel/tourism (ex. “Panama Real Estate” blog) to animal and
marine animal species protection (ex. “Panda’s Thumb” blog).

• Among the 120, 297 blog posts found for “marine protected areas” about one
out of every three or four were not relevant to the subject of this scan. Instead,
they used the keyword “marine protected area” to refer to a member of the US
Marine Corps.

Out of all the high-authority blogs with posts about “marine protected areas” relevant
to this scan, those with the highest authority were these three:

1.  TreeHugger (Authority: 469)

Summary: “TreeHugger is the leading media outlet dedicated to driving

sustainability mainstream. Partial to a modern aesthetic, we strive to be a
one-stop shop for green news, solutions, and product information. At
TreeHugger we know that variety is the spice of life, so you can find all
you need to go green in our up to the minute blog, weekly and daily
newsletters, weekly video segments, weekly radio show and our user-
generated blog, Hugg. We also extend our expertise to companies looking
for a little green guidance. Past clients include Domino, Sundance Channel
and House & Garden.”

 
Sample Blog Post: Think Coastlines are Protected? Think Again. – May
22, 2009

Excerpt: “There are plenty of advocacy groups and online petitions and
beach cleanups, but are the coastlines actually designated safe spaces?
Very few are, and the NRDC has created a video to highlight this often

 
  

overlooked natural resource in their new, short-film Seventy-One Percent

of Earth. Big Wave Surfers Grant "Twiggy" Baker, Brian Conley, Greg
Long, Rusty Long, Frank Solomon and Anthony Tashnick all lent a hand
to the video to talk about why we need to take action as "our ocean as we
know them are in a silent state of collapse."

There are no comments associated with this blog post.

2. ReefBuilders (Authority: 450)

Summary: “Reef Builders is an online community dedicated to reef tanks.

Our popular reef blog informs reef hobbyists about popular reef equipment
and the saltwater industry in general. We have discussion forums where
you can talk about your reef tank, ask questions and receive help from reef
community members. If you are just starting out in the saltwater aquarium
world, reef aquarists have found that the Beginners Guide to Saltwater
Aquariums and Tanks has been helpful in starting their journey towards
reef keeping.”

 
  

Sample Blog Post: World’s Largest Marine Protected Area Created in

Pacific Ocean – February 18, 2008

Excerpt – “The small Pacific Island nation of Kiribati has become a

global conservation leader by establishing the world’s largest marine
protected area – a California-sized ocean wilderness of pristine coral reefs
and rich fish populations threatened by over-fishing and climate change.”

There are no comments associated with this blog post.

3.  Guilty Planet (Authority: 419)

Summary: “From climate change to intelligent design, HIV/AIDS to stem

cells, science education to space exploration, science is figuring
prominently in our discussions of politics, religion, philosophy, business
and the arts. New insights and discoveries in neuroscience, theoretical
physics and genetics are revolutionizing our understanding of who are
where we come from and where we're heading. Launched in January 2006,

 
  

ScienceBlogs is a portal to this global dialogue, a digital science salon

featuring the leading bloggers from a wide array of scientific disciplines.
Today, ScienceBlogs is the largest online community dedicated to
science.”

Sample Blog Post: MPAs Work – October 9, 2009

Excerpt: “Myopic spot-prawn lovers might not like the idea of closing
some of the oceans to fishing, but California is creating a network of
marine protected areas (MPAs) along its coast for one simple reason --
MPAs work. Research by Callum Roberts et al. (2001) published in
Science found:

A network of five small reserves in St. Lucia increased adjacent catches of

artisanal fishers by between 46 and 90%, depending on the type of gear the
fishers used. In Florida, reserve zones in the Merritt Island National
Wildlife Refuge have supplied increasing numbers of world record-sized
fish to adjacent recreational fisheries since the 1970s.”

There were three comments associated with the blog post.

Sample blog comments include:

o An additional note on our ocean protection, and our connection

to it and MPAs: I don’t know what you feel about Stephen
Colbert of Comedy Central, and as wacky as his routines and
presentations are, he does introduce some outstanding, and
vital consciousness to audiences, such as his short interview
last night with Sylvia Earle, in which her book “The World is
Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean’s Are One.” View the
video clip here.

 
  

o Jon Stewart recently took Sean Hannity to task for, essentially,

failing to understand how food chains work. It was a great
moment. But back to the post, the PSA is great - I wish there
were a non-California specific version! I need an MPAs Work
t-shirt, stat.

Some authority blogs for “marine protected areas:”

Since previous findings determined that the average high authority level blog about
marine protected areas has a 130 level authority, blogs in this category that contained
less than 130 authority levels were showcased.

Here are two sample blogs:

1.  Malaria, Bedbugs, Sea Lice and Sunsets blog (Authority: 117)

Summary: A San Francisco blogger doing his “small part to preserve

ocean biodiversity while advancing the vast left wing conspiracy and
queer, godless agenda.”

 
  

Sample blog post: World Database on Marine Protected Areas - June 18,
2009

Excerpt: “In an effort to get more people to understand what MPAs are,
where they are located, and how they work, the World Database on
Protected Areas (WDPA) was launched as a new tool for ocean
conservationists. But beyond merely an education and awareness tool, the
WDPA is the most comprehensive global spatial data set on marine (and
terrestrial) protected areas available. Using a Google Earth and Google
Ocean interface, visitors can tap into videos, images, and Wikipedia entries
for each and every MPA on the planet, from the largest (Phoenix Islands
Protected Areas, Kiribati) to the smallest (Echo Bay Provincial Park,
Canada).”

There is one comment associated with this post:

o There’s been some interesting science done using the World

Database. I heard Mora give a talk about his work using the
database to assess how protected coral reefs were in MPAs.

 
  

 
 
 

2.  ConservationBytes (Authority: 115)

Summary: A blog “dedicated to highlighting, discussing and critiquing the

science of conservation that has demonstrated measurable, positive effects
for global biodiversity. My goal is to stimulate scientists and any interested
in maintaining their future to find real-world solutions to the degradation of
ecosystem services supporting life on Earth.”

Sample Blog Post: How to make an effective marine protected area -

September 22, 2009.

 
  

Excerpt: “McLeod and colleagues in the latest issue of Frontiers in

Ecology and the Environment have published a review outlining the best,
at least for coral reefs, set of recommendations for MPA network design
given available information (paper title: Designing marine protected area
networks to address the impacts of climate change). Definitely one for the
Potential list.”

There are no comments for this post. There is one trackback.

High authority blogs for “California” and “marine protected area:”  

 
  

A search for “marine protected area” resulted in 4,114 posts from high authority level
blogs. Blogs tended to range from the 450 authority level to the 117 authority level,
with the average blog posting about “California” and “marine protected areas” in the
120 -150 authority level range.

Here are three examples of high-authority blogs written specifically about California’s
marine protected areas:

1.  Phys.Org.com (Authority: 793)  

 
Summary: “PhysOrg.com is a leading web-based science, research and
technology news service which covers a full range of topics. These include
physics, earth science, medicine, nanotechnology, electronics, space,
biology, chemistry, computer sciences, engineering, mathematics and other
sciences and technologies. Launched in 2004, PhysOrg’s readership has
grown steadily to include 1.5 million scientists, researchers, and engineers
every month.”  
 
Sample Blog Post: “Impact of renewable energy on our oceans must be
investigated, say scientists.” – September 17, 2009  

Excerpt: “Professor Martin Attrill, Director of the University of Plymouth

Marine Institute said: "Our paper highlights the need to take a fresh look at
the effect marine renewable energy generation has on the environment if
we are to deliver a higher proportion of energy from renewable sources and
start to combat climate change. We need to have the industry working
directly with conservation bodies to plan the next phase of development.
We suggest further research could demonstrate the potential of security
zones around, for example, wave farms to act as Marine Protected Areas.
Therefore, if all stakeholders can work together in a coordinated way we

 
  

can possibly address two key issues - combating climate change and
creating a network of MPAs.”

2. Underwater Thrills Swimming with Sharks (Authority: 137)

Summary: “The accidental industry blog covering sharks, shark diving,

shark conservation and things we find "amusing."

Sample Blog Post: NOAA Gives Great White Sharks More Protection in
Gulf of the Farallones Sanctuary – October 3, 2009.

Excerpt – “New regulations to protect the great white shark are now in
effect in NOAA’s Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, a
marine protected area just west of San Francisco.”

 
  

3. Your Daily Thread (Authority: 132)

Summary: “Los Angeles’ Neighborhood Guide to Conscious Living.

Topics cover the latest green news, local events, eco-discounts, lifestyle
tips and more.”
Sample Blog Post: Maximizing Southern California’s Marine Protected
Areas - September 14, 2009
Excerpt – “Heal the Bay is collaborating with other related organizations
to increase the amount of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Southern
California. An MPA protects a specific ocean zone from fishing, and in
doing so fosters diversity and abundance in the ecosystem’s marine life.
California has been attempting to increase the amount of MPAs along the
California coast since the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) was put into
effect in 1999…To learn more about the MPA process, or how to get
involved, see this article on Heal the Bay.”

 
  

This blog post has one comment:

o “Thanks for the information! Loads of waste and toxic chemicals

are thrown into the water bodies all over the world, which disrupt
the ecosystem. Industries throw away large chunks of toxic
materials into the water bodies and endanger the marine and plant
life there. This also results in serious health hazards to humans. We
need to stop polluting the water bodies and conserve the earth’s
natural resources.”
 

Some authority blogs for “California” and “marine protected area:”

A search for “California” and “marine protected area” resulted in 373 posts from “some
authority” level blogs. Again problems were encountered with Technorati’s results, as
some of the blogs were not “some authority” level (10-99 blog links) and some results
referred to the keyword “marine protected area” in reference to a marine in the US
Marine Corp.

Here are two examples of relevant blogs:

1.  Science Cheerleader (Authority: 133)

 
  

Summary: “Darlene Cavalier founded the Science Cheerleader to unite

the citizen’s desire to be heard and valued, the scientist’s growing interest
in the public’s involvement, and government’s need to garner public
support. The Science Cheerleader serves to get the conversation going,
rally the troops, solicit views from all sides and change the tone of science
and science policy in this country.”

Sample Blog Post: Protect Ocean Wildlife – October 2009

Excerpt: “Here’s a terrific Public Service Announcement promoting a new

network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) collaborating to protect ocean
wildlife in California. It was created by Randy Olson (author of “Don’t Be
SUCH A Scientist” and producer of “Sizzle” and “Flock of Dodos”).”

There was one comment associated with this blog post:

 
  

o “After 8 long dark years of avoidance, denial and extreme

foolhardiness, perhaps new leadership will give rise to the
occurrence of necessary change before it is too late for human-
forced change to make a difference. Before nature takes its
inexorable course, whatever that may be. At least consider
accepting more fully human limits to the unbridled growth of
global overconsumption, overproduction and overpopulation
activities (as well as Earth’s biophysical limitations) and then
make the choice of behaving accordingly.”

2.    Marine Conservation News (Authority: 126)

Summary: The official blog of the Marine Conservation Biology Institute

(MCBI), “protecting ocean life through science and conservation
advocacy.” Note: this blog sometimes functions as a blog aggregator to
capture the latest oceans protection news in the form of listings.

Sample blog post: News Clips for Friday, October 9, 2009.

Excerpt: “Celebrity Cast Rallies To Protect Oceans. “Pierce Brosnan leads

PSA push to establish Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Southern
California.

Santa Monica, Calif. (PRWEB) October 9, 2009 -- Joined by a bevy of

Hollywood's most visible environmental activists, an alliance of leading
ocean conservation groups today released a Public Service Announcement
supporting the establishment of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) along the
Southern California coast.”

 
  

There are no comments associated with this blog.

High authority blogs for “Marine Life Protection Act:”

A search for “Marine Life Protection Act” resulted in 12,539 high-authority blog posts.
Blogs tended to range widely on the authority level.

Here is a sample of high authority blogs advocating for the “Marine Life Protection
Act:”
 
     1.  Switchboard, from NRDC (Authority: 619)

 
  

Summary: The official blog of the Natural Resources Defense Council

(NRDC). On Switchboard, you'll find thought-provoking, humorous,
inspiring and impassioned commentary on todays most pressing
environmental issues, from some of the most respected people in the
business -- NRDC's expert cadre of scientists, lawyers, policy analysts,
media hounds and other specialists.

Sample Blog Post: California’s 2009 Legislative Session Ends with a

Whimper- October 13, 2009.

Excerpt: “Ending one of the most contentious legislative sessions in

California's history, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed dozens of
environmental bills and signed several others over the weekend that will add
tons of air pollution to our environment, delay our freedom from fossil fuel
dependency and put people at risk to preventable toxics exposure. The
legislative session was mired in stalemates over the state budget, economic
downturn, water woes and industry-led midnight deals.”

There are no comments associated with this blog post.

 
  

2.  Guilty Planet (Authority: 416)

Summary: “From climate change to intelligent design, HIV/AIDS to stem

cells, science education to space exploration, science is figuring prominently
in our discussions of politics, religion, philosophy, business and the arts.
New insights and discoveries in neuroscience, theoretical physics and
genetics are revolutionizing our understanding of who are where we come
from and where we're heading. Launched in January 2006, ScienceBlogs is a
portal to this global dialogue, a digital science salon featuring the leading
bloggers from a wide array of scientific disciplines. Today, ScienceBlogs is
the largest online community dedicated to science.”

Sample Blog Post: Shame on Spot-Prawn Fascists – September 28, 2009

Excerpt: “There is a reason people are pushing for increased marine

protected areas (which currently protect less than 0.1% -- yes, that decimal
place is supposed to be there -- of our ocean from fishing). MPAs work.
That's why in California they passed legislation ten years ago to create an

 
  

underwater national park system. Now, finally, the project is underway. But
not without some contention. Some fishermen are not too happy about
closing areas to their industry. But spot prawn lovers are also sulking.

In the LA Weekly, a food blogger wrote this:

Your favorite Santa Barbara spot prawn dish, like Michael Cimarusti's
signature salt-roasted ones at his Melrose Avenue restaurant Providence, may
be a thing of the past if the most extreme versions of the South Coast Marine
Life Protection Act (MLPA) proposals pass.

I know that humans relate to marine wildlife primarily through our appetites
but to see it so manifestly in the LA Weekly post makes me wonder if we
actually belong to the species Homo boneheadedus. What is wrong with us?
Maybe we, especially the California food lover subspecies, need a salt-
roasted spot prawn to the eye...”

This blog has four comments.

Here are some sample comments:

o Here's your first mistake: assuming that because they are food
connoisseurs, they will care about the creatures they eat.

o Some people manage to enjoy eating things they also care about; those
animals probably have some sort of established farming program. I
suspect the people whining about spot prawn do not care much about
living spot prawn

o People manage to enjoy eating things they also care about; those
animals probably have some sort of established farming program.

 
  

3.    Spoutingoff’s Blog (Authority: 413)

Summary: A blog about water-related environmental topics by Mark Gold,

D, ENV., President of Heal the Bay.

Sample Blog Post: Fight the Power – September 16, 2009.

 
  

Excerpt: “I just sat through a seven-hour workshop on the

State Water Board’s long-awaited Once Through Cooling
power plant policy for California. Arguably, this may be
the most important coastal resource protection action in
California this year. State Water Board staff put together a
draft policy that could finally hold the power industry
accountable for decades of non-compliance with the Clean
Water Act. In essence, the policy requires OTC plants to
comply with Section 316b of the Act and greatly reduce
their impacts on fisheries and marine life. These plants use
ancient steam generation technologies that literally suck
the life out of the ocean. Fish are caught on screens and
larvae and eggs get cooked in the plant.”

Some Authority level blogs for “Marine Life Protection Act:”

1. Pacifica Riptide (Authority: 145)

 
  

Summary: “Pacifica Riptide is an open forum for community news and

opinion. Riptide celebrates Pacifica's green hillsides, open spaces, abundant
coastal and marine life, and enterprising people, recognizing that Pacifica's
environment and economy are interdependent.”

Sample Blog Post: Marine Life Protection Act Victory is a Win-Win. August
8, 2009. Note: This is CalOceans campaign post made by Nicole Lampe.

Excerpt: “The results are in: Californians get a new network of underwater
parks along the coast between Half Moon Bay and Mendocino. The California
Fish and Game Commission voted August 5 to protect Northern California’s
“Yosemites of the sea,” creating 22 new marine protected areas at
CalOceans.org. Where sea life can thrive and people can swim, dive, surf, and
boat in a healthy ocean. The visionary plan California adopted—in this second
round of the five-part Marine Life Protection Act process—will protect 80
square miles of ocean and leave almost 90 percent of the coast open to fishing.”

There is one comment associated with this blog post:

“I  don't  think  it  was  such  a  win-­‐win;  a  large  section  of  Salt  Point  State  Park,  
abalone  diving  public  access,  was  closed;  including  Fisk  Mill  Cove,  which  is  
a  safe  diving  refuge  during  rough  ocean  conditions,  and  an  excellent  spot  
for  beginners  -­‐  the  place  where  I  WAS  going  to  teach  my  kids  to  dive  for  
abalone.  The  impact  on  North  Coast  businesses  that  rely  on  abalone  divers  
will  be  hard  felt.  The  MLPA  process  has  been  skewed  heavily  in  favor  of  the  
preservationists  with  offers  of  financial  funding  to  the  state  from  these  
preservationists  in  return  for  promoting  their  agenda.”  
 

 
  

2.    DailyBreeze (Authority: 120)

Summary: Los Angeles online publication covering Southern California

news from LAX to L.A. Harbor.

Sample Blog Post: Weekly fishing column: Dana Wharf to host `Yes on 2'
rally - October 16, 2009.

Excerpt: “The public is invited to join in on a Yes on 2 rally at Dana Wharf

Sportfishing on Sunday at 2 p.m. A vast majority of sportfishermen are
supporting plan number 2 of the Marine Life Protection Act.

Steven Fukuto, president of United Anglers, says anyone who values

sportfishing as well as conservation should be in attendance.”

There are no comments for this blog post.

 
  

Grassroots Organizations and Coalition Groups

Within the blogosphere, in addition to high and some authority level blogs, we also
uncovered grassroots organizations with active blogs working for or against MPAs and
the MLPA.

Here are the top grassroots groups and organizations that support the MLPA. The
CalOceans campaign could form relationships with members of these groups to rally
more pro-MPA and MLPA followers to sign petitions, attend beach clean ups, attend
council meetings, form rallies, participate within Twitter and Facebook communities,
etc.

Surfrider Foundation: Marine Life Protection Act

 
  

Organizers to contact: Stefanie Sekich (Ssekich@surfrider.org), Chad Nelson

(Cnelson@surfrider.org)

The organization has a lengthy position statement on their aggressive stance to

protect the MLPA as members of a recreational group who enjoy the ocean and
want to see it protected for lifetimes to come.

The Official MPA Blog

The blog was created and is managed by the IUNC’s World Commission on
Protected Areas and is a part of the “Protect Planet Ocean” initiative in

 
  

partnership with Google and is run by James Oliver of the IUCN, who can be
reached at: james.oliver@iucn.org.

The CalOceans campaign could do some relationship building with James and
over time reach out to him to ask for a link to @thepacificocean or “The
Oceans” Facebook account, as he seems to provide relevant pro- MPA links on
his blog’s homepage. The CalOceans campaign could also ask for a tweet for
@ecomonday.

One thing noted that James is doing well that the CalOceans campaign could
also adopt (see Facebook recommendations section) could include
incorporating a MPA or MLPA-related survey into their social media outreach
activities.

Here’s an example from The Official MPA blog:

Here are some sample blogs opposing MPAs and the MLPA that the CalOceans
campaign should keep an eye on:

 
  

BloodyDecks.com: A website providing fishing forums for commercial

fishermen ranging from fishing tutorials to fishing reports, rod building or boat
repair.

Within the forum there is a thread specifically dedicated to the MLPA with 23
pages of posts from BloodyDeck members.

The top postings from the forum’s administrator’s focus on an October 21st
MLPA protest meeting members are organizing to attend and speak at.

Trends to other topics posted to the forum include:

 
  

o Arranging logistics for member only anti-MLPA meetings and rallies

(bus routes, carpools, event maps etc.)
o Arranging logistics for city council meetings
o Recap notes of prior anti-MLPA rallies and summary of rally press
coverage
o Shared anti-MLPA success stories in areas outside Southern California
o Form letters members can use to protest existing MLPAs
o Proposed edits to existing marine protected area maps established by
the Blue Ribbon Task Force.
o Responses from pro MLPA and anti-MLPA figures (pro: Gov.
Schwarzenegger / anti: SD Councilman Carl DeMaio)
o Proposed restrictions and changes to existing MPAs
o The distribution of anti-MLPA t-shirts, bumper stickers etc.

Members like “Poolman”, “Mooningu” and “cowcatcher2” post often, but you
need to be a BloodyDecks member to view their profiles.

Here are some of the points BloodyDeck members use against their pro MLPA
counterpart organization, Surfrider. It would be beneficial for the CalOceans
campaign to review for interactions they may have with BloodyDeck members
specifically or with other MLPA opposition. The points center around the need
for more scientific evidence to justify the need for MPAs as well as how they’ll
be funded in California’s harsh economic times.

• How  do  MPA's  address  or  stop  coastal  development  or  pollution?  

• How  are  MPA's  improving  our  oceans  health,  from  what  I  have  seen  they  are  

only  creating  no  fishing  zones?  

• Why  are  they  creating  MPA's  in  California  when  California  does  not  have  an  

over  fished  or  depleted  fishery?  (Quote  Hilborn  paper)  

 
  

• The  state  is  closing  historic  state  parks  because  we  can't  afford  to  keep  them  

open  and  turning  around  and  creating  new  underwater  parks...How  will  

California  pay  for  the  enforcement  of  these  new  underwater  parks?  

The MLPA forum’s biggest threads include:

• "Auction Fund Raiser - Here Right Now - Click Here!!!": (fundraiser

with proceeds going to BloodyDecks.com to protest the MLPA): 309
replies / 3,653 views

• San Diego City Council: 118 replies / 7,787 views

• Rollcall for Oct. 21st Meeting--Let's go get 'em BDers!: 77 comments /

1,703 views

• Surfrider Foundation Highly Supports the MLPA: 35 comments /

1,202 views

The majority of the BloodyDeck anti-MLPA grassroots work is being done in

the southern California and San Diego areas. Members are passionate and
cohesive, but do not represent the views of the majority or even a large
percentage of the citizens in these areas.

Partners could benefit by observing the BloodyDecks and learning the

techniques their members use for organizing passionate members to participate
in rallies. It is clear that as extreme and anti-MPA/MLPA as they are, that
they’re cohesive, proactive and organized in their efforts.

 
  

This group, the California Fisheries Coalition, is made up of 14,000

commercial fishing businesses, recreational fishermen and seafood producers
from 27 organizations. They oppose the MLPA because their financial
livelihoods center around fishing areas that could be closed and designated as
marine protected areas. This group appears stronger in membership and in
influence than BloodyDecks.

The group focuses on the positive economic impact that the organizations
within the California Fisheries Coalition create for the state of California:

Here are some examples:

The California Fisheries Coalition believes the following steps need to be

implemented with regards to MPAs:

• Strict  evaluation  and  modification  of  existing  MPAs  and  closed  areas  

• Integrating  fishery  management  into  decisions  to  be  made  about  the  future  MPAs  

• The  assignment  of  measurable  and  trackable  MPA  goals  with  accountability  

 
  

• The  creation  of  a  peer  review  board  

• Adequate  long  term  funding  commitments  

• A  heightened  level  of  scientific  research  on  the  effectiveness  of  MPAs  

• A  maximization  of  fishermen  and  local  communities  in  data  gathering,  monitoring  

and  managing  MPAs.  

The California Fisheries Coalition has established a blog, which is linked to

their website, to spread their messages, along with a Twitter feed
(@FishingTweeter) they’ve embedded into the blog.

The blog has a relatively low authority level and shows few community
comments to what is predominantly pro-fisherman anti-MLPA news updates.

The Stop MLPA California group is less connected than the California
Fisheries Coalition, but has partnered with BloodDecks.com to recruit
attendees at anti-MLPA rallies and coordinate logistics.

The blog is low in visitors and in comments (most posts have none) and
focuses solely on the Orange County, Los Angeles County and San Diego
County areas.

High Authority blogs for “California” and “MPAs:”

 
  

There are only three high authority blog posts found for “California” and “MPAs,” all
of which have been referenced in more detail in relation to another keyword or
combination above.

1. Guilty Planet (Authority: 416)

Sample Blog Post: Shame on Spot-Prawn Fascists – September 28, 2009

2.  Guilty Planet (Authority: 416)

Sample Blog Post: MPAs Work – October 9, 2009

3.  Spoutingoff’s Blog (Authority: 413)

Sample Blog Post: Fight the Power – September 16, 2009

High Authority blogs for “California” and “MLPA:”

There are only three high authority blog posts found for the keyword combination
“California” and “MLPA,” and only two with relevance to this scan:

1.  YubaNet.com (Authority: 508)

Summary: “We deliver the news to the (California) Sierras’

 
  

Sample Blog Post: Op-Ed: Dan Bacher: Fishermen Protest Schwarzenegger’s

Green Hypocrisy … - October 5, 2009

Excerpt: Southern California fishermen exposed the environmental hypocrisy

of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger at a protest in front of the Hyatt Regency
Plaza in Los Angeles during the Global Climate Summit on September 30. The
protesters charged that Schwarzenegger is ignoring ocean pollution while at the
same time pushing massive no fishing zones through his fast track Marine Life
Protection Act (MLPA) process.

2. Guilty Planet (Authority: 416)

Sample Blog Post: Shame on Spot-Prawn Fascists – September 28, 2009

This blog has been covered in its entirety in reference to another keyword
combination, found above.

There were no blogs with some authority found in a keyword search for “California”
and “MLPA.”

 
  

Twitter

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service

that enables users to send, read and receive messages of 140
characters or less, known as “tweets.” Twitter has
experienced explosive growth since its inception only three
years ago and is now only second to Facebook.

Searches for all the keywords and combinations in this

California MLPA scan were conducted to gage the number
and content of conversations happening at the micro-blogging level.

The following areas were analyzed:

• Tweet content and tweet themes associated with keywords

• Number of tweets per keyword

• Keyword comparisons and trends

• Use of keyword hashtags (hashtags defined as common terms, preempted by a

# symbol, used in Twitter content to reach a target audience interested a
particular topic)

• Viral content (messages, links etc.) within tweets

• Influencers writing tweets containing keywords

• Twitter User Groups

• The CalOceans campaign’s current Twitter feed @ThePacificOcean

Summarized Recommendations

• More people on Twitter, regardless of a geographic reference, are talking about

MPA on Twitter than the MLPA so it’s best to use MPA related hashtags
(#mpa) in your tweets rather than #mlpa hashtags.

 
  

• Tweets with strong pro MLPA and MPA messaging are popular within Twitter
and should continue to be pushed out at a higher frequency than tweets with
neutral/information only content.

• As compared to the average audience twittering about any topic on Twitter,

Twitterers who care one way or the other about California’s MLPA and MPAs
show a high percentage of re-tweeting behavior. This behavior shows a strong,
passionate, community who is open to supporting a cause, so don’t hesitate to
contact Twitter influencers and proactively ask for re-tweets. As common
courtesy, always make sure to thank Twitterers for their re-tweets. This doesn’t
need to be done every time you receive a re-tweet, of course, but showing your
appreciation can work wonders for relationship building. Most often, thank
you’s for retweets to individuals should take place privately in the form of
direct messages so you don’t flood your entire Twitter feed with “Thank you
for the RT” tweets. This is the easiest way to lose followers.

• Tap into your Twitter influencers in the areas of California’s MLPA/MPAs and
just MPAs in general (since there are many more tweets taking place for the
latter). The top influencers are outlined in the Summarized Research section
below and the number of followers each is associated. It’s recommended that
you set up a Tweet Beep account for the keywords you’re most interested in
and monitor the data both current and new influencers.

• Twitter influencers in the areas covered in this California MLPA scan are using
popular hashtags frequently. @ThePacificOcean is using these hashtags well
and should continue to do so, to reach the right people for their pro-MLPA
messages.

 
  

• The CalOceans campaign should tap into its partners to ask for retweets of
support for @ThePacificOcean tweets, since they have large followings:

National Resource Defense Council: 5,586 followers

World Wildlife Fund: 16,773 followers
The Otter Project: 120 followers

• There is a real opportunity to create a Twitter user group (or Twibe) specific to
California’s MLPA or MPAs since none exist. In addition to this (or instead of,
if bandwidth is an issue), tap into the broader-themed user groups seen in the
Research Results section of this scan.

• @ThePacificOcean is doing a good job with their “signal-to-noise” ration but

could do more to support its followers and the California MLPA influencers on
Twitter. Examples of supportive ideas include: providing more retweets,
engaging with followers by directing questions to them, using Twitter survey
tools, sharing more photos within tweets through links (Twitpic is one
example), etc. This last idea is an especially fresh opportunity as there were no
photos on Twitter for any of the keywords or combinations in this scan found.
The research for pictures within Tweets was conducted through a search engine
called PicFog.

• @ThePacificOcean needs to tweet and retweet much more often to increase its
clout and level of influence.

Research Results

Tweet content and tweet themes associated with keywords

 
  

These common themes occurred within Twitter about California’s MLPA and related
keywords:

• Tweets about how and why people should protect/support MPAs (some
included links to videos).

• Tweets about fisherman rallies against the MLPA.

• Note that tweets found on Twitter were largely opinionated (aka. pro or
anti the MLPA) instead of factual.

Here is a sample pro-MLPA tweet:

Here is a sample anti-MLPA tweet:

• The majority of opinionated tweets were positive, such as in favor of protecting

California’s MPAs and the MLPA.

• The most popular recent topics surrounding the keywords and combinations
analyzed in this study are:

 
  

Number of Tweets per Keyword and Combinations

For the purpose of our scan we looked at the number of tweets for both our keyword
combinations and their abbreviations and found the following:

• 100% of people used the abbreviation “MLPA” in their tweets instead of

spelling out “Marine Life Protection Act” in its entirety.

• More people used the abbreviation “MPA” in their tweets instead of spelling
out “marine protected areas” but it was about 80% instead of the 100% we
found who used the MLPA abbreviation.

• More people on Twitter, regardless of a geographic reference, are talking about

MPA on Twitter than the MLPA.

• More people on Twitter are also talking about MPA than the MLPA when
“California” or the abbreviation “CA” is also referenced in the tweet.

Here is the data we uncovered, to back up the summarized findings above, using
TweetVolume (http://www.tweetvolume.com/):

 
  

• Number of tweets within the Twittersphere for “Marine Life Protection Act”
vs. “MLPA:”

• Number of tweets within the Twittersphere for “marine life protected areas” vs.
“MPA:”

• Number of tweets within the Twittersphere for “marine protected areas” and
“California” vs. “marine protected areas” and “CA:”

 
  

• Number of tweets within the Twittersphere for “MLPA” and “CA” vs. “MPA”
and “CA:”

• Number of tweets within the Twittersphere for “MLPA” and “California” vs.
“MPA” and “California:”

Use of Keyword Hashtags

 
  

Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding context and metadata to

tweets. They are similar to (keyword) tags on Flickr, only they are included directly in
a tweet. Hashtags are created simply by adding a hash symbol before a word, like this:
#hashtag (source: Twitter Fan Wiki).

The keywords and combinations associated with this California MLPA scan were
searched using a popular hashtag directory called Hashtags.org.

Here is a summary of the findings:

• The most influential pro-MLPA individuals and groups use hashtags in their
tweets often and know which hashtags are most popular

• Here are the most widely used hashtags for each keyword or combination in
this scan:

o MLPA: #mlpa

o California: #california

 
  

o Marine protected area: #mpa, #mpas

o Marine Life Protection Act- #mlpa

o “California” and “marine protected areas” – there were no hashtags

specifically associated with this keyword combination, so pair the
hashtag #california with the hashtag #mpas.

o “California” and “MLPA” – there were no hashtags specifically

associated with this keyword combination, so pair the hashtag
#california with the hashtag #mlpa.

o “California” and “MPA” – there were no hashtags specifically

associated with this keyword combination, so pair the hashtag
#california with the hashtag #mpas.

• Out of all the primary keywords and combinations we analyzed in this scan, the
most popular hashtags being used were #california and #mlpa.

• We studied tweets that contained hashtags specific to our

keywords/combinations and found those hashtags were also sometimes paired
with one or more of the following hasthtags we can call “secondary” hashtags:

o #marine
o #ocean
o #oceans
o #wildlife
o #pacific #ocean
o #overfishing
o #ocean #conservation
o #surf
o #ecomonday

 
  

• Influencer Twitterers who commonly use hashtags for the keywords and
combinations analyzed in this scan include:

@ThePacificOcean
Associated with the http://www.caloceans.org website.
(Note: This is the CalOceans Twitter account)

@SustainableSeas
Associated with the http://www.seasuite.blogspot.com/ website.

 
  

@TheRightBlue
Associated with the http://therightblue.com/ website.

@Minsd  
 
Associated with the http://www.mpaswork.org/ website.

@SaveOurSeas  
     
Associated with the http://www.saveourseas.com/ website.

 
  

Influencers writing tweets containing keywords used in this scan

In addition to the influencers using hashtags above, building relationships with these
additional people would benefit the CalOceans campaign:

These are some of the anti-MLPA and MPA influencers you should look out for:

@indybay2

 
  

@CAFishCoalition

Associated with the http://californiafisheriescoalition.blogspot.com/ website.

@FishingTweeter

There is no known website associated with this Twitter account.

 
  

@The Fish Sniffer

Associated with the http://www.fishsniffer.com/ website.

Here are additional Pro-MLPA and MPA Twitters your should partner with (see the
hashtags section for the first set):

@HealtheBay

 
  

@WildCoast925

Associated with the http://www.wildcoast.net/ website.

Media, Political Figures and Celebrities Active in MPA and MLPA issues

We studied the content within Twitter accounts frequently tweeting about MPAs and
the MLPA to find out who they were using as advocated for their causes. Here is what
we found:

 
  

Pro-MLPA/MPA Supporters

Pierce Brosnan
Actor
@PierceBrosnan

Ed Joyce
Environment Reporter and Producer
KPBS Radio, San Diego
@EnviroEd

 
  

Anti-MLPA/MPA Supporters

Ted Lieu
California State Assembly member
@TedLieu

Viral Content within tweets

 
  

A popular URL shortening and tracking service called Bitly.com was used to find out
how many tweets within the Twittersphere contained links to information (articles,
press releases, blogs, etc.) about the specified keywords.

On the date of this search, these were the findings:

• There were ten tweets that contained links to articles about “marine protected
areas”

• There were two tweets that contained links to articles about the “Marine Life
Protection Act”

• There were three tweets that contained links to articles about the “California”
and the “MLPA”

• There were two tweets that contained links to articles about the “California”
and the “MPA”

Out of all the links in tweets that contained one or more of the keywords and
combinations in this scan, this is the one that received the most clicks:

The tweet contained the keywords “California” and “MLPA.” The original source of
the link distributed within tweets was a Care2 petition site for an event called “Save the
Ocean,” sponsored by WiLDCOAST and was originally created and distributed by
@minsd from San Diego, CA. 214 of the 255 clicks came from the United States,
followed by Russia in second place (7) and Mexico in third place (6).
 
Clicks on this Bit.ly link came from:

 
  

• Email Clients, IM, AIR Apps, and Direct: 197

• Twitter.com: 30
• Registered Applications: 11
• Facebook.com: 6
• Twubs.com: 2
• Bit.ly: 1
• Powertwitter.me: 1
• Search.twitter.com: 1
• Google.com: 1
 
 
When a search for “California” and “MLPA” and “California” and “MPA” was
conducted two articles from the Santa Cruz Sentinel also stood out within Bit.ly:

Result for “California” and “MPA:”

The article is about the ten year anniversary of the Marine Life Protection Act, an
update on current MPAs and future goals for more MPAs . The Bit.ly link to this article
was originally created and distributed by @TweetieApp from Berkeley, CA.

All the clicks on this Bit.ly link came from: Email Clients, IM, AIR Apps, and Direct.

Four of the ten clicks came from the United States, followed by two from Russia, two
from unidentified locations, one from the UK and one from Canada.

Results for “California” and “MLPA:”

 
  

The article is about the ten-year birthday celebration of the Marine Life Protection Act.
The Bit.ly link to this article was originally created and distributed by @Minsd on
Twitter.

Clicks on this Bit.ly link came from:

• Email Clients, IM, AIR Apps, and Direct: 39

• Facebook.com: 3
• Registered Applications (TweetDeck): 1
• Powertwitter.me: 3
• Google.com: 1
• Yoono.com: 1

Out of all the Bit.ly findings for the keywords and combinations examined in this scan,
sources of content shared within tweets through URLs varied greatly and ranged from
Marketwire (press releases) to Google News to Twitter (tweets) to YouTube (videos).

In general, out of all the sources of content shared in tweets via links, YouTube videos
proved to be the most popular (highest number of clicks), followed by press releases.

 
  

Twitter User Groups or “Twibes”

A search for Twitter special interest groups, otherwise known as Twibes, was
conducted to determine if communities outside individual tweets existed.

Here are the results:

• We found no user groups associated with any of the keywords or combinations

analyzed in this scan

• If the CalOceans campaign wants to participate in user groups, there are a few
broader-themed options to recommend:

Oceans Twibe – Founded by SaveOurSeas.

 
  

There are only eight members but @divefinatic is a regular contributor you
could partner with to recruit more members and spread awareness for the
group.

CleanOceans- Founded by @Ways2GoGreen.

This is still a relatively small group, as Twitter user groups go, but its founder
is worth checking out. @Ways2GoGreen would be an excellent person to
partner with beyond CleanOceans twibe user group awareness building and
member recruitment. They have 8,596 members following and list support for
clean oceans in their Twitter bio.

 
  

Analysis of the CalOceans Campaign Twitter Account: @ThePacificOcean

We conducted some research and analysis on the Twitter efforts made by the
CalOceans campaign and providec feedback on what is being done well and what could
be improved.

Twitalyzer: We used a free Twitter tool called The Twitalyzer to examine the
influence, signal-to-noise ratio, generosity, velocity and clout of @ThePacificOcean.

Here are the results in a snapshot:

 
  

Here are the detailed results taking one category at a time:

Influence
Twitalyzer’s Definition of Influence:
“As Twitter becomes increasingly important to online communication, the
creators of the Twitalyzer believe that the need to measure the impact of our
efforts in Twitter will increase by a commensurate amount. While some believe
that "popularity" is an appropriate measure of success, we disagree, eschewing
this easily gamed metric in favor of something more robust, more fair and
more difficult to cheat.”

@ThePacificOcean’s influence is .5 out of a 100-range ranking, with zero

indicating no influence and 100 indicating the highest level of influence
possible within Twitter. Twitalyzer calls a .5 “barely emerging.”
 
Click here to learn more.

 
  

Recommendations to boost your rating:

• Research and build more followers who support the California MPA
and MLPA. Ask your partners to retweet your messages on their
Twitter accounts, locate and follow some of the influencers suggested
in this scan. See who your followers are following, etc.

• Proactively pursue retweets with trackable (Bit.ly) links from other

like-minded Twitterers with a large number of followers.

• Support others by retweeting their content more often and

recommending supporters for #ecomonday.

Signal-to-Noise Ratio
Twitalyzer’s Definition of Signal-to-Noise Ratio:
“One of the great things about Twitter is that you can say anything you want
(in 140 characters or less.) Some people choose to pass along information,
others choose to share anecdotes and still others talk about their cats. The
Twitalyzer has observed that people tend to gravitate towards strangers who
are passing along information. Our signal-to-noise ratio is a measure of the
tendency for people to pass information, as opposed to anecdote.”

By Twitalyzer’s definition, "signal" is counted for any update that includes at

least one of the following elements:

• References to other people (defined by the use of "@" followed by text)

• Links to URLs you can visit (defined by the use of "http://" followed by
text)

 
  

• Hashtags you can explore and participate with (defined by the use of "#"
followed by text)

• Retweets of other people, passing along information (defined by the use of

"rt", "r/t/", "retweet" or "via")

@ThePacificOcean signal-to-noise ratio is 85.7% out of 100%, which

Twitalyzer called “extremely high.” This is a positive rating as it shows
@ThePacificOcean shares helpful resources with its audience beyond simple
text updates. For example, here is a breakdown of the account’s last seven
tweets:

 
 
 
 
 
 
Click here to learn more.

Recommendations to boost your rating:

• Continue to provide meaningful content (beyond just test) in tweets.

Hashtags, URLs to articles or blogs and other references work well, but do
some research on popular Twitter applications to see what new
technologies are out there and diversify. For example, here is a list of the
latest Twitter applications to share pictures and videos in unique ways.
There are also a few for mobile-sharing services.

 
  

Generosity
Twitalyzer’s definition of generosity:
“We believe that Twitter is a lot like life, only in fewer characters, and that
being generous with others is extremely admirable. In Twitter, we think of
generosity as one's willingness to pass along ideas and call attention to those
ideas we think are great. Our measure of generosity is one's propensity to
"retweet" someone else, thusly creating awareness of their work and ideas
among your own followers. Specifically, our measure of generosity is based on
the ratio of retweets you pass along to all updates you publish. Simple, huh?”

“This leads to the obvious (yet cynical) conclusion that ‘if you want to game
the Twitalyzer's influence calculation, all you have to do is retweet other
people a lot.’ Yes, yes that will work. And if we are able to get more people to
share information in Twitter just to eke a few more points out of their influence
score, well, then we believe we have done good work.”

@ThePacificOcean generosity rating is: 25% out of 100%, which

Twitalyzer called “moderate.” Twitalyzer reported just one retweet within the
past seven days.
 
Click here to learn more.

Recommendations to boost your rating:

• At a minimum, aim to retweet a message of another MPA influencer

on Twitter at least once a day and don’t forget to say your “thank
yous” for retweets others make about content tweeted from the
@ThePacificOcean account.

• Recommend pro-MPA and MLPA Twitter influencers on Mondays

using the #ecomonday hashtag. The official Twitter account for

 
  

#EcoMonday has 2,918 followers and, upon request, may be open to

providing an #ecomonday recommendation for @ThePacificOcean.
Send the account owner a direct message with the request.

Velocity
Twitalyzer’s definition of velocity:
“Your velocity is simply the rate at which you contribute to Twitter. Since the
Twitter Search APIs limit us to 1,500 records, at least for the time being, you
are judged against a theoretical maximum of 1,500 updates per week.

This is not to say that you should attempt to write 1,500 updates every week,
especially if you don't have very much to say and would end up telling your
followers about your cats, lint, or your feelings about your mother. But the
reality of the situation is that the most influential people in Twitter are, by and
large, writing a lot which helps increase the awareness of their personal
brand, the likelihood that they will be referenced, and the likelihood that they
will be retweeted by others.

Conversely, Twittering a lot about nothing will increase your velocity but
decrease your signal-to-noise ratio. And while the latter is not directly factored
into the influence calculation at Twitalyzer, in our experience if you start to
ramble about nothing you will lose followers very, very quickly.”    
 
@ThePacificOcean velocity rating is: 1.1% out of 100%. This rating is what
Twitalyzer calls “very, very low.” Findings show there were eight tweets in
the past seven days.  
 
Click here to learn more.

Recommendations to boost your ranking:

 
  

• Aim to tweet at least three times per day

• Space out tweets with one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one
at night

• Don’t forget about weekend tweets to ensure tweets maintain a

presence within follower’s feeds each and every day.

Clout
Twitalyzer’s Definition of Clout:
“Clout is often thought of as ‘special advantage, pull, or influence’ in the real
world, as in ‘the senator's nephew has a lot of clout with his uncle.’ In our
usage, clout is the likelihood that other people will reference you in Twitter, as
in ‘gee that @Mashable sure does drive a lot of traffic!’ The more people who
reference you, the higher your clout.”

@ThePacificOcean clout rating is: .09%

of 100%. Twitalyzer describes this as a
"very, very low" rating, as
@ThePacificOcean has been being cited 13 times in the last seven days.

Click here to learn more.

Recommendations to boost your ranking:

• Continue to ask for retweets. Do some research on which pro-MPA

and MLPA typically retweet.

 
  

• Send a private, direct message, to the most active followers of

@ThePacificOcean and followers with the most reach (they aren’t
always the same people).

• Continue to track the people who commonly retweet

@ThePacificOcean’s messages. Also track the links within your tweets
using Bit.ly and analyze where clicks are coming from. This data
indicates an active interest in @ThePacificOcean.

• Monitor your retweet rank to gage improvements using this free

Twitter application: RetweetRank.