2013 Sitka Herring Social Media Metrics Recap

We can all admit that the Sitka herring fishery didn’t go exactly as planned this spring.  The fishery is usually pretty fast and furious once the spawn starts and this year was no different.  The herring went into full spawn mode within just a few days.  Before we knew it, there were 45 miles of spawn and the fishery was closed for the year.  As one of the administrators of the Facebook page, Sitka Sac Roe Herring Fishery, I thought it would be nice to elaborate on some of the social media metrics of the site.  First of all, we will start with the most popular images from the page.  All photos are judged by total reach according to the Facebook insights of the Sitka Sac Roe Herring Fishery Fan Page.   Social media played a huge part in this season’s fishery.  It was incredible to see the photos, comments, and videos pour in as the fishery was happening.  I would like to give a big shout out to all the contributors to the page.  This site is a great example of a crowd-sourced news campaign.  If you would like to keep up on all things commercial fishing, make sure to head over to www.facebook.com/BackDeckBlog.  We will be updating the page throughout the summer with fresh pics and perspectives from the Alaskan salmon fisheries.  I urge everyone who posted on the Sitka Sac Roe Herring Page to head over and share your own commercial fishing photos and stories!   After the photos you will find a nice infographic with all the stats from the facebook insights.

The most popular image was a shot of the F/V Lady Brenda with a deck load of chubby herring.  The total reach of the photo was 12,933 people and this photo was uploaded on 3/29/13.  Click Here to go to the original post on facebook.

Lady Brenda #1

Next we have a great shot of the Cape Falcon with a 500 ton set in 1975.  This image reached 9,293 people and was uploaded on 3/28/13.  Click here for the facebook post.

Cape Falcon #2

Next up is the Sara Dawn making a frosty test set early in the season.  This image reached 8,637 people and was uploaded on 3/19/13.  Click here for the Facebook link.

Sara Dawn #3

Here is one of my favs from the season.  A crewmen jumps from the F/V Barwell to the F/V Lady Kay.  This image was by James Poulson from the Sitka Daily Sentinel.  The photo reached 7,815 people and was uploaded on 3/29/13.  Click here for the Facebook link.

Barwell #4

The last of the top five pics from the Sitka Sac Roe Herring Fishery page is a Caption contest with the F/V Sara Dawn and a sinking net.  This photo reached 4,603 people and was uploaded on 3/28/13.  Click here to see all the hilarious captions people thought up.

Caption Contest #5

There are a ton more photos on the site, so make sure to check out all of this past seasons uploads.  Once again, I would like to extend a huge thanks to everyone involved with the site, Angela Christensen, Jason Crosby, Kevin Kristovich, Seth Perry, and yours truly, David Clark.  I think you guys will be surprised by some of the stats.  Especially, that most of the viewers were women!  That one really threw me for a loop.  Here’s the graphic from Visually.com that sums of the stats of the Sitka Sac Roe Herring Fishery Page.

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