The Uses and Limits of Social Media to Understand Visitors in Parks and Protected Areas
"Data from social media are increasingly used by park managers and researchers as a cost-effective way to understand how visitors move across protected lands. From tracking where vehicles cross park boundaries to gaging the popularity of vistas and viewpoints, data from social media are used to measure visitation, spatial patterns of use, and visitors’ experiences. But how accurately does this relatively new technology reflect on-the-ground reality?
Research from Dr. Emily Wilkins and others explores the use of social media in park and protected area management. The new publication shows researchers use text content, photographs and geotags from social media posts to understand aspects of visitors’ experiences, such as behaviors, preferences, and sentiment—but this data may not be inclusive of all visitors. There is a broad range of applications for social media data, but there are also limitations, and a need to establish best practice standards for this evolving source of information.
Key Findings From the Research:
- The spatial and temporal information attached to social media data allows researchers to understand visitors at small and large geographic scales.
- Managers can use geotagged coordinates, GPS information and time stamps to understand where visitors go and when they are traveling.
- It is often necessary to aggregate multiple years of data to have adequate sample sizes for estimating visitation or mapping spatial patterns—particularly at less visited sites.
- As useful as it is, there are ways that social media data could be misapplied—especially since social media users may not be representative of all park visitors.
- Future research may be able to minimize biases by using data from multiple platforms or using mixed-method approaches.
If you’d like to learn more about the research, or see how social media can be used to inform the lands you manage, please reach out to Dr. Wilkins at emily.wilkins@aggiemail.usu.edu"
