FOLLOW US

How to win at social media: get Sir David Attenborough involved

Alex Walls
February 6, 2013

Mobile phones were burning this afternoon as Sir David Attenborough answered questions live on Twitter.

As part of the buzz around BBC Nature’s Africa series, Sir David Attenborough made his reportedly first appearance on Twitter with @BBCOne to answer questions sent in from tweeters from 1pm to 2pm.

With the hash tag #AskAttenborough trending and questions ranging from the normal: “What has been your personal best experience whilst participating in the Africa series?” to the odd: “What’s the largest animal you could throw over a crossbar?” and “Who would win a fight? A duck sized lion or a lion sized duck?”, the wildlife documentary maker apparently beat out David Beckham’s similar #AskBeckham hash tag in trending.

The event even got orbital – flight engineer and soon to be commander of expedition 35 Chris Hadfield tweeted Sir Attenborough from aboard the International Space Station asking “If you had an evening to spend here on the Space Station, how would you spend it?”

The reply? “I’d just sit and watch the earth go by – its a perspective I’ve never had.”

Oh, Sir David.   You complete me.

While not everyone can get a national icon to appear live on its social media feeds, I’m willing to bet that mobile advertising for BBC One shot through the roof following today’s event and that a whole bunch more people will be watching BBC Nature tonight (helped along by the fact that it features footage of Sir David Attenborough having a conversation of chirps with a blind baby rhino.)

There’s still five minutes left for those who are keen to get your text on – and we’ll let you know if Sir David Attenborough responded to What Mobile’s tweet.

 

About the Author

Share this article