For environmental activists who want to use social networks to mobilize the public beyond the retweet, there are three keys to success, according to a paper by scholars ar Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and INGENIO, a joint center of the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia and CSIC.

Nobody has the precise formula for the success of social media viral campaigns, but there are examples of how they work. By taking as a reference point a Facebook environmental mobilization strategy, the researchers have developed a hypothetical framework to help understand some of the keys to success. The example they used is the work of the photographer Chris Jordan and the social media consultant Manuel Maqueda who together, have launched a social movement against plastic pollution and have gained two million followers for their cause. 

This movement has managed to change regulations governing this issue in over fifty countries, even though the actual science behind the issue was an estimate based on fishing tackle from the 1980s and not plastic at all.

So how did it succeed when the science was not on their side? They mastered how to (1) recognize an opportunity, (2) defining a clear message and (3) reacting. 

They used shocking images of young birds, poisoned by ingesting pieces of plastic and made it seem commonplace.

According to Mª Itziar Castello of the Business Administration department at UC3M, one of the researchers participating in the project, the keys to the success of this campaign have their roots in three elements: “Firstly, recognizing opportunities: nobody is explaining to people the damage that plastic does to the environment. Secondly, creating what we call a ‘narrative team’ with a clear message which helps to highlight the problem; and thirdly, “the emotional alignment of followers by means of photographs which will have a strong emotional impact; these images will also create icons who people can identify with as heroes, heroes who are close to the heart of the problem and who can help the project gain legitimacy.”

Obviously that media success can be hit and miss. NRDC is rare among activist organizations for being able to invent an 'alar on apples' scare and then a few years later invent a mercury problem in farmed salmon. Like Coca-Cola and Monsanto, Greenpeace is hoping to control its journalism by creating content controlled by its communications team. Will it work for Greenpeace or will it blow up on them the way it did those? The three guidelines may help.

So if Greenpeace or NRDC wants to mobilize donors, don't call it something scientific like marine debris, call it “plastic pollution”. Forget recycling, that is old news, insist that the only solution is a ban and only money will help. "Show the dead bodies", editors in yellow journalism used to say, and the evidence bears that out for environmentalist. An albatross poisoned by plastic pollution sold well on Facebook and groups just need to come up with their own versions.