“Sauins” on touchscreens: social media as a tool for pied tamarin conservation awareness

Abstract

Conservation is only possible when conservation thinking and awareness permeate people's lives. Communication is key to informing and sensitizing people to conservation issues. In this sense, social media may be a communication facilitator. Here we addressed people's engagement with and perceptions of the content created by the Pied Tamarin Project on the Facebook webpage. We found an increase in the number of "likes" across the years and received numerous messages expressing willingness to help. Further, people engaged more with posts related to published scientific papers. In general, we found a good atmosphere with positive attitudes toward collaboration for the conservation of the pied tamarin, as evidenced by the high number of "likes" and positive content of direct messages on the Pied Tamarin Project social media.