Leveraging dates on the calendar in a social media marketing campaign is an important component to gaining an online advantage, as aligning yourself or your business with the day’s event puts you in a prime position to create some water cooler chatter and potentially go viral. 

That’s exactly what NASA is doing today—Earth Day—and they’ve already generated a palpable Internet-buzz which will continue to gain steam throughout the day. The government agency is promoting the hashtag #GlobalSelfie to promote Earth Day awareness—and also produce some organic publicity. 

NASA is inviting social media users to take a selfies, denoting their location, and upload them to their collection of accounts. At the end of the day they will begin compiling all of the photos into a global mosaic in the shape of our planet. They’ve even created downloadable signs to accompany your selfie, stating, “Hi NASA! I’m on Earth Right Now.”

The selfie-mosaic will be available in May, after NASA has had ample time to compile the presumable mountain of photographs. By finding a creative way to connect to Earth Day, NASA will have users online providing publicity for them in a fun and easy way. So the next time you’re in a brainstorming session and lacking ideas, take a look at the calendar and consider unique ways to use the standout dates.