Here is a guest blog post by Jim Richardson (@sumojim and @museumnext)
An open letter to Museum Director’s who don’t get social,
‘I am not on Facebook and I don’t think we should waste time and money on that kind of thing’, this was message from a museum director at the end of a presentation that I’d given about how their institution should be using social media.
I’ve heard this kind of thing before, and I often get emails from people working in museums with a director or manager who has a similar opinion, someone who doesn’t understand the power of social media.
So for all those working in museums who don’t think social media is important to our sector, this is why you are wrong.
1) Just because you’re not on Facebook doesn’t mean that your visitors aren’t, for example in the UK research shows that 79% of people are active on social media websites. The only way to know if Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or even your own website matter to your audiences is to ask them.
2) If you take the time to look at these websites, you are likely to find that people are talking about your museum. By ignoring these social media spaces, you are ignoring the opinions of local audiences, the chance to react and improve based on their feedback.
3) Social Media can be a great marketing tool. While TATE advertise extensively, Facebook is the second biggest source of traffic to their website. It’s also a lot cheaper then an advertising campaign on the London Underground.
4) Social Media should not be seen as a marketing tool. These websites and services have the potential to help museums in a number of ways, including research, fundraising, co-creating content and education.
5) Social Media websites like Facebook and Twitter create communities around brands, interests and places. This can be a powerful platform for a museum to build and engage with it’s own community.
6) Many museum professionals use Twitter and this social media platform offers the opportunity to connect with others in the sector and to find out more about what other institutions are doing.
7) Social media offers even the smallest institution the opportunity to work with others in the sector to raise the profile of museums and cross promote what we offer. Search for #CultureThemes to find out what the museum community is doing on social media this month.
8 ) Social media lets you take your audiences behind the scenes, connecting members of the public with the passionate experts who work in your institution. In September 2011 an event called Ask a Curator generated over 10,000 messages on Twitter, the majority of those who asked questions said they intended to visit the institutions who had taken the time to answer their questions.
9) Countless museums and galleries are making use of these websites to great effect, ask your peers how social media is changing the way that they work or look at the way that they are using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.
10) Just try social media, it doesn’t take much to try it and you’re likely to find the vibrant niche communities found on these websites to be an inspiration.
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Fabulous post and a wonderful summary of arguments for a social media presence of museums and therefore a good reason for a reblog!
Sooo much to the point!! Thanks Jim.
I’m lucky enough to have a museum director who understands Social Media potential (although not yet an active user himself) and who supports our Social media strategy. But I’m sure this list will be useful for many museum professionals having to deal (fight?) resistances and barriers.
It’s very frustrating when talking to some museum managers or directors their approach is “We have no time for this”. To me, this is today like no planning because you have no time…
I’ll add another point, beyond the Communication potential, which is that through Social Media museums can welcome and encourage user-generated-content and become participatory centers (of course participation is much more, but social media do facilitate it).
Best
Conxa
@innova2
Thanks for a great post, Jim. I have been discussing exactly this point with some colleagues in Germany, and they made some interesting observations, which I offer here.
Their view was that their museums didn’t need a social media strategy per se, but that they need effective marketing and audience development strategies which make appropriate use of appropriate technologies and approaches – some of which will be social, many of which won’t.
I would hate to see a museum engage with social media in its own right, because I think this leads to a lack of sustainability and authenticity, which always comes over in the organisations social media ‘personality’.
It was put to me that the biggest growth demographic is 60+. We know that we have an aging population, and that people at this end of the demographic scale are likely to have more leisure time and more disposable income than people starting out/paying off student loans(!). It was suggested that because of this, museums should tailor their marketing strategy explicitly to target this audience, which meant an increasing spend on physical/print collateral and less emphasis on digital.
I was wondering whether you had any data on the extent to which social media can provide an effective marketing tool to address this issue?
Hi Nick
This article stumbled across yesterday backs up what your saying about older audiences, suggesting that over 50% of over 65 year olds in the UK are on Facebook:
http://www.umpf.co.uk/blog/social-media/social-media-usage-in-the-uk-the-findings/
Though the figure is much, much higher then the figure we got from our research for MuseumNext earlier this year, and seems a little too high to me:
http://www.museumnext.org/2010/blog/research-social-media-audiences-and-the-museum
I am yet to hear of examples of museums targeting older audiences through these tools, I’d really love to hear examples of this if anyone is doing it.
Jim
Brilliant article! All businesses should be aware that social media is the number one marketing tool. The potential to target your marketing and track your campaigns is crucial in today’s highly-competitive marketplace. Well done!
Franklin Beecham
markhamartcollective.com
Great post Jim. I’m still rather gobsmacked that people are still asking “why?” and not “how?” and “what can we learn?”. Depressing.
On another note, I’m curious about point 3 re the TATE. The Culture24 report (which I have blogged about here: http://australianmuseum.net.au/BlogPost/Web-2U/Lets-Get-Real-Research-Report) suggested that, for UK museums at least, social media was not a driver to websites, mobile was. Wondering if you have any thoughts about that finding and the report overall at all??
Cheers,
Lynda.
Hi Linda
I guess the crucial thing is the click through rate on social. Looking at the average click through rate of links posted by museums using bit.ly you get a click through rate of less then 2% of followers.
If your TATE, then 2% is going to push thousands of people to your website, if you have less then 1000 followers, then…
Of course (as you know) social media doesn’t need to draw people to the museums website, most interaction will happen within the walls of Facebook or Twitter.
Jim
Great post. Social media and the increased accessibility of collections creates transparency and fulfills the public trust museums are responsible for. Museums are doing great things with these tools and those who do not use it cannot properly connect, relate or communicate with their visitors or even the world.
Ashley
Fantastic piece – and in such good time. Today I was helping small museums in Fife, Scotland develop their social media strategy as part of the wider visitor engagement plans.
We have some amazing examples of Museums using various social media channels in Scotland to talk to their communities; i.e. @musa_standrews and @kelvingroveArt