The Australian Museums and Galleries Association has a fabulous Webinar series planned this year, full of interesting and useful topics to consume. There is a pretty wide range of museum skill set being activated (many of which I will be booking in for) and they are easy to access during this time of social isolation. I was delighted to see that there was a session dedicated to Social Media in Museums, a topic that happily linked in with the university unit I am currently completing – Digital Pasts, Digital Futures. I signed myself up and have taken a few notes that I wanted to share. Social media is an interesting part of our world. Although it feels news and a part of the ‘modern’ era, it could be argued that it has actually been around almost as long as people have existed. Tom Standage, argues that people have always been social creatures and that since the dawn of literacy there has been an interest in sharing information within our circles.
Fast forward to now, and there are a plethora of options on how to share ideas, thoughts, pictures, media and cats to an extraordinarily large amount of people. Like all institutions that need people to visit and buy into their product, museums need to understand some of the tactics and theories of how to connect through social media. Learning how to use and engage people through this media is fairly important. It’s a skill I would certainly like to pick up! AMaGA’s webinar “Social Media in Museums” was quite easy to listen to and very affordable. It’s still actually available on the website, which is fairly useful. Tapping into the collective expertise of 3 very talented Social Media managers from the NGA, NMA and Museums Victoria, the topic was covered quite broadly. These were the major ‘Ah ha’ moments that I had: Strategy: Developing a strategy includes looking at past data and also looking at what the institution wants to achieve through social media. It’s very important to remember the social media isn’t a silver bullet and should be part of a suite of engagement options. Engagement: The museum is part of a wider community, so think about who that demographic is. Although there will be the local community to engage, also remember that the demographic could include people who are not as engaged in local events. Make things topical, and don’t be afraid of people having negative responses to posts (it can actually drive good conversations). Success: Be realistic about what success looks like and don’t get too caught up in vanity numbers (like ‘Likes’ or number of followers). Also, success should equal more funding to social media – because sometimes you do have the pay to play. Success often stems from staying on brand and bring consistent. Lastly, don’t be tempted to avalanche posts – space things out and post quality content instead. Know what platform to use, depending on the messaging that you want to get across. Where to find the webinar: https://www.amaga.org.au/resources/social-media-museums-and-galleries-webinar-recording Further reading Writing on the wall, Tom Standage ( 2013) GLAMi Nomination: Digital Content Strategy, Royal Academy of Arts, London: https://mw17.mwconf.org/glami/digital-content-strategy/
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Museum working, game playing and dog loving geek. Tune in for musings about the GLAM sector, and generally geekiness.
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