How to promote your museum with online tools

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Sarah JonesBoost New Media for National Services Te Paerangi

sarah@boost.co.nzwww.boost.co.nztwitter: boostnewmediablog: www.boost.co.nz/blogtel: +64 4 939 0062

Workshop objectives

• An overview of social media tools• What they offer and who they target• How to use them to build audiences and professional

networks

You will ...

• Get hints and tips on using social media effectively and avoiding pitfalls

• See examples of how museums are using social media

• Discuss approaches you might use for your organisation

• Build confidence to use and contribute to the growing body of practice around social media

Part 1: Introduction

• Introductions• Definition of social media• Why social media matters

Part 2: Different audiences, different tools

• Deciding which tools are most appropriate for your organisation

• Popular social media tools• Comparing and contrasting the tools• Hands-on with the tools

Part 3: Your professional networks

• How to grow your professional networks• Popular social media tools• Hands-on with the tools

Part 4: Social media strategy

• Creating a social media strategy• Benefits of a strategy• Where to begin - 5 steps

Part 1: Introductions

1. Your name and organisation2. Your use of social media3. Marketing focus4. What you’d like to get out of this workshop

National Services Te Paerangi www.nationalservices.tepapa.govt.nz

How we help

He Rauemi Resource Guides0508 NSTP HELP freephone helpline

Training and professional development

Marae-based workshopsWorkshops for museums at regional and national level

New Zealand Museums Standards Scheme

• Practical and user friendly• Sends good message to funders• Formal review or as a resource• Its free!

NZMuseums www.nzmuseums.co.nz

• Online collection management system• Marketing tool for your museum• It’s free for up to 200 objects• Wider access for your museum

and collection

What do you know about social media?

What is social media? What is it not?

A definition

From wikipedia: Social media are media designed to be disseminated through social interaction ... [Social media] are accessible and scalable publishing tools.

Social media supports social interaction, using web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many).

Social media in plain english

Video from CommonCraft http://www.commoncraft.com/socialmedia

Does this change our view of what social media is?

Why does social media matter?

Social media matters because ...

• At least some of your audience is increasingly living online

• Research shows more and more people are influenced by friends, family and strangers over other promotional channels

• Research also shows social interaction is often a pretext for attending an event

• It offers new ways to reach audiences and learn about them

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Part 2: Different audiences, different tools• What does each tool offer?• What does your audience need?• What resources do you have?• Which tools are most appropriate for your

organisations?

NZLive.com

• Published by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage to promote arts, culture and sport

• Free to list events• Events are syndicated to other websites• Large visitor numbers• They supply statistics on views of your events• Helpful staff available to assist

Blogging - Wordpress, Blogger• A blog is a website where authors regularly add text,

photos, audio, and links - like a journal. Readers can usually add comments.

• Promotes news and events; exposes behind-the-scenes activities and knowledge

• Expresses the personality of museum• Maritime Museum

http://blog.maritimemuseum.co.nz• Otautau Museum

http://otautaumuseum.blogspot.com

Nina Simon on four approaches to blogging

1. News about the museum2. Content of the museum3. Specialised content4. Personal voice

http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/search?q=flowquiz

Seb Chan on the benefits of blogging

Within the non-profit sector, brand visibility is the key benefit from blogging. Brand awareness leads to potential future, real world visitation and, in terms of collecting museums and research centres, a general awareness of the nature of ‘what exactly it is you do other than exhibitions’.

‘Towards an ROI measure of musem blogging’http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/dmsblog/

Microblogging - Twitter

• Messages limited to 140 characters• Immediate updates and links from many sources• Popular with people with little time• Profile your collection and exhibitions• Te Papa http://twitter.com/Te_Papa and

http://twitter.com/TePapaColOnline• National Library http://twitter.com/NLNZ• Seb Chan http://twitter.com/sebchan

Image and video sharing - Flickr, YouTube• Publish their digital content (eg photos, presentations,

video) for sharing. Content can be tagged (labelled) and rated by other users.

• Promote events and happenings and feed media to other places (eg your website or blog)

• Involve your community: Friends of the Chch Art Gallery http://www.flickr.com/photos/friendscag/

• Contribute to others’ channels: Destination Rotoruahttp://www.youtube.com/user/DestinationRotorua

• Integrate social media into your exhibitions: It’s time we met http://www.metmuseum.org/metshare/timewemet

Social networks - Facebook, Bebo, Ning

From wikipedia: A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and activities or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services.

Video from CommonCraft http://www.commoncraft.com/video-social-networking

Social networking in plain english

Social networks - Facebook, Bebo, Ning

• Facebook - 18-35 year olds, university grads• Bebo - youth, focus on real-time interaction• Ning - create your own community• Intersecting with your audience’s social lives • Getting to know your community• Cross pollination of ideas and people• Networking with peers (professional)• Te Papa http://www.facebook.com/TePapa• Museum 3.0 http://museum30.ning.com

Wikis - Wikispaces

• A wiki is a website where several authors can add, edit, and delete content. There are text, spreadsheet, and presentation applications that allow content to be shared over the web and authored collaboratively.

• Very simple website creation tool• Puke Ariki’s Taranaki wiki

http://www.taranakiwiki.com

Surveys - SurveyMonkey, Wufoo, UserVoice

• Get feedback from your audiences• Share the results with your audiences• Strengthen their relationship with you• SurveyMonkey http://www.surveymonkey.com• Wufoo http://wufoo.com• UserVoice http://uservoice.com

Other considerations

• Can I control access to my content by other users?• Can content contributed by users be moderated

before it is published?• Is there an age restriction for users?• What security and privacy is provided for personal

information (refer to the software’s terms and conditions, and its privacy policy)?

• Who owns my content?• How easy is it to export my content or move my

content to another service?• Will it be easy to delete my account?

Compare and contrast: features and uses

• Blogging• Microblogging• Image and video sharing• Social networks• Wikis• Surveys

Hands-on with the tools• Check out ‘tools and examples’ on the workshop blog

http://museumsonline.wordpress.com

• Write a blog post on the workshop bloghttp://museumsonline.wordpress.com/wp-admin

• Write a tweet on the workshop twitter accounthttp://twitter.com/museumsonline

• Set up your own social media ...

Part 3: Your professional networks

• Grow your networks for support and inspiration• Find colleagues on Twitter• Find communities• Find blogs that interest you • Find websites and services that help you• TechSoup http://home.techsoup.org/pages/default.aspx• LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com

RSS aggregators - Netvibes, Pageflakes

• Aggregators enable users to collect and view information feeds from sources across the web, including blogs, podcasts, and websites.

• Pull together your own version of the web • Netvibes http://www.netvibes.com• Pageflakes http://www.pageflakes.com

Hands-on with the tools

• Check out ‘professional networks’ on the workshop bloghttp://museumsonline.wordpress.com

• Check out the ‘blogroll’ on the workshop bloghttp://museumsonline.wordpress.com

• Join a community or find a blog to read ...• Set up your own RSS aggregator ...

Part 4: Social media strategy

Experienceology blog - video from conference on social media strategies for museums

http://experienceology.blogspot.com/2009/09/social-media-strategies-for-museums.html

Creating a social media strategy

• Involve others in your organisation• Spend time with the social media tools• Identify who your audience is• Identify what you want to achieve • Be realistic about your resources• Set goals and success metrics• Change policy to match practice• Contribute to the social media of others

A social media strategy may ...

• Make you think about what audiences really want• Increase your understanding of your community• Change your exhibitions and your collections policy• Capture new audiences (some might be physically

remote)• Make museum knowledge public• Re-energise staff, who find their daily grind is of

interest to others

Where to begin - 5 steps

1. Assess where you are now2. Define your objectives and target audiences3. Select the right tools for the job4. Begin with small steps5. Plan for the long term

Vicki Allpress-Hill, http://www.nzlive.com/blog ‘Getting started with e-marketing’

What is one thing that you’ll take away from today?

What social media tool might you try next?

Thank you for your time.