NOTES for a presentation given by Lori Phillips and Ryan Dodge at Museum Computer Network in Dallas, 2014. The presentation highlights the collaboration and camaraderie that came out of the International Museum Social Media Managers Facebook group, and is offers a rationale for the value of collaborating more openly on a pan-institutional scale.

1. NOTES:
Organizing
the
World’s
Museum
Social
Media
Managers
Museum
Computer
Network
2014,
Dallas
Today
we’re
going
to
talk
about
how
a
little
bit
of
community
organizing
can
make
a
lot
of
impact.
At
last
year’s
MCN
in
Montreal,
we
had
a
dream.
Wouldn't
it
be
great
if
social
media
managers
at
museums
around
the
world
could
collaborate
on
projects,
share
successes....
and
failures,
and
have
a
place
where
we
could
chat,
ask
questions,
or
just
complain
about
things
that
only
other
social
media
managers
could
understand?
Rather
than
feel
like
we
have
to
be
one-­‐upping
one
another’s
social
campaigns,
or,
let’s
be
honest,
getting
jealous
when
someone
else
is
lucky
enough
to
get
some
press
-­‐
-­‐why
couldn’t
we
feel
like
we
were
in
this
together?
We
should
be
supporting
each
other
across
institutions.
Or,
here’s
a
crazy
idea
-­‐-­‐we
could
even
share
other
museums’
amazing
campaigns
with
our
own
institution’s
audiences!
Really,
what’s
stopping
us?
I
personally
think
that
sharing
another
museum’s
success
on
our
own
museum’s
social
channels
shows
confidence
and
a
really
positive
tone.
So
to
that
end,
we
created
a
Facebook
group.
(Because
where
else
would
you
expect
social
media
managers
to
organize?)
We
created
a
closed
Facebook
group,
to
help
establish
a
secure,
authentic
place
for
museum
social
media
managers
to
come
together,
named
“International
Museum
Social
Media
Managers.”
The
goal
is
always
to
make
members
feel
welcome
and
comfortable
posting
anything
related
to
our
jobs
–
whether
it’s
a
question,
a
crazy
idea,
or
even
promoting
our
own
campaigns.
In
fact,
that’s
encouraged.
We
want
to
know
what
awesome
campaign
you’re
up
to
so
that
we
can
support
it!
Thanks
to
the
momentum
of
MCN,
the
group
got
off
to
a
great
start
and
has
grown
consistently
over
the
past
year.
We
now
are
truly
global.
• There
are
currently
337
members
from
14
countries.
• Represented
in
the
group
are
museums,
science
centers,
and
galleries
of
all
types
and
sizes,
as
well
as
zoos
and
aquariums.
To
maintain
the
integrity
of
the
group,
we
have
generally
kept
it
to
true
social
media
managers,
and
try
our
best
to
avoid
lurkers
from
outside
of
the
cultural
sector.
And
before
we
go
any
further
–
if
you’re
a
museum
social
media
manager
and
are
NOT
yet
in
this
group,
please
do
join
us.
We
can
invite
you
if
you
tweet
or
DM
us
your
email.
• I
know
this
sounds
strange,
but
more
often
than
not,
people
who
are
uber-­‐
connected
feel
a
little
isolated
in
their
work
but
sometimes
that’s
exactly
how
community
managers
feel.
Even
though
we’re
supposed
to
be
social,
it
can
feel
really
lonely
sometimes.
Many
in
our
organizations
don’t
really
know
or
choose
not
to
know
what
we
do,
although
that
is
changing
• When
Lori
and
I
met
last
year
at
this
conference
we
talked
about
how
great
it
was
to
meet
others
in
our
field
and
share
our
thoughts,
practises
and
challenges.
Then
we
said,
“why
does
it
have
to
end
here,
wouldn’t
it
be
great
if
Organizing the World's Museum
Social Media Managers
Lori Byrd Phillips - @LoriLeeByrd
Ryan Dodge - @wrdodger
#museusocial #MCN2014
Google Map
Why it’s good

2. we
could
keep
the
conference
attitude
of
sharing,
communication
and
collaboration
going
all
year?”
• We
talked
about
how
we
could
do
that
and
we
settled
on
starting
the
facebook
group.
The
group
immediately
eased
the
feeling
of
isolation
and
we
started
to
feel
like
we
were
all
a
part
of
a
bigger
community.
The
group
quickly
grew
and
when
it
started
we
just
let
it
evolve
on
its
own.
The
group
is
a
closed
group
and
to
keep
the
conversations
focussed
we
only
admit
people
who
work
in
a
cultural
institution
and
who
work
online
with
digital
engagement.
• The
group
quickly
became
a
space
for
dialogue
with
people
from
all
over
the
world
contributing
to
the
discussion
and
it
was
great
to
see
the
enthusiasm
in
those
early
days.
After
the
initial
introductions,
the
group
quickly
became
a
sounding
board
for
tough
questions,
for
sharing
resources,
ideas,
best
practices
and
FAILURES
• But
don’t
take
my
word
for
it,
I’ve
sifted
through
the
thousands
of
posts
in
the
group
and
found
3
of
the
most
common
themes.
Let’s
take
a
look.
A
big
topic
of
discussion
is
User
generated
content
in
museums
and
how
to
bring
digital
conversations
and
content
into
the
physical
museum.
It
seems
that
we
always
come
back
to
this
every
few
months.
Many
of
the
group
members
have
experience
in
this
area
and
many
in
the
group
do
not
so
it
is
always
great
to
see
the
ideas
that
get
thrown
around.
Often,
the
conversation
will
inspire
others
to
try
out
something
new
at
their
institutions
and
we’ll
hear
about
how
that
played
out
after
a
few
months.
Strategies
for
convincing
senior
management
to
allow
this
connection
of
the
physical
and
digital
space
are
also
discussed.
Personally
I
always
keep
an
eye
on
these
posts
and
I
am
glad
that
there
is
always
a
lively
discussion
in
the
group!
Another
BIG
topic
is
advertising
on
social.
There
are
lots
of
conversations
about
the
merits
of
advertising
on
social.
With
most
of
us
working
with
a
very
small
or
non-­‐
existent
budgets,
sometimes
borrowed
funds
from
other
departments,
people
in
the
group
are
always
asking
for
input
on
the
myriad
of
paid
advertising
now
available
to
us.
For
many
of
us
this
is
quickly
becoming
a
new
reality
and
there
is
no
better
place
to
ask
questions
about
this
than
in
our
little
group.
As
with
the
user
generated
content
discussion,
you
can
usually
find
people
in
the
group
who
have
tried
it
all
and
can
offer
invaluable
insight
into
an
aspect
of
our
work
that
is
quickly
becoming
essential
to
the
day-­‐to-­‐day
operation.
Also,
another
very
important
aspect
of
the
group,
it
is
a
safe
place
to
our
frustrations
on
being
served
Ads
about
ads…
And
the
last
theme
I’ll
touch
on
is
new
platforms.
In
my
opinion,
this
third
big
topic
is
a
very
important
one.
Everyone
is
looking
to
stay
relevant
and
reach
new
audiences,
so
these
conversations
about
new
tools
and
platforms
as
well
as
the
tactics
deployed
within
these
new
platforms
are
extremely
valuable.
It
is
fascinating
to
read
all
of
the
comments
on
these
posts,
especially
when
group
members
explain
the
strategy
behind
their
choices
as
it
relates
to
their
communities.
It
is
always
interesting
to
hear
why
people
choose
to
use
certain
platforms
and
not
others.
There
was
an
Ello
frenzy
a
few
months
ago
and
Snapchat
also
caused
a
stir
this
summer
when
Hyperallergic
featured
the
trailblazing
museums
with
accounts.
Community
User Generated Content in-Gallery
To Advertise, or not...
New Platforms

3. Something
that
we
envisioned
happening
and
are
extremely
glad
to
see
it
take
off,
is
international
collaboration
between
institutions.
Before
this
group,
many
of
us
would
keep
an
eye
out
for
these
international
campaigns
or
tweet
ups
but
there
was
always
a
few
questions
around
them.
Now,
we
have
a
place
to
ask
these
questions
behind
the
scenes,
before
the
events
and
we
have
found
that
it
has
really
brought
these
campaigns
to
the
next
level.
We’re
not
taking
credit
for
the
success
of
#AskACurator,
we’re
just
using
it
as
an
example.
….in
previous
years
there
was
no
behind
the
scenes
coordination
beyond
what
Mar
Dixon
was
able
to
do.
This
year
saw
increased
activity
in
terms
of
museums
and
countries
represented.
The
level
of
activity
also
jumped
this
year.
We
were
all
ready
for
it,
we
prepared
ahead
of
time
and
you
can
see
the
results
here.
Many
of
the
conversations
ahead
of
time
were
about
how
best
to
attack
the
day
and
it
was
very
interesting
to
see
how
some
museums
had
organized
themselves
to
capitalize
on
the
day.
But
#AskACurator
isn’t
the
only
example,
other
international
campaigns
that
have
been
given
the
International
Museum
Social
Media
Managers
treatment
include:
#InstaMuseum,
#MuseumSelfie,
#MuseumWeek,
#WorldCups,
and
everybody’s
favorite:
#MuseumCats
Museums
taking
part:
721
/
Countries:
43
47,546
tweets,
tweeted
by
12,952
different
users.
This
is,
an
average
of
3.67
tweets
per
user.
On
a
personal
level,
we
also
use
the
group
to
promote
our
own
campaigns
and
if
there
is
a
connection,
ask
the
others
in
the
group
to
give
a
shout
out
or
a
helping
hand
along
the
way.
In
my
case,
on
March
19th
the
ROM
celebrated
its
centennial
and
I
was
able
to
make
my
colleagues
aware
of
this
important
day
for
the
ROM
and
ask
them
to
send
us
a
happy
birthday
tweet.
March
19th,
2014
is
now
a
record
day
for
the
ROM
on
social
media.
The
activity
on
social
on
March
19th
far
outweighs
anything
we
have
ever
done,
on
that
day
@ROMtoronto
sent
163
tweets
with
#ROM100,
the
majority
were
replies
and
thank
yous.
We
had
608
retweets,
92
replies,
429
favourites,
and
gained
293
followers.
That’s
a
8.6%
engagement
rate,
a
pretty
healthy
rate
in
my
opinion.
Our
#ROM100
reach
was
6.685
million
that
day
and
because
of
all
the
help
from
my
colleagues
around
the
world
we
trended
in
Toronto
and
Canada
for
a
little
over
8
hours
(8:50am
-­‐
6ish
pm).
It
was
a
busy
day.
2,579
tweets
mentioned
#ROM100
on
our
centennial.
I’m
sure
that
a
centennial
celebration
would
have
been
busy
either
way
but
I
am
grateful
to
this
group
for
helping
to
push
it
over
the
top.
I
also
saw
incredible
support
from
the
group
for
a
campaign
I
ran
for
The
Children’s
Museum
of
Indianapolis
on
the
10th
anniversary
of
our
popular
Dinosphere
exhibit.
I
put
a
call
out
to
the
group
to
help
us
#PartyLikeADino
on
a
single
day
in
March
by
virtually
gifting
Dinosphere
presents
or
greetings
in
whatever
way
would
relate
to
their
museums.
We
were
astounded
by
the
response.
Museums
created
memes,
photoshopped
greetings,
.gifs,
and
thoughtful
“gifts”
from
their
collections.
• 30
organizations
in
6
countries
tweeted
gifts
and
greetings
in
4
languages.
• The
#PartyLikeADino
hashtag
received
355
mentions
from
nearly
200
users.
#AskACurator
http://blog.lamagnetica.com/2014/09/19/askacurator-through-social-network-analysis/
#AskACurator
● MUSEUMS: 721
● COUNTRIES: 43
● TWEETS: 47,546
● TWEETERS: 2,952
● AVERAGE: 3.67
tweets/user
#ROM100
#ROM100
● MUSEUMS:
● COUNTRIES:
● TWEETS:
● TWEETERS:
● AVERAGE:
#PartyLikeADino

4. Collaborative
social
campaigns
like
#AskACurator
and
those
coordinated
by
CultureThemes
have
shown
that
when
museums
work
together
we're
a
force
to
be
reckoned
with.
But
it's
even
more
impressive
when
other
museums
are
gracious
enough
to
do
this
in
celebration
of
a
single
museum.
I
hope
that
campaigns
like
this
can
inspire
many
more
celebrations
and
collaborations
in
the
future.
LORI
We
asked
others
in
the
group
to
share
what
they
felt
to
be
valuable,
unique,
or
surprising
about
our
community,
and
here
are
some
of
the
responses.
• Two
members
shared
that
this
group
inspired
them
to
create
similar
groups
for
their
own
more
specific
communities,
including
Chad
at
the
Balboa
Park
Online
Collaborative,
which
helps
all
of
the
Balboa
Park
museum
social
media
managers
collaborate,
and
Anna
from
the
State
Historical
Museum
in
St.
Petersburg,
Russia,
who
created
a
group
for
Russian
museum
social
media
managers.
• There
were
a
lot
of
mentions
about
sharing
ideas,
resources,
and
inspiring
one
another
to
think
bigger.
• Specifically,
there’s
a
lot
of
value
in
having
so
many
of
us
in
one
place,
to
ask
a
question
and
get
answers
from
varying
perspectives
quickly.
Most
importantly,
though,
is
the
level
of
support
and
camaraderie
that’s
been
established.
As
one
member
said,
“This
group
is
a
constant
reminder
that
we
aren't
alone
out
there!”
So
I’d
say
that
means
we’ve
accomplished
our
goal.
#PartyLikeADino
● MUSEUMS: 30
● COUNTRIES: 6
● LANGUAGES: 4
● TWEETERS: 200
● MENTIONS: 355