A general discussion of Social Media including how it can benefit museums, agruments against and for access, and an examination of two popular platforms - Twitter and Facebook. Presented at the Arkansas Museums Association annual meeting in 2010.
2. Social Media and
Museums I
Presented by
Heather Marie Wells
Collections Assistant/Technology Coordinator
Shiloh Museum of Ozark History
Springdale, Arkansas
3.
4. Social Media
What is it?
What can museums gain from it?
What are the pitfalls?
Arguments against access
Arguments for access
2 popular platforms
5. What it’s not
Non-interactive
Authoritarian
Press release
Traditional marketing
Non-personal
1 way
6. What is it?
Social
Sharing
Following
Collaborative
Communication
Conversational
Community building
Personal
2 way
FUN
7. What’s in it for Us?!
Free & easy
Potential global audience
New audience (demographics)
Live news
Reviews & testimonials
Connect to experts, colleagues, vendors
Monitoring your reputation
Allows for engagement in community
Making patrons more informed
Making you more accessible
8. Where does it go wrong?
When you try to force it
Over-engagement
Posting too much
One on one involvement
Spammers
Phishing
Hackers
Trolls
9. Arguments Against Access
Privacy - what if the employees talk about
us?
Productivity - A 2009 Nucleus Research Inc.
showed that companies who allow full
access to Facebook suffer a 1.5% loss in
productivity.
Network Security - We’ll get more bugs,
viruses, and hackers.
10. Arguments For Access
You can create a social networking policy to
address concerns.
University of Melborne study shows 9% increase
in productivity for those allowed to use social
media for personal use; imagine increase if they
were allowed to use it to gather information for
their work responsibilities.
Security risks are no greater than when email
was first developed. Policies, education, and
following platform guidelines curtail most attacks.
11. Choosing Platforms
What are your goals?
Who are you trying to engage?
Demographics
How big a group
Who is going to maintain the project?
What do you want to say?
How much time do you have?
Policies regarding third party services
12. 2 Popular Platforms
Twitter
Networking & mini-blogging service
140 characters; 2 sentences
Twitter is to blogging what instant messaging it to
email.
Facebook
Social networking
Share photos, videos, posts, blogs and play
games; friends can comments
A website all about you; you control who sees it
14. Twitter Tips
Create an account
Try to use a short user name
Include a photo so you don’t look like a newbie or
spammer
Customize background
Lock or not
Use your manners
Thank people for following
Thank people for retweeting
Talk directly to users
It’s ok to just follow for a while
15. Twitter Tips
Terms
Tweet – a post on Twitter
@username – used when you want to send a user a
public message or refer to a fellow user
Retweet (RT) – reposting someone else’s tweet
DM – private message to a user, but to send that user
a message they have to be following you
Tweetup – when users meet in-person for a gathering
Fail Whale – when Twitter is down
#topic – a way to categorize and label messages, it
also aids in searching
16. Twitter Tips
Writing for Twitter
Use abbreviations
Use numbers instead of the words
Omit common words (I, we, to be) & punctuation
Use + b/c & adds extra hidden characters
Remember classic shorthand
Add yourself to Twitter directories
Participant in routine Twitter conversations
Music Monday
Follow Friday
17. Twitter Tips
Who to Follow
Follow 40-100 for a few weeks to see what works for
you
Smart people you may not know
Peers + thought leaders in areas you are interested
in
Local entertainment reporters
Chamber of Commerce
Other non-profits + entertainment groups
Tourism organizations
18. Twitter Tips
What to Search For
Your name, user name, museum name
Your city
Your topic (house museum, history, science, etc)
Your annual events (your brand or product)
Common Hastags
#FollowFriday, #FF
#479 [search for your specific zip code]
#conference [where you type initials for conference
#AMA2010]
19. Twitter Tips
What to Post
Behind-the-scenes info
Things visitors say
Ask questions
What staff or volunteers are doing right then
Something from the viewpoint of an artifact
Historical anniversary
Diary entries
The good and the bad
Responses to others & Retweets
Contests
Announcements & Updates
20. Twitter Tips
Identify Spammers (then block them)
They follow excessive amounts of people
Few people are following them
Few posts
Little bio + no photo
Lots of links in their posts
Content of posts (ads or worse)
Nature of photo
Check your followers list don’t just go by email
notices
26. Facebook
Learn the difference between profiles,
groups, and pages
Create a profile (if you don’t have one)
Create a group
Create a page
27. Facebook: Profiles
For people; not organizations, businesses,
bands, or pets
Facebook does monitor and will delete
profiles that are not a person
Someone in your organization must have a
profile in order to create a page or group for
your organization
28. Facebook
Features Pages Groups
Authorized Yes No
Indexed by search engines Yes (more options) Yes (Optional)
Nice URLs Yes No
Hosting a discussion Yes Yes
Discussion wall & forum Yes Yes
Add Apps Yes No
Messaging to all members Yes (News Feed) Yes (Messages)
Visitor statistics Yes (Insights) No
Video/photo sharing Yes Yes
Event invitation News Feed Messages
Promotion with social ads Yes No
29. Facebook
Create a profile
Create a group
Create a page
30. Facebook Tips
Profile
Never post anything you don’t want the world to
know about you
You don’t have to maintain the profile associated
with the group or page
Associated profile can be a “dummy” profile
Associated profile can be locked
31. Facebook Tips
Groups
Can have officers (no more privileges than
members)
Can have more than 1 admin
Can’t remove creator or older admins
Customize settings (who can do/post what)
Decide if group is open, closed, or secret
Can promote with ads - check for pricing
32. Facebook Tips
Pages
Can have more than 1 admin
Can’t remove creator or older admins
Customize settings (who can do/post what)
Republish blog in notes
Use free badges to promote
Can promote with ads - check for pricing
Add apps
34. Thank You for Coming!
Heather Marie Wells
Collections Assistant and Technology Coordinator
hmwells@springdalear.gov
http:www.springdalear.gov/shiloh
479-750-8165
Shiloh Museum of Ozark History
Springdale, Arkansas