How to engage audiences using social media

How to engage audiences using social media

Social Media and Museum Learning

The Round Foundry Media Centre, Leeds

Friday 10 December 2010

Setting the scene – eye-openers

• Social media in the UK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZHSZY8S9mA

• Scary stats: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFZ0z5Fm-Ng&feature=player_embedded

• Customer feedback: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

• Doing good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu7ZpWecIS8

Image from: http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/2008/08/16-22/home%20alone.jpg

What is social media?• Think of social

media as like the invention of email or the telephone – it is a tool – a very powerful one – for communicating on an individual and a mass scale

Web 1.0 to Web 2.0• Web 1.0 – ‘if we build

it, they will come’• Web 2.0 – User

generated content – everyone’s putting stuff on the internet

• This means that organisations need to ‘be everywhere’ rather than ‘being somewhere’

Image from: http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/EXID30717/images/web10web20.jpg

Easy way to remember• Web 2.0 = 2-way communication

Image from: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ytU6dUQrIfU/Saatfw9yDHI/AAAAAAAABsE/2tsMpde4l0s/s400/Two_Way_Traffic.png

Social media is a tool for:• Collaborating • Communicating • Sharing

• And it’s social – that means it’s about real people connecting with other real people

Image from: http://thesituationist.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/istock-social-network.jpg

Social media & engagement• Which social media tools are good for

connecting with audiences?http://twitter.com http://facebook.com http://flickr.com http://youtube.com Blogging platforms:http://wordpress.comhttp://blogspot.com http://posterous.com

Using Facebook• Create a ‘fan’ page• This doesn’t connect to your personal

Facebook profile• Good for:

– Advertising events & activities– Enabling people to share information

about what you’re doing– Getting feedback and talking to users

Twitter• Set up an account for your service or use your

personal account to talk about your work• Can link this to your facebook page• Good for:

– Building a network– Short adverts for events/activities– Linking to other places your organisation occupies

online – like your website– Getting feedback & encouraging people to

recommend you– Launching competitions

Getting started on Twitter • Not time today to go through how to

use Twitter but do look at my 4 short presentations which give you a simple introduction:http://sociallearningonline.wordpress.com/twitterguide/

• Don’t forget to follow me! @vahva

Flickr & Youtube• Photo sharing site & video sharing site• Showcase your organisation & collectionsGood for:

– Livening up the content of your website/blog with multimedia (you can embed photos and videos in your site whilst they are also on Flickr & Youtube – distributed content)

– Showcasing education work – children’s drawings etc.

Other good sites relevant to museums, archives and

libraries• http://www.historypin.com • http://www.mylearning.org/ • http://futureofmuseums.org/ • List of museums on Twitter:

http://j.mp/by21fK

Blogging• http://wordpress.com – free, easy to use

blogging platform. Another is http://blogspot.com An example is here:

• http://spacehopleeds.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html

• http://posterous.com – very simple blogging platform. Fun example:

• http://100atticobjects.posterous.com/

Sara’s social media journey• Because Sara is a fan of Learn at

Harewood on Facebook, she saw this update:

She then decides to share this on her facebook profile and her friends respond:

She then goes along to the lesson and Tweets about it:

One of Sara’s followers sees the Tweet and gets in touch with Learn at Harewood on Twitter to sign up himself.

All 200 of Sara’s followers on Twitter hear about Harewood!• …changing their perceptions of what

Harewood House has to offer• Some people retweet the message to

their followers, one of these people has over 1000 followers!

One of Sara’s followers has a conversation with a friend• ‘I got a ukulele for

Christmas this year!’

• ‘Cool, did you know that they’re doing ukulele lessons at Harewood House this year? I found out on Twitter the other day’

Image from: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_l799-uTfoLE/SdtBFe2ciEI/AAAAAAAAAEg/03bGAy_SWO4/s400/Gossip4.jpg

What do you think happens next?• What could Learn

At Harewood do to respond to this?

• Speak to the person next to you & come up with 2 or 3 things they could do.

Image source

Some ideas of what ‘Learn at Harewood’ could do

• Retweet (ie repeat/forward) any tweets from people mentioning the ukulele course and thank them

• Take photos at the session & with permission post them to Flickr & the website

• Tweet again about the lessons with a link to a picture from the first session

• …the possibilities are endless!

Getting started• Who’s your audience?• Look at other museums, libraries,

archives like yours online to see how they do it

• See if your organisation is mentioned in social media – do a search on Twitter (you can search on Twitter without being a member) or Facebook - & respond if you can!

Principles to remember – for yourself and your role

• Social media is:– Social – you are interacting with people,

not machines– For sharing – sharing ideas, information,

learning– For conversation – with people

interested in the same topics as you

3 Golden rules• Don’t be afraid!

– Go for it, don’t be timid, you just have to give it a try.

• Don’t be stupid!– Don’t write anything you’d

be embarrassed for a loved one or your boss to read!

• Be yourself! – be authentic, people can

spot a fake.

What next?Write down now:

• 1 thing you’re going to do• 1 thing you’re going to share with

someone else• 1 thing you’re going to learn more

about