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