Hi Ruth,

I second HootSuite for scheduling.

As far as knowing what's going on so you can get a holistic look at your
institution, at my previous job we were a staff of 13 and during the
weekly staff meeting everyone was given a few minutes to talk about
current work projects.  I found that just listening to these reports often
gave me a few things to write about.  To begin with I was always asking
questions after each report in front of everyone explaining that I was
looking for the "angle" to use on our Social Media feeds.  After three
months, people starting explicitly saying in their reports "Oh Thursday
I'm working on X and it might be something interesting for Twitter or
Facebook."  Some even started emailing me throughout the week with
suggestions.

I also made sure that my email address was put on the press release email
list for the museum so I would get a copy of the officially worded
goings-on for the museum and it didn't add any work to our PR person.  I
could just copy an paste knowing that the information was correct.

I admit that there were still days that I did not have anything "planned"
to post.  For those days I would often take 5 minutes to walk around and
try to find a volunteer and ask them about the project they were working.
Sometimes I would walk through the galleries and post something funny I
overheard.  Sometimes I would ask a volunteer or visitor what their
favorite artifact or exhibit was and post that.  For visitor's I would ask
if they minded if I posted it.  I never had anyone say no and most thought
it was neat that they were going to be quoted and if they didn't know we
were on Facebook or Twitter before hand they did then and we picked up new
followers.

Another nice "trick" is asking questions of those following you and let
them do the work of posting on your page.  It takes the pressure off you
and let's them be more engaged and have more ownership in the online
community you are trying to create.

Heather Marie


Heather Marie Wells
Education Technology Coordinator



600 Museum Way
Bentonville, AR 72712

479-418-5700 (main)
CrystalBridges.org

 Find us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/crystalbridgesmuseum



On 2/14/12 2:15 AM, "Ruth Lang" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Hello, 
>
>I manage a small historical society staff.  I would like our staff to
>start regular postings on our Facebook page.  I need to find an efficient
>way to gather posts from each department - PR /Marketing,
>Membership/Development, Volunteers and Collections.  Our staff can be
>very busy and Facebook posts may seem insignificant at times, but I feel
>frequent postings are important to engage our over 1000 "likes".  I know
>the larger historical societies often have a staff member that is
>assigned to write daily posts, but I'm sure they still use a system to
>get information from various departments - that staff member can't know
>it all. 
>
>How have other organizations and museums handled this? Do you create a
>chart or spreadsheet to plan postings in advance? Or has something else
>worked for you?  
>
>If someone has a spreadsheet or chart that has worked well, I would
>appreciate a copy to use as a template. You can send it as an attachment
>to my email address: [log in to unmask]
>
>I look forward to your suggestions or comments.
>
>Thank you, 
>
>Ruth Lang
>Interim Director of Administration and Operations
>Fresno (CA) Historical Society
>
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