We only started using Twitter a month ago or so. We've enjoyed it and are trying to utilize it as a way to have an informal conversation with our audiences, and when applicable we'll remind people of upcoming programs.
I am also on there on my own...and I follow museums as an individual.
@HMSF
@Dubonics
Cecilia Dubon Slesnick
Vice President, Education
Historical Museum of Southern Florida
101 West Flagler St Miami, FL 33130
305.375.1492 www.hmsf.org
Your Story, Your Community...Your Museum
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-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Michelle Moon
Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 9:58 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Twitter
Just wanted to add two cents to Lidja's two (Lidja, who I have become acquainted with on Twitter, I might add!)
The tendency to rely on "push" marketing is indeed causing a lot of museums to miss opportunities on Twitter. I'm following around 100 museums, many of whose feeds I discovered via the research of Amy Fox at MuseumTweets. Going through her follows yields an array of museums using Twitter, some successfully, some not so much, and Amy blogs about and links to what makes Twitter efficacious for museums.
The medium is best considered a relationship builder - something that can certainly be part of a well-thought-out marketing toolbox, but which really requires a degree of authenticity and tangible personality to work well. Some of my favorite museums, institutions I love and have worked for, seem to only tweet upcoming fee-based events or beat the drum for program enrollments. This is so tiresome to read that if I didn't have a professional interest in the museums, I'd stop following them. THink about it - who would sign up to get commercials delivered to them? Twitter users actively dislike content that is simply advertising.
On the other hand, some museums really seem to view Twitter as a way of extending their mission and reach outward. The Smithsonian museums, for instance, maintain about 20 feeds which are packed with interesting content. They link to items in the collection, video, audio, and image content; they give glimpses of day-to-day life and people within the museum (both visitors and staff), and often have a witty, fun, real feel. The Franklin Institute has been charming me this spring with updates about the red-tailed hawks nesting on the ledge of their office building (with pictures). The Brooklyn Museum has been a pioneer in building community via social networking sites. I'd say all these museums "get it" about Twitter - that this medium is a way to create and strengthen relationships between the museum and its current and potential constituencies. You can't do that by pushing ads and calendar updates.
One thing I've been thinking about is whether Twitter (blogging, etc) really belongs solely in the hands of a marketing department; it's got marketing aspects, but is also an educational tool, a development tool, a community engagement tool, a collections exhibition tool. I suspect that the museums using it well are using a team approach, or trusting a staffer with a wide array of interests to ferret out and share content from across the museum. Interesting content is where it's at - if a museum were just dipping its toe into Twitter, I'd advise convening a cross-disciplinary, cross-departmental group to brainstorm types of content that could be fed into it. Easy enough to share quick updates and pics by email with one person who can then relay it as Tweet.
Another vital thing is that the museum should feel comfortable developing a Tweet "personality." Each institution does have unique qualities, some quirky, and it's okay - even good - to let them shine. In short, I'd say "relax." Twitter is one format in which showing the process, the unfinished work, the goofs and flubs and funny side of our work, is more than okay - it's humanizing and interesting. We all know the public's fondest wish is to get a chance to go "behind the scenes" in museums - Twitter is one way of granting that wish in total safety with minimal investment.
THe last point I want to make is that I see museums and Twitter going in two directions simultaneously. The first is that museums are using Twitter institutionally, with a formal account (or accounts) using museum names and tweeting to the museum's folllowers about museum content and activities. The second, though, is the creation of a new professional network. For many years I've been frustrated at the way our jobs make islands of us - particularly at the administrative level, we tend to be isolated in our job fields, just a few people of any one job description at each institution, and only at conferences could we find time to get together and talk feverishly about what our ideas are. Meanwhile, even though there are all these great internet tools, our continually condensed jobs mean that hours are fewer - I don't have time to read all the museum blogs and journals, let alone comment on them or write my own. Twitter, oddly, has been the exact prescription we needed as a profession. Most of us can find three minutes twice a day to write 140 characters mentioning a project, directing attention to a great article elsewhere online, or sharing a pic of an exhibit being built. Suddenly I feel connected in a real way across the profession, part of a conversation that time pressure simply made impossible longer-format media. It has been a welcome development!
If you'd like to follow other museums, you can use Twitter Search (at the bottom of the home screen) to search keywords like "museum," "history," etc.
Thanks for bringing it up - I do hope that more museums will grab the opportunity to mean something more to their followership. I have no doubt but that it makes relationships stronger, which should result in the concrete support we will all need going through the next few years.
Thanks for an interesting conversation!
--Michelle
http://twitter.com/MichelleNMoon
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