Dear Lee,

While experimenting with platforms can be good one cannot over emphasize that it is best to be excellent at one or two platforms than overstretched (or meager) at many.

Focus on the mission first, then the audience that the mission serves.

Respectfully, interns are not the golden ticket.  Far too many museum social accounts suffer, or die, once the interns leave.  It is best to find a consistent voice from within the volunteer corps -- if staff is overstretched, or in concert with staff.

I invite the listserve membership to follow @ExtravertedMuse (the Extroverted Museum Initiative) on Twitter as it brings socially silent museums on to social media, effectively.  The initiative came about from encountering numerous socially underserved museums, and knowing a great many of their issues had doable solutions.  This week I announce the names of several Virginia museums who have been selected to receive social media training that will enable their volunteer corps to bring them online socially for the first time.

A quick reminder for Mandy, please reach out to me after the 20th for a solution that should serve you well.

FrannMarie Jacinto
Museum Educator◦Social Media◦Digital Storyteller
linkedin.com/in/fmjedu
[log in to unmask]

On Mar 12, 2014, at 4:23 PM, Lee Wright <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Great initiative.

Is there any reason you wouldn't try multiple outlets, such as . . .

- Pinterest
- Flickr
- Facebook (which you noted you already use)
- Twitter
- Slideshare
- Scribd
- YouTube/Vimeo
- HistoryPin
- WhatWasThere

(Note that not all items would make sense for all of these.)

They are all very easy to use, cost only time, and are ideally suited to volunteers or interns.

Use a simple spreadsheet to keep track of engagement (including the day of the week and the time you post, which is especially relevant for Twitter and Facebook).  Do some tests, such as  . . .

- Posting the same thing to each at the same time
- Posting to one or a few, but not the others
- Posting an item to one, and a week later, posting the same item to another

Include some standard text for each and, where possible, a link to the item or discussion of the item on your site.  Use your site's analytics to track where people come from.  (Again, ideally suited to a volunteer or intern.)

My guess is that while you may whittle the list down a little, you'll find that all of these increase discovery and engagement over using just one.

And if you do take this approach, I imagine just about everyone on this list would love to see the results.

Good luck.

. . . . . .

   Lee Wright

   Founder  -  The History List  (www.TheHistoryList.com)  -  History Camp (www.HistoryCamp.org)


On Mar 11, 2014, at 6:52 PM, Mandy Langfald <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

We are investigating ways to share images of artifacts from the collection using social media.  These are artifacts which are currently in storage, rather than on exhibit.  Ideally we would like to include some interpretation with the photos to make more of our stored collections available to the public. We do currently use our website and Facebook to do some of this, but we are looking for other possibilities. Have you tried this with your collections?  Did you prefer one platform above all others?

Feel free to reply on list or in private.

Thanks,

Mandy Langfald
Curator of Collections
Wyoming State Museum
307-777-7033
E-Mail to and from me, in connection with the transaction 
of public business, is subject to the Wyoming Public Records 
Act and may be disclosed to third parties.




To unsubscribe from the MUSEUM-L list, click the following link:

http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-HOME.exe?SUBED1=MUSEUM-L&A=1


To unsubscribe from the MUSEUM-L list, click the following link:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-HOME.exe?SUBED1=MUSEUM-L&A=1


To unsubscribe from the MUSEUM-L list, click the following link:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-HOME.exe?SUBED1=MUSEUM-L&A=1