As a consumer and museum professional, I definitely look up an institution's website before visiting...and if the website is scanty on information or images and appears somewhat "half-baked" I'm actually less likely to go. If I see a lot of virtual content it tells me that a flesh and blood person cares enough to sit down and put content on the site. I'm in favor of virtual tours. Just my totally unsolicited 2 cents. Have a good day everybody!

-Mary "Kate" McCarthy

On Wed, Jan 27, 2016 at 10:41 PM, Lee Wright <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

This is one of the most disappointing, counterproductive myths: If we put things online, people won’t visit.

(1) How many photos are available online about, say, Disney World? Do fewer people visit because of that?

(2) On average, 350 million photos are uploaded daily to Facebook. These days, nearly everyone who walks into your site has a camera with them. You should do everything you can to encourage them to take photos and post to social media (aka advertising your site to their friends at no cost to you).

(3) The only sites who should be concerned are those that believe they can fool people for an extended period. “Hey, we have this great site, but we don’t have much online. Trust us. Come and visit and see for yourself!” If people do take the chance, visit, and are disappointed, do think they’ll not tell their friends—on social media, where the impact is amplified?

(4) A virtual tour, especially one that is incorporated into Google Maps, will increase discovery and should increase, not decrease, attendance.

— Lee Wright | The History List | History Camp

On Jan 27, 2016, at 5:18 PM, Robin <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

We are in the process of working on a virtual tour of our site and the argument has been made by some staff members that this will discourage visitors from actually coming to our site. I seem to remember reading somewhere years ago that the exact opposite was found to be true.

Have any studies been done that show if having a virtual tour of your museum increases, or decreases, your on-site visitor head counts?

I’d also be interested in antidotal stories of this.

--------------------
Robin H. Gabriel
Executive Director
Kaminski House Museum
Georgetown, SC 29440

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