What are you thinking - right now?

Social Media and Museums I

Presented byHeather Marie Wells

Collections Assistant/Technology Coordinator

Shiloh Museum of Ozark HistorySpringdale, Arkansas

Social Media What is it? What can museums gain from it? What are the pitfalls? Arguments against access Arguments for access 2 popular platforms

What it’s not Non-interactive Authoritarian Press release Traditional marketing Non-personal 1 way

What is it? Social Sharing Following Collaborative Communication Conversational Community building Personal 2 way FUN

What’s in it for Us?! Free & easy Potential global audience New audience (demographics) Live news Reviews & testimonials Connect to experts, colleagues, vendors Monitoring your reputation Allows for engagement in community

Making patrons more informed Making you more accessible

Where does it go wrong? When you try to force it Over-engagement

Posting too much One on one involvement

Spammers Phishing Hackers Trolls

Arguments Against Access Privacy - what if the employees talk about

us? Productivity - A 2009 Nucleus Research Inc.

showed that companies who allow full access to Facebook suffer a 1.5% loss in productivity.

Network Security - We’ll get more bugs, viruses, and hackers.

Arguments For Access You can create a social networking policy to

address concerns. University of Melborne study shows 9% increase

in productivity for those allowed to use social media for personal use; imagine increase if they were allowed to use it to gather information for their work responsibilities.

Security risks are no greater than when email was first developed. Policies, education, and following platform guidelines curtail most attacks.

Choosing Platforms What are your goals? Who are you trying to engage?

Demographics How big a group

Who is going to maintain the project? What do you want to say? How much time do you have? Policies regarding third party services

2 Popular Platforms Twitter

Networking & mini-blogging service 140 characters; 2 sentences Twitter is to blogging what instant messaging it to

email. Facebook

Social networking Share photos, videos, posts, blogs and play

games; friends can comments A website all about you; you control who sees it

Twitter.com Create an account Tweetbeep Tweetlater Bit.ly

Twitter Tips Create an account

Try to use a short user name Include a photo so you don’t look like a newbie or

spammer Customize background Lock or not

Use your manners Thank people for following Thank people for retweeting Talk directly to users It’s ok to just follow for a while

Twitter Tips Terms

Tweet – a post on Twitter @username – used when you want to send a user a

public message or refer to a fellow user Retweet (RT) – reposting someone else’s tweet DM – private message to a user, but to send that user

a message they have to be following you Tweetup – when users meet in-person for a gathering Fail Whale – when Twitter is down #topic – a way to categorize and label messages, it

also aids in searching

Twitter Tips Writing for Twitter

Use abbreviations Use numbers instead of the words Omit common words (I, we, to be) & punctuation Use + b/c & adds extra hidden characters Remember classic shorthand

Add yourself to Twitter directories Participant in routine Twitter conversations

Music Monday Follow Friday

Twitter Tips Who to Follow

Follow 40-100 for a few weeks to see what works for you

Smart people you may not know Peers + thought leaders in areas you are interested

in Local entertainment reporters Chamber of Commerce Other non-profits + entertainment groups Tourism organizations

Twitter Tips What to Search For

Your name, user name, museum name Your city Your topic (house museum, history, science, etc) Your annual events (your brand or product)

Common Hastags #FollowFriday, #FF #479 [search for your specific zip code] #conference [where you type initials for conference

#AMA2010]

Twitter Tips What to Post

Behind-the-scenes info Things visitors say Ask questions What staff or volunteers are doing right then Something from the viewpoint of an artifact Historical anniversary Diary entries The good and the bad Responses to others & Retweets Contests Announcements & Updates

Twitter Tips Identify Spammers (then block them)

They follow excessive amounts of people Few people are following them Few posts Little bio + no photo Lots of links in their posts Content of posts (ads or worse) Nature of photo Check your followers list don’t just go by email

notices

Twitter Services Tweetbeep Tweetlater Bit.ly

Catch Your Breath

Facebook Learn the difference between profiles,

groups, and pages Create a profile (if you don’t have one) Create a group Create a page

Facebook: Profiles For people; not organizations, businesses,

bands, or pets Facebook does monitor and will delete

profiles that are not a person Someone in your organization must have a

profile in order to create a page or group for your organization

FacebookFeatures Pages GroupsAuthorized Yes NoIndexed by search engines Yes (more options) Yes (Optional)Nice URLs Yes NoHosting a discussion Yes YesDiscussion wall & forum Yes YesAdd Apps Yes NoMessaging to all members Yes (News Feed) Yes (Messages)

Visitor statistics Yes (Insights) NoVideo/photo sharing Yes YesEvent invitation News Feed MessagesPromotion with social ads Yes No

Facebook Create a profile Create a group Create a page

Facebook Tips Profile

Never post anything you don’t want the world to know about you

You don’t have to maintain the profile associated with the group or page

Associated profile can be a “dummy” profile Associated profile can be locked

Facebook Tips Groups

Can have officers (no more privileges than members)

Can have more than 1 admin Can’t remove creator or older admins Customize settings (who can do/post what) Decide if group is open, closed, or secret Can promote with ads - check for pricing

Facebook Tips Pages

Can have more than 1 admin Can’t remove creator or older admins Customize settings (who can do/post what) Republish blog in notes Use free badges to promote Can promote with ads - check for pricing Add apps

Catch Your Breath

Thank You for Coming!

Heather Marie WellsCollections Assistant and Technology Coordinator

hmwells@springdalear.govhttp:www.springdalear.gov/shiloh

479-750-8165

Shiloh Museum of Ozark HistorySpringdale, Arkansas