Tweeting Moles?

Social Media from the Grant Museum

Mark Carnall Curator Grant Museum of Zoology UCL

SMKE Workshop Social Media and the Museum 6th June 2013

All images © Grant Museum of Zoology, UCL unless otherwise stated

Museums and the adoption of the Web

Early adopters

Technophiles Media savvy

Guardian

Politicians

Middle classes

Young people

Academics

MLA start charging 150 quid for training courses

Museums

Marketing industry suck the soul out of it,

Libraries

Changing landscape- Think about the field you are in- managers aren’t consumers.

Social Media- Formats

• Twitter- Transitory, irreverant(?), topical

• Facebook- Badges and postcards

• Blogs- Long form, ‘publication’, CV(?)

• Flickr, Youtube & others- Hosting tool

Trailing, Legacy and B-roll content

Advantages

© Will and Mike Tuck

‘New Audiences’

Advantages

• People who can’t visit the museum.

• People who won’t visit the museum.

• People who should visit the museum.

• A way of discovering a museum through

social networks

• People who don’t see every activity you

do.

• Technophiles.

adoption Africa archaeology Asia Australian

fieldwork behind the scenes conservation day in

the life detective work event topics exhibition

exhibitions Extinction Fish Flinders Petrie from

the stores I found this... in the field in the news

Invertebrate Mammal Marine Marsupials

Micrarium museums Natural History Museum

object based teaching Outreach Petrie Petrie

Museum pop culture public engagement QRator

Reviews science shark Slade School of Fine Art

South America Specimen of the week Tasmania

Thylacine UCL Art Museum Underwhelming fossi

Reactivity + Range

Advantages

adoption Africa archaeology Asia Australian fieldwork behind the

scenes conservation day in the life detective work event topics

exhibition exhibitions Extinction Fish Flinders Petrie from the

stores I found this... in the field in the news Invertebrate

Mammal Marine Marsupials Micrarium museums Natural History Museum

object based teaching Outreach Petrie Petrie Museum pop culture

public engagement QRator Reviews science shark Slade School of

Fine Art South America Specimen of the week Tasmania Thylacine UCL Art

Museum Underwhelming fossil fish of the month upcoming exhibitions Western Australia

Advantages

Source: www.ucl.ac.uk

Promotion and Advocacy

Institutional Hazards

• What does your centre/department/university think

of social media?

• Is there a format you should adopt?

• Make sure you get crediting right.

• What kind of voice will you use?

• Are there other restrictions- personal information,

images.

• Minefield topics

• Moderation

Disadvantages

Frequency is King

Disadvantages

Disadvantages

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4471607.stm

Disadvantages

Statistical bulletin: Internet Access Quarterly Update, Q4 2012

Office for National Statistics

Broadcasting

• Which channels should be direct marketing?

• Engagement & broadcasting?

• Authoritative voice

• Social media for social media’s sake

• Your opinion?

• Humour- It’s only museums..

Accessibility

• Putting stuff online = accessible to everybody

Disadvantages

• Content in English

• Requires a plugin

• 43 clicks to get to content

• Do you want to ‘reach’ everyone?

Treat your online audience as if you would any other

ones of your audiences! OBVS.

Feedback

• Tweeting moles