It has already been a week since I attended the one day Social Media Exchange – For the Cultural and Heritage Sectors. Organised by the irrepressible Jude Habib, co-founder of Sound Delivery the communications and training company, it was a fun day learning about the uses of social media in museums and libraries.
I have included a selection of my notes from the day below, but most of the content plus updated comments are available through their dedicated website at http://socialmediaexchange.org.uk/
Using Web Content to Build and Engage Your Audience
Madeleine Sugden – KnowHow NonProfit – http://www.knowhownonprofit.org/
http://www.slideshare.net/sounddelivery/making-content-work-for-you-presentation
What is web content for:
- Proof of existence
- Help people to learn something – 24/7 learning
- Encourage action / change behaviour – find out more/shop etc
What is web content for? – 5 Questions to help you make the most of your web content
1. Audience – will they get beyond your home page?
Examples:
- Museum of Witchcraft – poor design, which doesn’t match the nature of the content i.e. it looks like it is designed for accountants – http://www.museumofwitchcraft.com/
- Walsal new museum – too much text, missing image – http://www.artatwalsall.org.uk/
- compare to Tyne & Wear museums page – http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/
- Porthcurno telegraph museum – sections for different visitors – http://www.porthcurno.org.uk/
- Pages for visitors or for creators eg about page from Museum of Brands and Packaging is too boring – http://www.museumofbrands.com/background.html
- Working with Men website one of very few asking for feedback to improve website – http://www.workingwithmen.org/
- Friends of the Earth website – what you said content following on from consolation exercise – e.g. local groups. – get into the mindset of audience
http://www.foe.co.uk/community/local_groups/group_resources_index.html
2. Presentation
- Are you helping with skim reading?
- Use headings, blocks of text, links to more content
- Are you giving too much information?
- Placing text over images leads to accessibility issues
- Is content accessible
- Are you encouraging people to read on?
- Don’t use – “Click here to find out more about…” unnecessary text
- Bring in other content to improve experience e.g. weather forecasts from BBC
Examples:
- Samuel Johnson website – good layout – http://www.drjohnsonshouse.org/
- Shakespeare birthplace trust – more links to content – http://www.shakespeare.org.uk/
- British Heart Foundation – good example of design – http://www.bhf.org.uk/
3. Medium
- Content isn’t just printed words
- Are you using the best format?
- Are you using audio and video content?
- Is it interesting and fun?
Examples:
National Museums Liverpool – audio content is key part of page – subject integration – includes transcript alternative – http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/
Great Fire of London – interactive video game type experience for children – http://www.fireoflondon.org.uk/
Welcome to Yorkshire – help to build your day in … – dynamic itinerary building tool – http://www.yorkshire.com/inspire/inspire-me
Hackney Museum Virtual Tour – very boring – http://www.virtualtours360.net/hackney/virtual-tour.html
4. Marketing
- Help people find your site
Search engines – work on Google Search Engine Optimisation, think about subject terms used to find your content. E.g. A search for Victorian homes does not find many of the relevant museums. - Use all channels
- Integrate on and offline activities
Examples:
Eric Bloodaxe from York Museum has a Facebook page
Mediamuseum on Twitter with 1,700 followers
Eureka museum putting their images on flickr
Wellcome collection – medical London – videos of relevant walks around London – http://www.medicallondon.org/related_events.html
Imperial War Museum North – their page on the Big Picture Show does not come close to capturing the impact of the actual experience in the museum – http://north.iwm.org.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.2141
5. Influence
- From passive users to active users to super active users…
- Make it easy to interact and take action
- Influence windows
Examples:
- Nation Museum of Wales – use e-cards – http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/ecards/?cat=all
- + make your own love spoon – http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/lovespoon/
- Barley Hall – oral history involvement – http://www.barleyhall.org.uk/content.asp?ID=35
- Kent Police Museum – donations page – call us, but no phone number – http://www.kent-police-museum.co.uk/core_pages/donations.shtml
- Sponsor a valve on Colossus web page – http://www.colossusonline.com/
- Museum of Childhood – page on Lego has no opportunity for interaction – http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/collections/toys/construction_toys/lego/index.html
- Museum of London – e-newsletter ‘close this window’ page after completing request – http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/AboutUs/Newsroom/Enewsletter/EnewsletterForm.htm
- KnowHow NonProfit – good example of many points – http://www.knowhownonprofit.org/
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Group Tweeting or Finding your organisation’s voice on Twitter
Ali Holder – Westminster Libraries
@wcclibraries
Started in March 2009
Currently lone tweeter
First tweet: Planning to put all news and events in libraries here. Also additions to the 24/7 library of exclusive online resources for library members.
11:34 PM Mar 3rd from web
Why?
Instant
Getting started:
Buy-in from senior management important as speaking for Westminster
Get tweeting – once or twice a day, most days – not too much, not to little
Set up Business Continuity colleague so they can tweet library closures etc
Aims:
Mainly post news & events, but also draw attention to existing / regular / ‘hidden’ aspects of service.
Issues:
- Organisational voice
- Broadcasting, not conversing
- Access restrictions within the work setting
- Getting customers and potential customers to follow us.
Lessons:
- Aware of popularity of posts with existing and future followers – e.g. free wi-fi
- Use search tools to find out what people are saying about us.
- Proactive use allows us to build trust and demonstrate use to organisation
- Ditto for users –
Finding our voice – who is tweeting?
Me, us or them?
Future plans:
- Group tweeting – or groups of tweeters
- More feeds
- More use of hashtags
- Tweeting through events
- Feedback and conversation
- How do we measure success?
Tips:
- Never forget the biog section
- Work out who is speaking
- Provide links
- Don’t protect updates
- Watch how others do it
- Don’t exclude – have a feed
Twitter demographics – typical user – around 30 and urban
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Round up discussion
Patrick Forbes – Head of Documentaries at Oxford Film and Television
Nick Reynolds – Editor, BBC Internet Blog
Frances Croxford – Consultant and Account Manager at Jane Wentworth
Be aware of both huge opportunities and significant risks associated with adoption of social media.
Inherent lack of control.
Before you start make sure you are aware of the external perception of the organisation.
- Clarity
- Confidence
- Transparency
Tell stories which come from both your staff and your audience.
Conclusions:
- Institutions are naturally resistant to social media as it leads to loss of control.
- Biggest resistors are curatorial staff
- Cultural change can take between 5 and 10 years