Tweeting Moles? Social Media from the Grant Museum Mark Carnall Curator Grant Museum of Zoology UCL UKRG Professional Development 12 th February 2014 All images © Grant Museum of Zoology, UCL unless otherwise stated
Dec 15, 2015
Tweeting Moles? Social Media from the Grant Museum
Mark Carnall Curator Grant Museum of Zoology UCL
UKRG Professional Development 12th February 2014
All images © Grant Museum of Zoology, UCL unless otherwise stated
Museums and the adoption of technologies
Early adopters
Technophiles Media savvy
Guardian
Politicians
Middle classes
Young people
Academics
MA 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
‘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
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
Disadvantages
Statistical bulletin: Internet Access Quarterly Update, Q4 2012Office for National Statistics
The Museum Niche?
Museum Twitter
• British Library 536k• NHM- 482k• V&A- 346k• Science museum- 324k• BM- 264k• MoL- 46.2k
Other
• OMG Facts 6M• NASA 5.8M• Weird Al Yankovic 3.2M• Dolly Parton 2.9M• Philip Schofield 2.7M• Fat Amy 2.2M
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.
Benefits
• Column in New Scientist.• National press coverage for smaller exhibitions.• Museums and Heritage Awards!• Wikipedians will link content to wikipedia.• Use of ‘unusable’ collections.• Events like today.
Mark Carnall
• UCL Museums blog: http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/museums/
• Grant Museum Twitter: @GrantMuseum• Me: @mark_carnall• Email: [email protected]