#Conconf Nuts&Bolts Session

The Conscience Un-Conference “Nuts & Bolts” Session: How-to’s and Best Practices: An Exchange of Great Ideas December 5, 2009 1:00pm Facilitated by Julie Brubaker: [email_address] Twitter: @JulieBrubaker Follow the Un-Conference on Twitter: #conconf

Session Purpose & Goals:
The purpose of this session was to gather ideas and exchange best practices about how Museums and non-profits use social media
The goals of this session were to generate a functional list of ideas about these 6 topics – this list can then be used to facilitate conversations within individual Museums and non-profits about how we can better use social media and technology
Organizational Placement of Social Media
Strategy Surrounding Social Media
Operations Related to Social Media
Making the Business Case for Social Media
Great Social Media Ideas
Resources for Social Media
To add to this presentation or discuss it further, please contact Julie Brubaker at [email_address] or @JulieBrubaker (Twitter)

Best Practices and Ideas: Organizational Placement of Social Media
Instead of being ‘under’ any department, manage social media by Committee.
Meet regularly
Every department is represented
People take on bits
The committee creates the strategy and manages the budget
Train all staff in using social media (both personal and professional) to use existing networks and promote the Museum.
Be careful that social media use is not all about advertising!
Start off with grant funding for social media so there is proof of concept without blurring the goals
One department or group should not “own” social media
Strategy and guidance are necessary

Best Practices and Ideas: Strategy Surrounding Social Media
Brand Awareness is an important goal for social media
Goals for social media should not necessarily be about visitors or money, but engaging people and education
Organizations should change their paradigm from “count the audience” to “count the connections between our community”
Blogging to share content is important
‘ Behind the scenes’ is interesting to the public
Create a community space for sharing ideas, photos, observations
Extent the Museum beyond the visit
Metrics are key!
Examples of museums doing well with strategy or the above items:
Brooklyn Museum (http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/)
Shedd Aquarium (http://www.sheddheads.org)
Smithsonian (http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/Strategy+--+Themes)

Best Practices and Ideas: Operations Related to Social Media
Consider platforms carefully. Platform choice should be based on target audience.
Facebook and Twitter are most used by Museums
MySpace appears to cater to black and latino demographics
LinkedIn appears to cater to older professionals
Think: who are we excluding if we use this platform?
Frequency: 10 posts/day has made the fans and “like” go up for pbs
Content: the public responds well to behind the scenes, previews, sneak peaks
Contests and Photos work well
Mobile Apps:
Accessibility is key
Web should be the platform for mobile
Mobile giving: have staff/volunteer say “did you like what you saw today? Then take out your mobile device and [tweet] [go to website] now”
Metrics: Nothing stands out yet as useful. We need a good metric for how do you take the number of fans and use that. Current metric tools provide endless layers of data/research but cannot answer if we are meeting our learning objectives or goals.

Best Practices and Ideas: Making the Business Case for Social Media
Everyone likes this presentation for making the business case informally and/or getting tips: http://smithsonian20.typepad.com/blog/2009/03/web-t.html
We have learned many lessons from our failures and missed opportunities:
Follow up is necessary. Museums should collect contact information to work better with visitors
Top-down mandates to “do it” without adequate strategy/resources/thought usually don’t achieve success
Strategy is critically important
Must understand the terms of use for the technology you are using

Best Practices and Ideas: Great Social Media Ideas
Obama Campaign: meetups online/offline, positive public challenges/contests for recruiting others to join
Partnerships with vendors and other organizations: before you begin an initiative, consider who else you are including, who else you could include
Invest in webinar software that is easy to use. Then use it – it is a low hanging fruit!
Use available human resources:
Google has an “80/20” concept – use it or use similar companies ( http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/jobs/21pre.html?_r=1 )
Use interns (NYU has a great grad school program)
Use volunteers
Grants – access is important
Consider what is the cost of what you’re doing without social media. For example, what is the cost of getting a member today? If you eliminated some steps, could you save money and then use that money to invest in social media efforts? And would that then increase your overall visibility and eventually membership? In other words, how can you cut back on current expenses and invest in social media?
A strategic plan for technology, including social media, is necessary

Best Practices and Ideas: Resources for Social Media
On Twitter: @kanter | @ninaksimon | @museumsetc | @museummedia | @NancyProctor | @futureofmuseums
Smithsonian’s vision and use of social media ( http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/Strategy+--+Themes | http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v =MTJ8u2HGtrs )
http://steve.museum/
http://www.fluidproject.org/projects/fluid-engage/
www.mcn.edu and their mailing list
http:// www.archimuse.com/conferences/mw.html
http:// socialmediagovernance.com / | (specifically policies)
http:// www.mediaandtechnology.org /

#Conconf Nuts&Bolts Session

by Julie Brubaker on Dec 08, 2009

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#Conconf Nuts&Bolts Session — Presentation Transcript