Is it me, or has the museum world gone social media bonkers over the last six months? I don’t think anyone can have failed to see the barrage of workshops/conferences/events helping museums all over the UK to understand how to use facebook, twitter and myspace. I think one of the best pieces I’ve seen written on the subject is by Jim Richardson, and can be found here.
Dad Dancing
At the Museums Association annual conference, in 2008, I chaired a social media workshop, it was the first session of the first day in Liverpool - we thought it would be a quiet, it was packed to the rafters. We had several different speakers including Charlotte Sexton from National Gallery. Charlotte summed up many museum fears with a sentence, which over the course of the session planning, became our mantra – We don’t want to look like your dad on the dance floor. The anxiety about making an idiot of yourself is a completely understandable fear in a medium that can be so exposing.
On the flip-side, Nathan Williams, Head of Digital at The Partners, spoke about his top 10 tips in Social Media. Nathan’s number 1 point has stuck with me for a long time (well, a year?!) because it juxtaposed so differently with the National Gallery fears - ‘Just Do It’.
Do you see the opportunity there – you have the fantastic huge museum scared of looking like idiots and the commercial digital marketing guru saying ‘Just Do It’. If I had been smarter, you could have seen the workshops approaching over the hinterland. I completely understand Charlotte's point of view because I think most people approaching the social web feel the same and I also think Nathan is spot on too. The museumnext social media wiki goes someway to offering the version of 'Just Do It' with stabilisers option.
As a museum supplier, how does this effect us?
Over the next six months we are going to see an ever increasing number of museum professionals keen to share and discuss museum news, ideas and challenges with like-minded people. With that in mind, the question really should be - as a museum supplier, are you going to be part of those conversations?
Keeping it Social
When I use Twitter, I can guarantee that those I will stop following first are the people who shout at me about how fabulous they are. Commercial organisations have a very bad reputation for stomping all over the place, telling everyone about what a great job they are doing. To me, they’re completely missing the point of SOCIAL media.
Making conversations valuable ones
Museum suppliers have a great value to add to those museum professional discussions for three reasons:
- By definition they work with a large number of museums – share experiences of similar projects, ask for ideas/support on new projects
- They have to remain at the cutting-edge of their profession, inside and outside of museums – share new thinking and ideas
- There aren’t many people who work with museums who aren’t completely passionate about their chosen field – show you share that passion and understanding
I would also like to offer the heart warming news that of the suppliers I have spoken to the ‘Dad on the dancefloor’ fear is also a real one. For what it’s worth here’s my two penneth as someone who uses and creates social media and has made pretty much all the mistakes going here are several pieces of often seen advice:
- Find the right people - Identify passionate, interesting individuals within your organisation who are already using these tools and empower them to become the social media voice of your organisation.
- Make a plan - Spend a little time and resource creating a social media manifesto/plan that offers guidelines on the types of project you wish to talk about
- Keep your integrity – be open, honest and truthful · Listen and share more often than you promote
- Just Do It – step off the edge, accept some mistakes will be made and learn whole heartedly from them
Photo:
Dad Dancing Photo via CC http://www.flickr.com/photos/ousby/
