Social Media and Museums

Turning Visitors into Contributors

Museums, science centers, and similar organizations - are they

missing an opportunity to utilize social media to open up

the process of creating and populating exhibits?

Museum =

Traditional museums (science, art, history, children's),

historical societies, visitor centers, zoos

Social Media Tools

What is being done? What can be done?

The Need

Museum attendance is down

•“Arts” Museums - 35% attendance

•Science/History – 40% attendance

•10% attendance without H.S. diploma

•School visits are way down.

Supplanting the Visit

40% of adults used the Internet to view, listen to, download, or post artworks or performances. 30% of adults who use the Internet, download, watch, or listen to music, theater, or dance performances 20% of adults view paintings, sculpture, or photography at least once a week.

What is Currently Being Done

Marketing

Franklin Park Conservatory

What is Currently Being Done

Enhancing Visitor Interaction

COSI Columbus

Enabling visitors to share their enjoyment

Indianapolis Museum of Art

What is Currently Being Done

What is Currently Being Done

Extending Their Physical Exhibit Space

Sandusky History Center

Using Social Media Tools

What Can Be Done?

Challenges

• Silo-ed content

• Outcome sharing

• Strategic planning

• Resource Allocation

• How

• Why

• Ownership

• Reliability

Concerns

How do you verify the accuracy and authenticity of visitor-contributed

content?

 

How do you verify the appropriateness of visitor-contributed content?

Benefits

• Creating new learning opportunities

• Personalizing the experience

• Cost-effective

• “Green”

• Collection portability

• Community collective consciousness

Multi-Platform Museums

Turn visitors into active contributors

Enable visitors to share the highlights of their experience with

others

ARTscape

Enable visitors to add to the content of an exhibit

Ontario Science Center

Take Your Time: Olafur Eliasson

Learning to Love You More

Enable visitors to become the exhibit

Summit History Project

Enable visitors to use the exhibit as a springboard for their own

interests

Minnesota Historical Society

Enable Visitors to Direct the Conversations

Twitter Walls

Enable visitors to direct their experience

Maryland Science Center

Exhibit Tagging

Steve.Museum

iPhone Apps

The Brooklyn Museum of Art

Immediate Actions

Set up a WiFi Connection

Explore social media tools.

“The future of the museum may be rooted in the buildings they occupy but to succeed, they will address audiences across the world and will be a place where people across the world will have a conversation. Those institutions which take up this notion fastest and furthest will be the ones which have the authority in the future.”

• LSE Arts and Thames and Hudson 60th anniversay discussionThe Museum of the 21st Century

Tuesday 7th July 2009