Social Media in the Historic Environment

Hugh Corley

Jane GoldingOxford, 20 February 2014

#HESocMed

Social media ........?

OR

Identify your goals

• What do you want to achieve?

• Who is it for?

Attributes

• Community driven– Read, watch, listen → participate!

• Essential content– Conversation, images, and video

• Viral and contagious– Spread, share, and transmit content

• Authenticity– Makes social media real and human

The 4 Es of social media• Education• enriching your target community’s knowledge with information and

resources that will help them to to better understand you.

• Entertainment • creating fun, sticky and memorable content that allows them to

associate the image or message to your brand or organisation

• Engagement• engaging the community by recognising their presence,

contributions and inputs

• Empowerment • give your target community the power to play an active role in what

you are doing

http://knowhownonprofit.org/how-to/how-to-develop-a-social-media-strategy-for-your-organisation

Start up: some essentials

• Senior management buy-in

• Skill set

• Risks

What will I need to invest?

You don’t have to do it all at once!

• Build slowly, select according to need– Networking tools: blogs, micro-blogs, social networks– Collaboration tools: wikis, social news, social

bookmarking – Multimedia tools: video, images, interactive content

• Select the right combination of tools and build expertise over time

• Work collaboratively: share resources, repackage content, support each other

How do I know if it’s all worthwhile?

• Strategy: regularly review

• Evidence: collect and interpret metrics– Measure what you value, don’t value what

you measure!

Social Media in the Historic Environment

Digital engagement:

This challenge is absolutely not about technology ..... it is first and foremost about audience and the ways in which digital technologies are changing their behaviours

Culture 24: Let’s Get Real 2http://weareculture24.org.uk/projects/action-research/

Over to you .....