Facebook began its worldwide takeover more than five years ago, allowing anyone with a valid email address to become part of what has become an international phenomenon.
At October’s international Social Media Strategy Conference in Chicago, it was argued that participation in social media and interactive marketing is no longer revolutionary, it is a vital part of building a successful business.
It was claimed that in 2009, companies with dedicated social media activity boosted sales by more than 18%, while those with minimal or no presence suffered a 6% decrease.
If these statistics were to correlate to attendance figures at museums and galleries, then museums would have to reconsider how they use social media in an age of increased competition, tighter budgets and higher audience expectations.
At its simplest, social media encompasses mainly internet and mobile-based tools to share media and facilitate discussion. It allows groups and users to generate content and is centred on interaction. Facebook is one such platform, with Twitter, YouTube and Flickr other key players.
There are also a plethora of social media sites and applications ranging from Delicious (for bookmarking websites) to Flook (a location browser that gives you information on your phone about your immediate geographical vicinity), as well as blogs.
Lots of museums and galleries have embr-aced this relatively new medium. Research carried out earlier this year by MuseumNext, an annual technology and web conference for museums, found that 115 UK institutions were tweeting on Twitter. This puts the UK second only to the US.
Jane Finnis, director of online publisher Culture24, suggests it has been relatively easy for museums and galleries to join the social media revolution, as it’s a form of outreach.
She says: “Museums know how to do outreach. They know how to do community engagement and discussion. Social media is the same thing, but with a digital interface and a number of different styles of interaction.”
Social media has aided wider engagement and participation by becoming an instrument through which to appeal to new and younger audiences. However, on a platform that allows open discussion, there is a fear within the sector that it leads to a lack of control and diminishes curatorial authority.
Tony Butler, director of the Museum of East Anglian Life in Stowmarket, says social media “democratises” people’s ability to express their opinions. “Before social media, views would be raised at conferences, through publications and via universities. Now, these are no longer the gatekeepers of the sector.”
Having a presence on social media sites can leave an institution open to negative feedback, and this has to be dealt with sensitively. Deborah Turton, head of access and development at the British Postal Museum & Archive, thinks that people often make valid points and that institutions need to show that these concerns are being addressed.
“Someone who listened to our first podcast said he felt the recording was too quiet in parts,” says Turton. “Since then, we’ve paid more attention to getting the sound quality right... and there have been no further complaints.”
But the issue of control has left many museums and galleries reluctant to dip their toes into the social media pool, particularly those under the watch of local authorities and those that are part of larger organisations, such as English Heritage.
Not only do larger, corporate organisations worry about negative comments, but there is concern over too many staff hours being spent on something that is not yet seen as core business.
Despite these fears, there are many local authority museums that have managed to use social media. At Derby Museums and Art Gallery, the city council’s communications department asks for a business case for any new social media web interaction before it is approved.
But Jonathan Wallis, assistant head of museums at Derby City Council, points out: “Things we currently do on social media, the Derby Peregrine webcam and the Derbyshire Flora Project on Flickr, were done before the council knew what social media was.”
Many other museums and galleries are producing excellent social media content for audiences. Tate has a wealth of regularly updated content across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr that actively encourages debate and comment.
Marc Sands, Tate’s director of audiences and media, says the visual arts are a particularly proactive medium and it is no longer sufficient to simply “present” them.
“At Tate, we want to engage with and host the dialogue surrounding the work and associated issues,” he says. It seems to have worked, as the Tate has more than 80,000 followers on Facebook alone, with features including a weekend weather forecast depicted through an image from its collections.
Few resources required
Museums with fewer resources than the nationals can also create attractive social media packages. Posting on Twitter takes seconds, and it is easy to add events to a Facebook page, especially when a small team shares responsibilities.
Blogs are an ideal way to work collaboratively. Many institutions have different staff members posting each week, offering varied perspectives and increasing the understanding across various departments bet-ween the museum and its audience.
“In a world in which budgets are under increased pressure, social media is emerging as a cost-effective means of engaging audiences,” says Sands.
It is hard to predict where social media will take museums and galleries. Away from the popular platforms, augmented-reality and location-based networking, such as Flook, are becoming increasingly popular. And as mobile-phone technology improves, applications on this platform will inevitably become more important for museum audiences.
“Galleries need to work social media seamlessly into their entire marketing, online and offline,” says Sands. Crowdsourcing is popular in the US and is beginning to be used in the UK. It allows an audience to take on the role of completing tasks for an institution through an open call.
The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) is using crowdsourcing to enable online visitors to choose the best thumbnail pictures for display on its Search the Collections site, which features 140,000 images. The initiative requires users to carry out work for the museum, breaking down the barriers of control between the V&A and its audience.
The world of social media can be a complex one and it is hard to predict whether what is popular today will still be relevant to audiences in years to come. You only have to look at how online giant MySpace has been eclipsed by competitors to see that things can change quickly in the digital world.
However, the general consensus is that a have-a-go attitude pays dividends. Connect with your audiences, respond and let your social media presence grow organically.
Ben Goodwin is a former broadcast journalist and now works as a marketing assistant at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham, and was formerly at the Herbert, Coventry
My Life as an Object: An object from Nottingham City Museums and Galleries comes “alive”, talks about its life across various platforms and responds to comments from the audience.
www.mylifeasanobject.com
Design Museum on Facebook: Regularly updated with photographs from behind the scenes at the museum, events and curiosities.
www.facebook.com/designmuseum
Herbert Art Gallery & Museum blog: Museum staff offer a personal perspective on life at the Herbert and in Coventry.
www.theherbert.wordpress.com
V&A crowdsourcing: The audience is encouraged to choose their favourite cropped image from the collection.
Collections.vam.ac.uk/crowdsourcing
RAF Museum of YouTube: Allows the audience to get up close and personal to objects, as well as showing behind-the-scenes videos and archive film.
www.youtube.com/rafmuseum
National Railway Museums on Flickr: Images form the archive are posted among depictions of daily life at the museum.
www.flickr.com/photos/nationalrailwaymuseum
The British Postal Museum & Archive on Flook: Flook is a geo-located iPhone application, with the Postal Museum creating “cards” relating to its collection for users to discover as they travel around.
www.flook.it/community/postalheritage
Director’s blog: A blog from the director of the Museum of East Anglian Life. It includes posts on his favourite object to musings on wider issues affecting the heritage sector.
www.tonybutler1.wordpress.com
Woodhorn on Twitter: Up-to-the-minute news and museings, as well as links to photographs and more general articles.
www.twitter.com/woodhorn