A wall made up of pictures of people’s eyes collected through social media is creating a stir at the Natural History Museum.
This unusual installation is part of the exhibition Colour and Vision: Through the Eyes of Nature, which is open until 6 November. People are invited to share close-up pictures of their eyes on Twitter and Instagram using #MyEye and #ColourAndVision hashtags before, during or after their visit.
Some of the images posted will be fed into three digital screens, which are displayed alongside more than 100 anatomical specimens and colourful graphics of animal eyes.
This is the first time the museum has directly experimented with social media use in an exhibition, and it clearly illustrates how cultural institutions can creatively use social media to engage audiences, promote their work and develop exhibition content.
However, getting it right isn’t always easy. The social media world is fickle and constantly changing. What works for one project won’t for another and identifying the right platform for the job can be difficult.
Research from Smartinsights has found that there are now a core of five top social networks that are the most popular and this doesn’t change year-on-year.
Globally Facebook is the most popular social media site, and with almost 1.6bn active users it holds 18% of the market share. It is followed by WhatsApp (1bn users), Facebook messenger (900m users), and the Chinese sites QQ (853m users) and WeChat (697m users).
Meanwhile, Tumblr, Instagram, and Twitter are the seventh, eight and ninth most popular respectively. And newer platforms such as Snapchat (200m users) and Pinterest (100m users) are more popular than established platforms such as LinkedIn. The research also highlights that when it comes to the fastest growing networks, Twitter is losing ground to Facebook, WhatsApp, WeChat and Instagram.
Research conducted by comScore shows that Facebook reigns supreme when it comes to levels of user engagement (measured by monthly usage), but Snapchat has also made significant gains in this area.
Interestingly, the key to Snapchat’s appeal is that it has gone against established trends that see social media platforms saving and storing information. Snapchat successfully capitalises on the belief that moments are fleeting and temporary according to Culture 24’s report Let’s Get Real 4.
Commentators also suggest that the growth in popularity of Snapchat and messaging apps, such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp reflects a growing desire in audiences to have more real conversations with closed networks of friends and family, where there is less need to perform and they can be themselves.
However, Culture 24’s report highlights that platforms such as Snapchat as part of efforts to attract new revenue streams. For example, Snapchat’s Discover feature allows brands to house content on their own dedicated page, active users are rewarded with points and the arrival of Snapchat Stories allows users to post their own stories section (or feed) of their account, which is visible for 24 hours.
To this end the social media environment is somewhat contested between users’ increasing desire to be themselves on social media and the commercial needs of big brands.
“As arts and heritage organisations we need to decide which way we want to go. There is a demonstrated desire for audiences to be more themselves on social media and seek out more meaningful content and conversations that can tap into this. We can respond to this by being more open, conversational and playful in the way that we tell stories online – particularly on social media,” states the Let’s Get Real 4 report.
Museums and cultural institutions, which received support from Culture 24 and had their projects featured in its report, were encouraged to build narratives on social media that were not solely shaped by the pressure to be experts. They were also encouraged to embrace an approach based on the concept that social media is less about accuracy and more about ideas and dialogue.
Last year, for example, the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) experimented with ways its social media strategy could be tailored to provide interactive content. Twitter was the platform of choice and the digital team tried three different types of real time interaction with audiences on a daily basis.
It joined existing debates by using popular hashtags, sharing stories that related to a specific theme and responded to all comments received on the RA’s Twitter account. Engaging with the #NationalDogDay proved particularly successful, engaging groups that may have thought the RA had “no relevance” for them.
Audiences were asked to Tweet what their favourite kind of dog was and in return @royalacademy would share some pictures in its collection of that breed. Twitter users that took part were then invited to sketch the dogs and their drawings were collated in a Pinterest album.
The Wellcome Collection also utilises a number of fun and playful devices on social media, as web editor Russell Dornan explains in his article. The Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove has also brought a fresh and playful voice to its promotion of its show Fashion Cities Africa by engaging groups of young Instagrammers.
A playful approach, however, might not always be appropriate. For example, Arts Council England (ACE) experimented with the ways it engaged new audiences with a promotional video. But its calls on Twitter for staff, funded organisations and cultural and arts institutions to share the film and ‘Twitter battles’ designed to highlight the diverse range of culture across England didn’t go down well with audiences.
A statement from ACE, published in the Lets Get Real 4 report, said: “The Twitter battles actually got ACE some negative media coverage, which, along with the low engagement these Tweets received, proved to us that our Twitter followers are not the wider public with which we hoped to connect for this campaign. This was a really valuable lesson for us – and helped prove something we did have a hunch on.”
While experimentation on social media might not always produce the desired results, it’s essential to develop an effective strategy.
Museums that prioritise audience needs, collaborate on digital projects, embrace a culture of experimentation that involves cycles of failures and learning will be the most successful at harnessing the power of social media.
“It’s not just about a museum’s own brand and channels. It is about where the audience is and where the conversation is,” explains Jane Finnis, the chief executive of Culture 24.
Social media will be one of the topics covered at the MA's one-day seminar On Message: Effective Strategies for Marketing and PR, which takes place on 6 December at the Royal College of Surgeons in London.
This unusual installation is part of the exhibition Colour and Vision: Through the Eyes of Nature, which is open until 6 November. People are invited to share close-up pictures of their eyes on Twitter and Instagram using #MyEye and #ColourAndVision hashtags before, during or after their visit.
Some of the images posted will be fed into three digital screens, which are displayed alongside more than 100 anatomical specimens and colourful graphics of animal eyes.
This is the first time the museum has directly experimented with social media use in an exhibition, and it clearly illustrates how cultural institutions can creatively use social media to engage audiences, promote their work and develop exhibition content.
However, getting it right isn’t always easy. The social media world is fickle and constantly changing. What works for one project won’t for another and identifying the right platform for the job can be difficult.
Research from Smartinsights has found that there are now a core of five top social networks that are the most popular and this doesn’t change year-on-year.
Globally Facebook is the most popular social media site, and with almost 1.6bn active users it holds 18% of the market share. It is followed by WhatsApp (1bn users), Facebook messenger (900m users), and the Chinese sites QQ (853m users) and WeChat (697m users).
Meanwhile, Tumblr, Instagram, and Twitter are the seventh, eight and ninth most popular respectively. And newer platforms such as Snapchat (200m users) and Pinterest (100m users) are more popular than established platforms such as LinkedIn. The research also highlights that when it comes to the fastest growing networks, Twitter is losing ground to Facebook, WhatsApp, WeChat and Instagram.
Research conducted by comScore shows that Facebook reigns supreme when it comes to levels of user engagement (measured by monthly usage), but Snapchat has also made significant gains in this area.
Interestingly, the key to Snapchat’s appeal is that it has gone against established trends that see social media platforms saving and storing information. Snapchat successfully capitalises on the belief that moments are fleeting and temporary according to Culture 24’s report Let’s Get Real 4.
Commentators also suggest that the growth in popularity of Snapchat and messaging apps, such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp reflects a growing desire in audiences to have more real conversations with closed networks of friends and family, where there is less need to perform and they can be themselves.
However, Culture 24’s report highlights that platforms such as Snapchat as part of efforts to attract new revenue streams. For example, Snapchat’s Discover feature allows brands to house content on their own dedicated page, active users are rewarded with points and the arrival of Snapchat Stories allows users to post their own stories section (or feed) of their account, which is visible for 24 hours.
To this end the social media environment is somewhat contested between users’ increasing desire to be themselves on social media and the commercial needs of big brands.
“As arts and heritage organisations we need to decide which way we want to go. There is a demonstrated desire for audiences to be more themselves on social media and seek out more meaningful content and conversations that can tap into this. We can respond to this by being more open, conversational and playful in the way that we tell stories online – particularly on social media,” states the Let’s Get Real 4 report.
Museums and cultural institutions, which received support from Culture 24 and had their projects featured in its report, were encouraged to build narratives on social media that were not solely shaped by the pressure to be experts. They were also encouraged to embrace an approach based on the concept that social media is less about accuracy and more about ideas and dialogue.
Last year, for example, the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) experimented with ways its social media strategy could be tailored to provide interactive content. Twitter was the platform of choice and the digital team tried three different types of real time interaction with audiences on a daily basis.
It joined existing debates by using popular hashtags, sharing stories that related to a specific theme and responded to all comments received on the RA’s Twitter account. Engaging with the #NationalDogDay proved particularly successful, engaging groups that may have thought the RA had “no relevance” for them.
Audiences were asked to Tweet what their favourite kind of dog was and in return @royalacademy would share some pictures in its collection of that breed. Twitter users that took part were then invited to sketch the dogs and their drawings were collated in a Pinterest album.
The Wellcome Collection also utilises a number of fun and playful devices on social media, as web editor Russell Dornan explains in his article. The Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove has also brought a fresh and playful voice to its promotion of its show Fashion Cities Africa by engaging groups of young Instagrammers.
A playful approach, however, might not always be appropriate. For example, Arts Council England (ACE) experimented with the ways it engaged new audiences with a promotional video. But its calls on Twitter for staff, funded organisations and cultural and arts institutions to share the film and ‘Twitter battles’ designed to highlight the diverse range of culture across England didn’t go down well with audiences.
A statement from ACE, published in the Lets Get Real 4 report, said: “The Twitter battles actually got ACE some negative media coverage, which, along with the low engagement these Tweets received, proved to us that our Twitter followers are not the wider public with which we hoped to connect for this campaign. This was a really valuable lesson for us – and helped prove something we did have a hunch on.”
While experimentation on social media might not always produce the desired results, it’s essential to develop an effective strategy.
Museums that prioritise audience needs, collaborate on digital projects, embrace a culture of experimentation that involves cycles of failures and learning will be the most successful at harnessing the power of social media.
“It’s not just about a museum’s own brand and channels. It is about where the audience is and where the conversation is,” explains Jane Finnis, the chief executive of Culture 24.
Social media will be one of the topics covered at the MA's one-day seminar On Message: Effective Strategies for Marketing and PR, which takes place on 6 December at the Royal College of Surgeons in London.