What is Social Media?
Social Media: Websites & applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.
Let’s break that down
Media is an instrument on communication, like a newspaper or radio.
Social Media would then be a website that doesn’t just give you information, but interacts with you while give you that information.
As simple as asking for comments, letting you vote, or as complex as Netflix, recommending movies based on ratings, etc.
So what are these new tools?
Facebook: Connect with Friends and the world around you on Facebook.
See photos and updates from friends in the newsfeed
Share what’s new in your life on your timeline
Find more of what you’re looking for with graph search
Twitter: See what’s happening right now
Find communicty, conversation, and inspiration about the things you love
Instagram: Capture and share the world’s moments
A free and simple way to share your life and keep up with other people
Pinterest: Join pinterest to find all the things that inspire you.
A visual bookmarking tool that helps you discover and save creative ideas
Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with more than 1 billion users worldwide.
Ubiquitous.
Wall, newsfeed
Friends, likes, and comments
Pages, events, groups
Photo Albums, online chat
Social sharing – connect back to Facebook
Tweets: 140-character messages
Hashtags (#MuseumsRespondToFerguson)
Broad audience, rapid, communities (MCN), discovery and communication
Re-tweets, direct messages, personal connections, celebs
USE IMAGES
Video – vine / periscope
Photo and video – in app only
Filters
Hashtags, Location tagging
Insta-meetups / tagging
Community functions differently. People who like and engage yes, but not about sharing images to communicate directly to them.
What are the implications?
Users (our audiences) have a voice!
Users can generate alongside traditional producers and take down institutions.
A guy on Twitter broke the story of the miracle on the Hudson. Not news stations.
And Museums are Social?
We’re in the content business; lure people in with what’s exciting rather than push more info at them.
Communicate with your followers. Social media is a tool to engage rather than a mouthpiece.
Speaking the language of the platforms can challenge longstanding practices of the museum.
How can we grow
Communication: questions, call to actions, memories, tell stories.
Tag, connect, relate. Rise the tides for all boats.
Leverage each other’s audiences.
Stand out, be different. Don’t stand for boring.
Be social, don’t just publish. That’s not social.
A few tips
Regularity in posts.
Always use images
Pull people, try not to push. Find the balance
Engage with people. Genuinely converse with people.
Find your voice through what’s already yours. Your passion in your org not a fabricated presentation of self.
No cure-all. You have to invest with time and the language of each platform. What you want/can do + what the platform requires.