Tweeting Moles? Social Media from the Grant Museum Mark Carnall Curator Grant Museum of Zoology UCL UKRG Professional Development 12 th February 2014 All images © Grant Museum of Zoology, UCL unless otherwise stated

Museums and the adoption of technologies Early adopters Technophiles Media savvy Guardian Politicians Middle classes Young people Academics MA start charging 150 quid for training courses Museums Marketing industry suck the soul out of it, Libraries Changing landscape- Think about the field you are in- managers aren’t consumers.

Social Media- Formats Twitter- Transitory, irreverant(?), topical Facebook- Badges and postcards Blogs- Long form, ‘publication’, CV(?) Flickr, Youtube & others- Hosting tool

Trailing, Legacy and B-roll content Advantages © Will and Mike Tuck

‘New Audiences’ Advantages People who can’t visit the museum. People who won’t visit the museum. People who should visit the museum. A way of discovering a museum through social networks People who don’t see every activity you do. Technophiles.

adoption Africa archaeology Asia Australian fieldwork behind the scenes conservation day in the life detective work event topics exhibition exhibitions Extinction Fish Flinders Petrie from the stores I found this... in the field in the news Invertebrate Mammal Marine Marsupials Micrarium museums Natural History Museum object based teaching Outreach Petrie Petrie Museum pop culture public engagement QRator Reviews science shark Slade School of Fine Art South America Specimen of the week Tasmania Thylacine UCL Art Museum Underwhelming fossi Reactivity + Range Advantages adoption Africa archaeology Asia Australian fieldwork behind the scenes conservation day in the life detective work event topics exhibition exhibitions Extinction Fish Flinders Petrie from the stores I found this... in the field in the news Invertebrate Mammal Marine Marsupials Micrarium museums Natural History Museum object based teaching Outreach Petrie Petrie Museum pop culture public engagement QRator Reviews science shark Slade School of Fine Art South America Specimen of the week Tasmania Thylacine UCL Art Museum Underwhelming fossil fish of the month upcoming exhibitions Western Australia

Collections

Museums

Issues?

Advantages Source: Promotion and Advocacy

Institutional Hazards What does your centre/department/university think of social media? Is there a format you should adopt? Make sure you get crediting right. What kind of voice will you use? Are there other restrictions- personal information, images. Minefield topics Moderation Disadvantages

Frequency is King Disadvantages

Statistical bulletin: Internet Access Quarterly Update, Q Office for National Statistics

Who is the audience? Disadvantages

The Museum Niche? Museum Twitter British Library 536k NHM- 482k V&A- 346k Science museum- 324k BM- 264k MoL- 46.2k Other OMG Facts 6M NASA 5.8M Weird Al Yankovic 3.2M Dolly Parton 2.9M Philip Schofield 2.7M Fat Amy 2.2M

Broadcasting Which channels should be direct marketing? Engagement & broadcasting? Authoritative voice Social media for social media’s sake Your opinion? Humour- It’s only museums..

Accessibility Putting stuff online = accessible to everybody Disadvantages Content in English Requires a plugin 43 clicks to get to content Do you want to ‘reach’ everyone? Treat your online audience as if you would any other ones of your audiences! OBVS.

Feedback Tweeting moles

Benefits Column in New Scientist. National press coverage for smaller exhibitions. Museums and Heritage Awards! Wikipedians will link content to wikipedia. Use of ‘unusable’ collections. Events like today.

Mark Carnall UCL Museums blog: Grant Museum