The working life of Museum of London

Last week I attended a workshop arranged by Culture 24 that was led by Seb Chan of the Powerhouse Museum and I thought I’d put up my notes here of some things that you may find of interest as I have been busy exploring effectiveness of social media on the Museum of London and our websites.

These were notes jotted down very quickly that I have since then tried to make sense of, so please forgive me if it is a bit disjointed, and please do ask if you want me to expand on any areas I have learned about that I remember. I will try and put up the presentation slides if/when they are sent to me.

The workshop agenda for “Strategic social media for the cultural sector” can be found at http://culture24socialmedia.eventbrite.com.

Audience

Seb began by talking about the Powerhouse Museum website and explained that the content across the sites are segmented by audience. So for example, the children’s website does not hold as much information about the Powerhouse as the main site, but has lots of activities for children to download. These activities can be printed and completed offline and Powerhouse see this as successful marketing of the Museum in addition to being an engaging activity for children.

Connection between Museum and Museum websites

Seb stressed that the Museum and connection to the Museum website should be emphasised in the Museums (galleries in particular). So for example, if an object in the Museum gallery has an equivalent on the website, there should be a note saying something along the lines of ‘Download this on the Museum’s website’ or ‘Find out more about this object on the Museum’s website’.

Seb questioned why are videos in galleries not available online? He has observed that in galleries people don’t have time to watch full videos, but actually look for it online, which I found interesting as recently I received an email from a visitor who also wanted to know if a particular video in one of our galleries was online for them to watch. Unfortunately, my answer was no, but I have since then started to investigate a way of getting hold of that video to add to our YouTube account.

Seb pointed out that yes some videos may be old and Museums may not have permission for reuse, but any new videos commissioned should go through all the paperwork that make it possible to have it online.

Seb also said that the social media for children is offline, in people’s homes, where children print off an activity and take it along to do with friends. The Museum is being promoted and marketed in a successful way and the giving of stuff away, whether it is souvenirs at workshops or fairs, or stuff online, ensures freebies come back to the Museum (I guessed this to be visits to the Museum and Museum website and the free publicity).

On the other hand, adult social media is more online and this is evidenced from the Sydney Observatory website where 60% of visits are to the blog section.

Web at heart of Powerhouse Museum

I found of particular interest that the Powerhouse Museum have built in to the job descriptions of its curators that as part of their jobs, they have to blog weekly. Each curator is also trained to write user-friendly content into the collections database which is made available online.

Seb disclosed that all the Powerhouse job descriptions mention in it that applicants must have web publishing experience*. And in the Powerhouse web team there is a web producer who is dedicated to social media and monitoring social media activities. This person works with the marketing team to publish content on social media sites such as Facebook.

In addition, Seb conveyed that the Powerhouse Museum website activities are at the heart of the Museum and its strategies and policies and has buy-in from top down.

*CORRECTION (12 November 2009): Apologies, Seb actually meant that Powerhouse are heading towards adding in all their job descriptions that applicants must have web publishing experience, not that they actually have it already!

Flickr

In discussions about Flickr and photographs, I raised the question about conflicting copyright of objects and the photograph and possibly the photographer. Seb believed that we should push the responsibility back to the user if we cannot take charge of our photography policy, and so we should have terms and condition clearly outlined on our account that we are not responsible for what other people submit to the pool or put on Flickr and the user must obey the Flickr terms and conditions.

Collection online

We should offer the collection content under creative commons to users (the photographs will have different copyright – so that is separate to the content you offer for use). However, be aware that the enquiries about the collections as well as the request for private viewings will rise – so make sure you have a good policy for dealing with these.

Employees and use of digital media

Having seen the BBC’s guidelines and Seb’s blog post on this, I enquired about how Powerhouse deals with the use of social media by its employyes as I thought other people in the room may not have seen these. Seb said that it’s important to have clear guidance like the BBC that ensures if employees identify themselves as belonging to a particular organisation in their private social media activities, then they are bound by the same rules as if they were communicating on behalf of the Museum.

(You may also find the the blog entry ‘Employee Policies For Social Media Participation‘ of interest.)

Using social media

Your website is not necessarily your social place, so don’t get obsessed with why certain activities are not happening on your own site. It may be happening elsewhere, such as on Facebook or on Flickr.

Social media is about the 1% of visitors who are engaged with the Museum and are in the cycle of making repeat visits. These are your most important visitors, and these are the visitors that you will target your social media content at.

React quickly to any comments or feedback. Seb gave an example of a recent event that took place at the Powerhouse Museum which resulted in bad feedback from visitors on Twitter. When this was spotted by Seb & co, an official apology personally from the Chief Executive at Powerhouse Museum was put on the Powerhouse websites as well as social media sites such as Facebook. Lesson to be learned form this is that if you are going to use social media that is rapidly changing and requires quick responses, you need to act quickly and appropriately.

Seb mentioned the five rules of Museum content:

1. Discoverable – it is where I am and where I look for it
2. Meaningful – I can understand it
3. Responsive – to my interests, moods, location
4. Useable/Shareable – I can pass it on and share
5. Available in all three locations – online, onsite and offsite.

The full detailed rules are on his blog site at: www.powerhousemuseum.com/dmsblog/index.php/2009/10/29/five-rules-for-museum-content-via-amsterdam

It is important to make your content relevant as you will be competing for people’s attention, so you should ask six important questions before using any social media and running any projects that have a web element:

1. What do you want to achieve?
2. Who are you trying to engage?
3. Where do they spend time online?
4. What do you have for them? Can you open it up to enhance what they do?
5. What are the best methods to use?
6. How will you measure and evaluate it?

Key message I surmised from the workshop

The web is about communications, not information; hence the abstraction on the web and it is our role as web managers/producers/editors/developers to ensure that the communication takes place as seamlessly as possible and the abstraction is reduced if not eliminated.

If you fail at a particular project, don’t just abandon it. Evaluate the reasons behind the failure and how it could have been avoided and learn from it (and share it with others so they learn via you!). Also, don’t think all failures are failures. Each failure results in some form of success, e.g. a pilot scheme in galleries for web content to be available on mobile phones may not be used significantly by visitors to the Museum, however, it may result in a better, user-friendly website created for phones that’s accessible by people who may not be visiting the Museum but visiting the Museum website via their phones remotely.