As the coronavirus continues to prevent museums and cultural organizations from welcoming audiences to their physical spaces, the importance of digital engagement has increased exponentially. In the face of this all, many organizations are embracing the opportunity to use this time as a period of experimentation, especially with regards to social media and other digital channels.
This past Wednesday, over 2,500 museum professionals joined Brendan Ciecko (CEO & Founder @ Cuseum), Hilary-Morgan Watt (Digital Engagement Manager @ Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden), & Emily Haight (Social Media Manager @ New-York Historical Society) as they talked through the ways museums can begin experimenting with social media, hashtags, digital outreach, and other means to boost engagement among their audiences.
Watch the full recording here.
Read the full transcript below!
Brendan Ciecko:
Hello, everyone. My name is Brendan Ciecko. I'm the founder and CEO of Cuseum. First off, I want to say thank you to everyone who is joining us today as well as share my gratitude with our great panelists. I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during this difficult and unusual time.But above this, I want to join most of you, the global museum community, in taking a moment to recognize and thank our health workers working around the clock and in the face of risk to save lives and help our communities in this time of need. Earlier today, museums around the globe launched #MuseumsThankHealthHeroes. In addition to the social media campaign, museums have been donating resources such as protective equipment to hospitals in need.For those who have taken part in our previous webinars, I want to say thank you for joining us again and to all of our newcomers, welcome. A total of over 7,000 people over the last couple of weeks have joined us and over 3,000 people will be here with us all today. These past few weeks have been a roller coaster ride for many of us as we wrestle with uncertainty and today we're trying to adapt to a temporary new normal of working remotely while the doors of our institutions are closed to the public. For most of us, it feels like we're building a rocket ship while we've already launched, soaring towards space. We've been thrust into a position of figuring things out quickly and trying our best to address changes and challenges where there are really no easy answers. And forums like these, where we can find inspiration, we can find support and we can exchange ideas, are more important than they've ever been and it's been incredible to watch the museum community and the cultural community come together.
The theme for today's conversation is how museums can experiment with social media to boost audience engagement during Coronavirus and I'm super excited to introduce our special guests. We're going to jump into some introductions. We have Hilary-Morgan Watt. Hilary-Morgan is the Digital Engagement Manager for the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. With over 14 years of experience in museums and galleries, she has led digital strategy workshops across The Smithsonian, lectured at the State Department, George Washington University and Georgetown University. She's an active member of ArtTable and teaches as an adjunct professor at George Washington University in the graduate museum study program. Thanks for joining us Hilary-Morgan.
Hilary-Morgan:
Thanks for having me.
Brendan Ciecko:
Then we have Emily Haight. Emily is the Social Media Manager at the New-York Historical Society. Emily previously managed social media at the National Portrait Gallery, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. She currently serves on the communications teams on the American Alliance of Museums Media and Technology Professional Network and chairs the social media special interest group for Museum Computer Network. And Emily, I love that you included this in your bio because I think it totally aligns with what we're going to be discussing today. Included in your bio, she values cross institutional collaboration through social media, sparking dialogue with online communities and creative uses of technology in museum spaces. I just have to shout out how much I love that you include that in your bio. Thanks so much for joining us today, Emily!
Emily Haight:
Thank you. I'm excited to be here.
Brendan Ciecko:
Lastly, I'm Brendan Ciecko, Founder of Cuseum. I will be your host and moderator today. So, let's get ready for some questions for Emily and Hilary-Morgan. So this one goes out to both of you.
I've been seeing #MuseumBouquet popup and, might I say, bloom all over my social media feeds over the last week or so. By the way, literally, I have flowers next to me to pair with that question like a nice fine wine pairing. And by the way, congrats on the CBS News shout out! It was incredible to see the success of #MuseumBouquet. Can you tell us what #MuseumBouquet is and how it came together?
Hilary-Morgan:
I'll jump in. It was only last week, what is time? Last Friday I basically saw one of my friends get a bouquet of flowers that she un-boxed on social media and I was trying to think of, how can museums send that amount of cheer. And thinking about collections, virtual bouquets and anyone that's a social media manager in a museum knows that we rely on this network of peers who are really creative. So I reached out to Emily ask, "Is this like a thing? Could this work?" And she really nailed it with the hashtag. She had the idea of #MuseumBouquet and we just wanted something that would be a light lift for social media managers. Probably everyone has some connection whether it was actual paintings of bouquets or botanic specimens and something that would be just cheerful for audiences to flood feeds as a bright spot that wouldn't necessarily be tasking them with anything else. Not like, “download this” or “come to our website.” Just something a little more packaged and there simply for the beauty of it.
Emily Haight:
To add onto that, it was really a great way to spend the morning looking through the hashtag and trying to furiously comment and like everything that people were sharing. But even more than what museums were sharing, it was great to see how the audience was reacting and the kinds of things that just people on Twitter shared where they're like, "Oh my gosh, #MuseumBouquet has got me in the emotions and this is the best thing I've seen all week. And ugh, this is like making me cry, but in a good way." Just things like that. And seeing thousands of those comments was really special.
Hilary-Morgan:
And it's still going. You can go read some more happy comments. It's just a ripple.
Brendan Ciecko:
I love that it's turned into a little bit of a virtual gift between institutions across the globe. Like seeing a message from the Neue Galerie to the Guggenheim or to this organization to that organization, I find that to be really great level of camaraderie and just the sheer fact that both of you are at two different organizations, but are clearly friends and have worked together in the past in these types of capacities. I thought that it just showed the power and beauty of that serendipity and collaboration.
Next question is for Emily. You spearheaded some popular social media campaigns over the past few years at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. You launched #5WomenArtists, and at the New-York Historical Society you launched #MuseumTrickOrTreat. What do you think makes an effective social media campaign?
Emily Haight:
Oh, man. How much time do you guys have? I'm sure that there's a lot of people watching this right now who have also worked on similar things before and, of course, there's probably some people tuning in who have not previously managed social media, but I think, first off, I would say internally, it's helpful to have a great team of people to work with and bounce ideas off of as well as in the larger museum community. And I think can you name #5WomenArtists, at National Museum of Women in the Arts was a cross-departmental social media team effort and it was also something that gave institutions the flexible framework for sharing. It was during Women's History Month, that's when museums tend to spotlight women artists and women in their collections anyway so it was a pretty light lift in terms of having people create content.
It was also great for audiences because it issued a challenge and so many people were shocked that they could not name five women artists. And in the last couple years since I haven't been at the museum, they've blown it up even more which has been great to see. And then #MuseumTrickOrTreat at New-York Historical Society, we knocked on virtual doors on Twitter with other museums to go trick or treating on Halloween. And typically museums share Halloween related content anyway, but this just provided a different, more fun way of sharing their collections. And it's also another way in which it's great when museums act a little more human and I think that their audiences really appreciate that.
So it was also a fun way of highlighting some stuff in the collection that maybe doesn't get as much play typically because it is weird or slightly morbid or it's candy, it's skeletons. And I'm not sure how many times I get to type on Twitter like, "Hey, where are all my main witches?" So that was a really fun thing to work on. But, again, anytime you can provide an idea that shocks or surprises your audience and we can collaborate with other museums, that's even better especially for launching something like a longer campaign. And, act human! I think that's important.
Brendan Ciecko:
Hilary-Morgan, the Hirshhorn has one of the most vibrant Instagram accounts especially for lovers of modern and contemporary art and #InfiniteKusama was a huge hit. It made its way around the country to numerous museums.
Most recently I saw that you launched #HirshhornInsideOut. Candidly, I love that the initial announcement said, "Tell us what you would like to see in the comments." What has your audience told you that they would like to see?
Hilary-Morgan:
Our audiences are kind of trickling in with their recommendations and I think we're going to have more opportunities to ask them again after a couple series. There were mostly shout outs for artists that they would love to see like Mickalene Thomas, Yayoi Kusama. We had a great shout out for requesting at home art activities inspired by our collection and so we're prepping to deliver on that. #HirshhornInsideOut was the vision of our director and it really mobilized our curators to take that author seat on Instagram. Obviously their work is always what informs the content, but it's their direct insights they're reflecting on. So, we just finished up Women's History Month and now we're going to transition into their reflections on art for trying times and trying to find some moments of inspiration from artists in their own practice and in their own lives. We're hoping to make some connections there and we're very excited to roll out some maker videos hopefully this week or next week.
Brendan Ciecko:
How has it been letting the curatorial staff have a place driving some of that content?
Hilary-Morgan:
I think it's been great. I think on a normal schedule, everyone always has lots of enthusiasm for it, but just in terms of task and priorities, it's not as much of a direct seat necessarily. But it's all really positive and just great just to hear some different reflections. I think they're taking time to add a different conversational lens to their conversations so it's been positive so far.
Brendan Ciecko:
I want to throw in a question from the audience right now. So we have a question from Allison Gulick at the Walters Art Museum over in Baltimore: As someone who works predominantly in public programs, I'm interested in people's thoughts on the long term impact of this shift to social media engagement as the main source of connection and relevance with audiences. How will we be able to maintain this level of digital engagement post coronavirus? Will we lose our digitally cultivated audiences if we shift back to having more in person programs?
Emily Haight:
I can start with this one. I think that that's sometimes been a criticism of digital in museums anyway, how much you make accessible online. Will people still want to visit in the physical sense? And I think nothing replaces the physical experience of being in a museum or being at a public program in an auditorium where you are 10 feet away from a speaker. So I definitely don't think our increase in social engagement now is going to impact us negatively once these museums are able to reopen and people are able to attend those programs in person.
Hilary-Morgan:
Yeah. And I would also add that, right now there's a lot of attention on these digital platforms, but for someone who does that role, we've been here the whole time. We were creating content, we are always open to collaborations, highlights, features and there's more attention on it now and participants now and we'll still be there afterwards. That's entirely what our role is about, to support. The ideas that are creative now will still be creative later and will always have a platform, which is the best fit. Whether it's like a live stream or Q&A or something else.
Brendan Ciecko:
It seems like it's just all about adapting. Over the last couple of weeks a huge level of shifts have taken place and when things get back to normal, the same will take place where museums are constantly going to evaluate what's working, what's working well for their audience, what's working well for the new audience development in marketing. I think that's something to look forward to in a lot of ways. And some of the earlier parts of the questions mirror to me the fears that people had during the introduction of radio. When radio became a thing, people thought that concert halls and symphony halls were going to close down, but the music industry is at an all time time high for live entertainment. Access, in many ways, overcomes all.
Museum staff, especially anyone responsible for social media, are getting bombarded with ideas for campaigns, hashtags, projects and more so when ideas are abundant, how do you narrow in ideas worth exploring and pursuing? What does that process look like for both of you?
Hilary-Morgan:
I'm going to speak now. I guess it's the same answer, right - what are, what are the best ideas? What's the most unique angle? What's serving your audience? What goes back to your core mission? And especially now with the increased volume, what is your unique take that you can provide right now? And what is the bread and butter of your collection and the most unique way to say it and present it? Everyone's going to be doing live streams and everyone's pushing games and it's a lot of great content, but what makes you stand out a little bit more? So maybe instead of livestream with a curator today, ask them anything. Maybe it's prompting it and adding a little more zazz, from pollen to chocolate or gorilla protest art, five things you didn't know about modern art. How can you position it?
Emily Haight:
I would totally echo that Hilary-Morgan just said. I think we all have to consider our institutional missions respectively and what do we do well, what have we always done well, what's our strength, what do audiences want from you? And then on top of that I'd say sometimes it's a great idea and just not the right time for it, not the right vehicle and I think since we are living in such uncertain times, depending on the news cycle and whatever fresh horrors jump out, people have to be more sensitive than usual so that might mean some good content just doesn't get posted that day or it doesn't make it live. And sometimes silence is better so making that call is tough.
Hilary-Morgan:
I'd also add, as something a little more actionable, again, speaking to our peers in the field, there's so many brilliant people. Ryan Dodge has this great checklist that he created when he was at the Royal Ontario Museum.
Brendan Ciecko:
I've been talking to Ryan Dodge about getting him on an upcoming conversation and then when he saw this one he's like, "You have Hilary-Morgan and Emily, what do you need me for?" So it's funny you mention him.
Hilary-Morgan:
Of course, he's great. But basically it's a list of questions on how your content relates to your mission, to your community, to the audiences you're serving. Did you make a joke and should you be making a joke? And to Emily's point about timeliness, what's happening in the world. So we can share that link later.
Emily Haight:
And I think he also said, "Does your museum inspire awe?" And if that post is not inspiring awe in some way, you're not fulfilling your mission. And I think something else is the human aspect. Everything you post should be human content. If it's driving somebody to actually buy something, then it should be an ad. And I feel that on every level.
Brendan Ciecko:
Let’s talk a little bit about some of these frameworks and action items. I've seen different frameworks for testing your social media ideas before launching, one of them is the acronym ICE. “I” is for the impact of the idea, “C” is for how confident that you are that this idea will work, and “E” is for how easy it is to implement. Are these helpful or is it too unpredictable to know what will resonate with audiences right now?
Emily Haight:
I would say sometimes it is a little unpredictable and it's hard to say for sure, but I know that an approach that I've done, that even #MuseumBouquet is an example of, I usually bounce ideas off of other people before I just go for them. And it was extremely helpful in this campaign. Hilary-Morgan put together a google survey and we also let museums sign up in advance. So knowing that we already had 80 museums that were going to participate was helpful in knowing that it would be successful. I don't think I knew it was going to be that big, but I knew that it would make some of an impact.
So definitely testing things out with colleagues and friends. And also, for every hashtag that hits it big, there's another hundred that don't and it doesn't mean that they weren't good ideas or that they weren't executed well. It's sometimes just hitting the right chord at the right time and that part is unpredictable.
Brendan Ciecko:
It’s great to hear that you put out a line early with the community to first see if there's buy in, to see what the responses are and then it also seems like you’re baking in distribution for when it launches. So I think that that's brilliant and that's fantastic to see, especially with #MuseumBouquet.
Currently, there's this wild rush to get material out to the people which is critically important given the circumstances. But this should really be looked at as step one. Does this answer the bigger question of what audiences want right now? What do you think audiences want right now and can you experiment with small groups of people, maybe not museums, before going public to see what will stick and what won't?
Hilary-Morgan:
I can start and then I'll pivot to Emily. Audiences, it's dark times out there, right? So I think consistency from your brand and your mission and your content. Not that there can't be moments of creativity with a new spin, but if we're highlighting works by collection we should probably keep doing that to provide what they expect of us and some sense of normalcy. I think our audiences are kind of already with most institutions segmented in some ways. So we have our team art lab program and on their platforms, they've moved from in the studio to online and having conversations and some live streams. And we're going to have some activities for our Hirshhorn kids newsletter. Tapping into what you already have is probably where I would stick with it.
Emily Haight:
I would totally agree. I think social listening is obviously key. It's a good way to get a sense, every social media manager has their finger on the pulse of what's going on on the internet in that given day which is also crushing sometimes but I think another example is the New-York Historical Society, for example, their education department is really phenomenal and they already made these real time Zoom lessons for kids at home. And then they also provided a bunch of teacher resources, but for them, they also have their own lists and relationships that already exist with schools and educators. So they already knew about the need that needed to be filled and they already had a way to reach those people and it's been really successful. That is an example of knowing your niche audiences and how best to serve them, even though that was not strictly social. We've obviously been helping to promote and share #MuseumFromHome resources on our channel.
Brendan Ciecko:
Emily, are you watching throughout the day what types of content is trending, what hashtags are trending and, and do you recommend or advise to museums or whoever is in social that they might be able to piggyback on some campaign that's picking up momentum, the caveat being it's appropriate, it's maybe apolitical, it's not dark or anything off color?
Emily Haight:
Yeah. And I think definitely keeping in mind timing and tone and not being partisan, while being political is fine.
Brendan Ciecko:
“Museums are not neutral.”
Emily Haight:
“Museums are not neutral.”
Emily Haight:
But I will say, sometimes that's helpful. For example, if people didn't know that today was Census Day, that is something that a lot of people can do online from their homes. If they have stuff that relates to the collection, that's great and that was a trending hashtag. Otherwise, a lot of the hashtags that trend on a day to day basis right now are all related to coronavirus so I would say probably steer away from that unless you are actually providing something that is a useful resource, which would probably mean just pointing to the CDC at this point.
Hilary-Morgan:
And to add on, there's some umbrella terms that anyone can participate in. So the #MuseumFromHome and #MuseumMomentOfZen, I think those are probably applicable to lots of folks on this call today.
Emily Haight:
Large hashtags, like #homeschooling, #WorkFromHome, all of those are still getting picked up.
Brendan Ciecko:
So you're seeing museums jump onto hashtags that are adjacent to coronavirus, but more so the day in day lighter touches of #homeschool and other such things? Is that starting to pick up or is it an accepted reality for most brands, institutions and campaigns?
Hilary-Morgan:
I think probably both. It makes sense as a natural marriage of content that that's where that would live.
Emily Haight:
I'd agree.
Brendan Ciecko:
I want to pull in a question from the audience and this one dovetails nicely off of the jumping into trending phenomenon. This comes from Sarah Paschall from the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno. She asks: I recently saw an Instagram post from the Museum of Modern Art which was an art piece featuring a tiger and in their caption they gave a shout out to the Tiger King show that is now one of the most watched shows on Netflix. It got an outstanding response. And in times of worry and constant updates of important and serious information, is it helpful and uplifting to break with the branding and focus content to play into some viral humor, or just post something cute or silly to make people smile? Isn't a time like now the time to try something new, out of the box or just plain wacky?"
Emily Haight:
I think it's great when museums are able to take advantage of trending memes and things that people are streaming on Netflix because obviously a lot of people are streaming video right now. And I think it's great when museums can imbue their content with a little bit of humor and joy, but I think you have to be really careful about the way you do that and think about your audience first. If your audience doesn't play that kind of game, it's probably not appropriate for you to do it now. I will say, I think consistency has been very helpful for a lot of museum social media feeds, but doing something like penguins walking around in an aquarium looking at stuff, it's just inherently joyful without it being cruel or making fun of anything in particular. So I think that's a fine line to toe and I think a lot of social media managers know the difference too and know what their audiences want from them.
Hilary-Morgan:
I would just say that I am in general a little more cautious about comedy overall. I think if you're in like the pun zone or dad jokes, it's probably a safe bet. Shout out to Hannah Ostroff who does The Smithsonian's social. She always has a really great sense of that comedy. And I'm curious about some of the social distancing memes. Again, I'd be concerned that, with how much that this is extending that it has a bit of elitism to it. There's been some conversations going around online about that - social distancing versus survival. And I think just in general, as we continue down this path, I would lean more towards cute and calming versus humor, unless that's already part of your branding. And even then, day to day, that timing and especially if our institutions, our own internal community is going through a really hard time and with additional layoffs, maybe your museum shouldn't be cracking any jokes.
Emily Haight:
So, an example would be like the MERL.They're always cracking jokes, that's their bread and butter and that's what people expect from them so that is totally within their realm. But, yeah, I think the other things that make people happy, cute animal photos, bright colors, these are all things that are safe and can still be fun.
Brendan Ciecko:
I think it's even scientifically proven that bright colors and cute animals lift the spirits and give you a little hit of dopamine so you can always lean back on that at the end of the day. You raised a good point about the perception of elitism or the inequality aspect of things that might arise by stepping a little bit over a boundary that maybe an organization is exploring right now given the circumstances.
We have a question from Christina Scorza at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. She says, "As inclusivity and diversity and equity are incredibly important, how can everyone engage? Are we mining the data to understand who is participating to better understand how to serve a more diverse audience?" That's a question that I hadn't heard over the past few webinars and I thought it was a really important topic to weave into today's dialogue.
Emily Haight:
I think that that's something that every museum is trying for and it kind of breaks down into who is your audience already and who are you hoping to expand that to? And we all have our own ways, our own analytics, our own measures of success. One thing that's easy that people can do that makes it more accessible for everyone is adding in alt text wherever you can, even though it's an added step for a lot of people, so thinking about people who are coming from different backgrounds and making sure that you take that extra step. But then there's also stuff like just looking at your analytics of your top posts and the regional breakdown of where your online followers are coming from, measuring what's done well and then trying to hit that high note again. And I think anything that can be a little bit more interactive and invite other people in and having multiple entry points to something, and not assuming that people know a very art historical term. Explain it in the same line if you're going to use it, small things like that. I don't know if that was exactly the question that they were asking, but I feel like those are some of the best practices that a lot of social media managers follow in an attempt to make sure that their content is as inclusive as possible.
Hilary-Morgan:
I second everything Emily said and I would just add, in terms of the voices that you can highlight, that representation matters. So, internally, who can you include and amplify, again, looking at collections and exhibits and the state of the world through multiple lenses and also trying to include more visitor voices whether it's in how you write captions to invite commentary back or even just have that be the post itself. It's a really great technique.
Brendan Ciecko:
Right. And you mentioned something about the analytics that maybe institutions are tapping into and I want to scale things back a little from the perspective of museums that maybe they don't have a social media department or someone dedicated to that and they're really starting to learn the motions or go through the motions of learning how to effectively manage social media and use the tools. What are some tools on top of the actual channels themselves? Is it Hootsuite? Is it Buffer? What are some of the go-to applications or software that you would recommend to a museum with less than 10 employees just starting to figure things out, starting to understand what their online audience looks like? What are those tools?
Emily Haight:
Well, for New-York Historical Society we used Sprout Social and I do really like it in terms of reporting and content scheduling. It gets you a program that can do both. I do think it is tough if you are a very small museum with a limited budget. You're kind of limited to those platforms that offer insights and analytics, but I would also say, when it comes to things like content creation and organizing, if you're now using a lot more people across the institution who are inputting contents, things like Airtable or Asana. A lot of museum professionals really like Airtable in terms of organizing content.
Hilary-Morgan:
I would also just add that larger museums don't necessarily have those magic budgets either. So I hear Sprout Social's great. I like Keyhole. I find that's great for campaigns and analyzing data for specific projects. I like the platform overall.
Brendan Ciecko:
Great. And I feel like now more than ever, a lot of these platforms have free plans and free trials available especially with what is going on for nonprofits and education-based institutions. I just want to mention that, as I would imagine for any of the tools that you've mentioned, there's probably, a free or inexpensive entry point just to get started in that area. Much of what we've been discussing today involves engagement beyond simply driving people back to your website. We've been talking about reaching people where they are whether it be Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, for some of you maybe it's TikTok, Facebook and other channels.
Before coronavirus, how many posts per day would you recommend and what do you recommend now as well as what channels have been most successful?
Hilary-Morgan:
I know that Emily and I will just say the same thing of quality over quantity, always. So, my recommendation isn't that different from a normal day. I'll probably do like one post on Facebook and Instagram and then multiple posts on Twitter just because of how fluid it is and there's more of a balance of content and marketing means. And so during this period of closure, I wouldn't necessarily shift much beyond that especially now just for how much content there is and frankly, how much emergency messaging needs to get out there depending on what community you're in and how quickly that is shifting.
Emily Haight:
Yeah. I'd echo all of the same things. We tend to post once or sometimes twice on Instagram, not including stories, but generally speaking, our best time to be posting is 10:00 o'clock at night. Our audience is mostly New York based so I'm not sure how much of that has to do with just a New Yorker's daily life. But on Facebook, we allow for two to three, depending, but it's always content first. We're never just trying to fill up space to fill up space.
And I think now more than ever, we definitely are overloaded in terms of the resources that we're trying to share with people and the ways in which we're trying to engage with our audiences. So I think having somatic, streamlined, broken-down content is helpful also for our audience to not overwhelm them all at once because they're already feeling overwhelmed.
Brendan Ciecko:
Are there any non-museum social media channels or brands that you follow that inspire the way you think of the power of online channels and what they have in every day's life? I think you bring up a really interesting point, Emily, about feeling overwhelmed right now. What are some of the accounts that you follow that give you the reversal, put you at ease, put you in your zen state?
Emily Haight:
I've been getting a lot of like daily GIFs and memes from friends and family which has been great. I will say, this is very personal, but I'm sure it has mass appeal because he has so many followers. I do love following The Rock on Instagram. Just cause he's so charismatic, so upbeat. He's doing a lot of live sessions with all of his fans so they can ask me anything while he's in the gym or he's having a cheat day. And he always has a very nice message and thanks people, he's very gracious. So it's soothing white noise to me sometimes.
Brendan Ciecko:
So wait, Emily, Dwayne, The Rock, Johnson?
Emily Haight:
Dwayne, The Rock, Johnson.
Brendan Ciecko:
Really? Wow.
Emily Haight:
If you haven't followed him, it's pretty great.
Brendan Ciecko:
I feel like this is a teaser for a New-York Historical Society Campaign with The Rock. He’s not from New York though, is he?
Emily Haight:
No, he's not.
Brendan Ciecko:
Hilary-Morgan, what about you?
Hilary-Morgan:
Lots of different things. My favorite stress relief these days is the account My Therapist Says. I just feel they're perfect any day and even now, in this difficult time, they're just hitting the right notes. I also love the cartoonist Gemma Correll, lots of cats and pug jokes. And anything by Jameela Jamil. It's all about a community of positivity, inclusivity and it's wonderful.
Brendan Ciecko:
What are some of your favorite experimental ideas that you'd be open to sharing with the audience today that maybe aren't a right fit for the Hirshhorn or aren't a right fit for New-York Historical Society, but might be worth pursuing for other museums, if it's okay that I put you guys on the spot with that one?
Hilary-Morgan:
Is anyone doing like online Mad Libs? Is that still a thing? Community collaboration?
Brendan Ciecko:
I've seen some word puzzles from Akron Art Museum. Mad Libs, I'm not sure. Are you seeing a lot of trivia?
Hilary-Morgan:
I have been starting, I actually just saw a post, my sister sent it to me, of the Burke Museum in Washington State doing online trivia, but I think it might be more of a Zoom platform. I haven't looked into it yet, but I think that could be really fun. I don't know. It's tough because I think people are really doing a lot of creative things right now, but everyone's also being pulled in every direction, because there's so many other leisure activities out there and so people are getting super analog and breaking out jigsaw puzzles and board games which is great.
I think I really do love Seema Rao’s Museum Games that she's doing including that crossword puzzle and I think she's constantly trying to think of new ways of engaging people and new fun things for her audiences. So, yeah, it's been great. And I think also the #ColorOurCollections for museums, not saying it's not a good fit, I think it's a good fit for most people, but I've loved seeing the resurgence of that coming up too and the ways in which it translates on social media by coloring in things on Instagram stories, but also offering downloads for people to print at home and work on. I think that's been pretty cute.
Brendan Ciecko:
It seems like, and I feel this very strongly about Seema's work with museum games, now is any time that there is an existing framework, meaning the heavy lifting has already been done for you, if you are a smaller organization that doesn't have a lot of time or resources right now, that might be your best bet right now is to leverage - what has already been created. And I think Seema has done a phenomenal job and there are probably other examples popping up because what I've seen is just like endless amounts of resources flowing openly for the field by the field right now and that helps everybody rise during this time. So I just wanted to mention that there's probably 10 times what we've even mentioned in the last couple of minutes in that regard.
Emily Haight:
And I'll even add on one. To say that I really loved a lot of these Zoom backgrounds that museums are creating out of their artworks. I saw some great ones from the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the North Carolina Museum of Art. I'm working on some for New-York Historical now too because I think it's going to be really fun to have a change of scenery. I probably should've put one up here. Next time.
Hilary-Morgan:
And it looks like the chat is blowing up with hashtags of all the games and things going on right now, so definitely worth a browse.
Brendan Ciecko:
Excellent. So let’s jump into a bunch of questions from the audience. This is one that is really a critical question, it comes up every single webinar. It comes up in our conversations with membership departments and it bleeds across a number of different departments as it does relate to members and donors.
This is coming from Zach Rose - could you share some insights into separating content that should be reserved or saved for members versus donors versus the general public?
Hilary-Morgan:
That one's really hard and I think museums are going to struggle with it. I think one technique is that membership gets first look versus only access because probably what you've promised them in their benefits is some type of exclusive access and that fills that need so if you have something juicy that they can see it first. You can do that with unpublished links to video content.
Emily Haight:
I would agree with the same thing. Having unlisted content that's video or recordings from public programs that were for members specifically. But I also think that, in general, it's good to give our members some credit and I think that, again, uncharted waters, very difficult times, I think that the people who are supporting museum financially do it because they love the institution and they love the field and they love supporting arts and culture. So I don't think that those people are going to be too “only my content, don't let anyone else see it.” I think at this point we're, we're all here together. So I would say, for any membership department that feels that they are able to give some of that members only access to a wider public, I think now is the time to do it.
Brendan Ciecko:
That’s all really helpful feedback and it is such a challenging question cause there's different priorities at stake. But I think you're absolutely right about why members support the organizations that they do and I know that there's a lot of data that supports that very fact. I did hear earlier in the week, I can't remember if it was Director of Membership from the Saint Louis Art Museum or the Dallas Museum of Art, but they were saying they were taking the same content that they're making publicly available and sending it out 24 hours earlier so that there was a little bit of exclusivity and they are getting a first look like you mentioned earlier which I, which I thought an, an interesting way of addressing it. Because, most museums being solely about, or primarily about this mission of access and education, it is a challenging question to address for sure.
Hilary-Morgan:
Well, and I think another framework to consider is how you might have a press announcement for something. Lots of museums don't quite have exclusives, but they're kind of exclusives. Which images might that person get? So it's all the baby otters, right? Well, members get this baby otter photo and they get it first and then everyone else gets this book album of the baby otter photos. I think there's ways to segment it to honor that commitment that members have given.
Brendan Ciecko:
Interesting. And how do museums ensure that they're staying true to their audience through these new digital strategies and not becoming part of this “we're here for you” trend that has become pretty commercial and corporate feeling?
Hilary-Morgan:
Just going back to Emily, she had that great point of, are we sounding human? If we're doing our jobs, we know that we are that community space for everyone. So I think the initial messaging is of “we're here for you”. In its variations, I think that was authentic and meaningful. And as long as there's a balance of your content coming after that, it's going to still ring true. And balance in terms of content for your audience versus asks that you need. If you're trying to add people to your e-newsletter and then you have membership coming, how can you really stretch that out so it doesn't feel like too much. If you do that, I think you'll have that integrity with your audience still.
Emily Haight:
And I think that the point to highlight is the integrity. A lot of big brands are different from museums in a lot of different ways and museums are inherently for the public. It's part of our arts and cultural landscape so I think as long as you are maintaining the integrity of your channels and the content that you're sending to your audiences thinks about them and is less just, “we have to get all of this out.” Take a breath, take a beat and think about a strategy and then shift and adjust as needed.
Brendan Ciecko:
Are either of your organizations doing livestreams and if so, are you supporting those with an adjacent social media campaign or live tweets of what's taking place within the livestream itself?
Emily Haight:
We're doing a lot of Zoom meetings because we have a lot of different programming departments. So in that respect they're live and then they also have the recordings afterwards to share. In terms of livestreaming from our accounts, we also don't have access to the physical museum space right now which makes it a little difficult and I think there's some museums that have a lot of digital resources that they've already filmed, like having virtual tours of the collection. Some museums don't have the resources to create that, especially now, if they didn't have them before. But I wanted to test out maybe doing Facebook events for things that are live. I don't find live tweets to be too helpful or informative. I think you'd be better off making sure that you caption whatever content you put out there after the fact and post it on YouTube and send it out in an E-blast.
Hilary-Morgan:
We haven't started a livestreams yet, but our education team is busy creating and conceptualizing how we might adapt some of the programs to make it special and for the livestream audience. And right now we're doing a lot of repurposing of content and repackaging. So we have our Hirshhorn Eye Mobile Guide that's an experience where you walk through the galleries and scan art. And we're looking at how taking all that rich video content to brand it little, add an intro as needed to serve a new purpose during this closure. So we're being a little more experimental with what we have.
Emily Haight:
And we're doing similar things with our public programs and scheduling E-blasts that are thematic and sharing a public program that's been recorded and is live on our website from the past because that content is still good content even if you didn't make it to that talk in person or even if you did and you want to watch it again. Good video is good video.
Brendan Ciecko:
Excellent. I just want to let everybody know that there are close to 100 questions that have been asked by the attendees of today's webinar so we're going to try our best to address as many of these as we can in the next five minutes.
We have a question from Sarah Hardy: As an institution that doesn't have a dedicated social media manager, this coronavirus #MuseumFromHome phenomenon has turned all of our staff into social media contributors. What advice do you have to maintain a consistent voice and aesthetic or is that even important in establishing a good social media presence?
Emily Haight:
I think if you are just now starting accounts, that's a separate question than using existing accounts and I think it is okay to have multiple voices. Obviously that's what you want to invite into your channels anyway. But making sure that maybe you have one editor or one person who's reviewing everything for tone, that's going to make it sound more cohesive and appropriate for your platform. That's what I would say is if you can assign someone the role of editor, that is good.
Hilary-Morgan:
Yeah. And just finding space where you could have those individual staff members quotes as needed where it's relevant to their specialty because I think it's a tool at your disposal.
Brendan Ciecko:
For a museum that is starting out in this social media strategy world, if this is something that's fairly new to them or they're starting to dive deeper, if they're letting hands on deck across their department, in a perfect world, if they're now starting to put together their style guide, their defining framework, in an ideal world, would you want the word “human” to be involved in that? We've talked a number of times throughout the last 45 minutes about making sure that your content is human, that it has a personal human touch. Do you think that applies to 99% of institutions and would you think that the social media environment at large would be a better social media environment, a better strong community, if people kept that, that single simple idea to heart?
Emily Haight:
Simple answer, yes.
Hilary-Morgan:
Yeah.
Emily Haight:
I think for sure and you are here to serve humans so why not talk to them like they're humans and why not engage in conversation like there is also humans inside your institution. I think knowing that you're there to serve people is an important part of everybody's artwork in museums.
Brendan Ciecko:
Great. Well, I want to say a couple of closing words before we round the corner into our final question for today's special guests. So I just want to thank everybody for coming to this webinar discussion today. Hope it's been insightful and helpful. I also hope that you've been able to share amongst yourselves some tips and tricks in the chat dialogue. After this webinar, we'll make all of the questions available, the ideas, the hashtags, the accounts to follow and then solutions. We'll combine those into one living document to share across the museum community. It's a living and breathing google document. Feel free to share your thoughts there or in the webinar chat or feel free to email them over to hello@cuseum.com. I'm confident that any question you have can be answered by someone in this community whether they are at an institution right across the street or across the globe.
And the fact that you're here shows that you're taking proactive steps and preparing your museum to navigate this really difficult time. And overall we're all in this together, we're all going to get through this together. I hope that it is a resource for everyone and thank you everybody for your attention so far. So we're in the last few minutes to go.
One big last question is, could you leave us with one big idea that we can bring back to our institutions during this time? And let’s start with you Hilary-Morgan?
Hilary-Morgan:
For one big idea. I might cheat and say a few. You should ask the social media manager what they think should be said online because from talking to a few of my peers, no one's asked them yet. So back to the bombardment of links being sent and content brainstorms, which is great and there will be a balance, and they would love to hear it. They probably know what should be the pace and tone of content these days, because they knew your audience before this all started and they have a good sense of your collection, the expertise to put in front of a camera. They're there for you and you don't need to reinvent the wheel and jump on every bandwagon. You're going to see some hashtags and some great campaigns and they're so awesome and it doesn't mean you have to also do it.
Brendan Ciecko:
Excellent. Side question: there is, in many ways the social media departments have been the unsung heroes of the public face of the institution for many, many years and it seems like now with the growing importance of social media in times like these, do you feel like you're getting, you meaning all social media managers across the globe right now, do you feel like you're getting the support and the appreciation that you need right now and is there anything that your staff and staff in general can do to make this process as conducive, collaborative and successful as possible?
Hilary-Morgan:
I think what most of my peers would want is some validation of their expertise. I know I've received a few notes from some staff that have really touched me with just sort of encouragement for what we're doing and how we're the people making all the difference. Even just a text or an email, but that's really hard to speak for everyone. But yes, obviously I feel supported and I think what a crazy time. We know that so many museums, with their staff numbers, it's like half a person or one fifth of a person who's filling the role right now and I hope it's a moment that everyone's going to realize, finally, the significance of it.
Emily Haight:
I feel like I'm going to be echoing you. I would say trust your social media manager, if you are not the social media manager on this feed. If you are a social media manager I'd hope that you can find ways to enlist the help of the people around you that are available and you can direct their energies in the ways, so that you know they're the expert on X, Y, and Z and you can use them for that. I can't say how grateful I am for a bunch of colleagues who reached out to me early days when it was completely crazy, just saying "Hey, I love how consistent you've been. I think everything looks great on social media. I just wanted you to know I'm here for anything that you're working on or if you need extra help, I'm here." Cause it's great when people come up with ideas, but it's also great if they're there to help you execute them because you're one person and yeah, I really appreciated that. Hilary-Morgan and I were also trying to think of a couple other ways of imbuing a little bit of cheer and brightness into our feeds so I think we are going to try to do a #MuseumSunshine on April 21st.
Brendan Ciecko:
That sounds amazing!
Emily Haight:
Yeah. So, kind of in the same vein as #MuseumBouquet, but it'd be a lot of anything that is bright and yellow and paintings of sunrises, anything that'll light up and that'll make your audiences light up too. We're going to hope to do something like that from 11:00AM on April 21st. And we'll be sending around a signup in advance if people just want a little reminder, but, again, no pressure. To the people who are overloaded and don't feel like it's appropriate, don't worry about it. You've got other things to do.
Brendan Ciecko:
Thank you. I have to say, in reading a lot of the comments coming in through this chat dialogue, people were asking how can we participate in some of these campaigns like #MuseumBouquet? And I think you answered that very clearly just a moment ago saying you have something coming up, easy to get involved and I think that's a beautiful thing too. People are already saying that they love #MuseumSunshine so you already have some fans in the audience today and I imagine that the reach and the diversity of institutions getting behind it will continue to evolve. And what was the date again? April 21st?
Emily Haight:
21st. It's before Earth Day.It might be a nice way of leading people into Earth Day as well.
Brendan Ciecko:
Excellent, excellent. I know we all could use a little bit of sunshine so I personally look forward to this. Well, thank you Hilary-Morgan and thank you Emily. This was a really insightful conversation. I hope that it was helpful for everyone who attended the webinar today. All of this is going to be made available in a video form, it was recorded, audio format will be transcribed so we hope you'll be able to share this amongst your peers, your colleagues, anyone who might find some of today's conversation helpful. And, again, thank you for joining us today. Thank you to my amazing special guests, Hilary-Morgan and Emily and I guess until next time, thanks and be safe, be well and see you soon.
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