A presentation for the Museums Association Social Media and Museums Conference, 31st March 2011.

1. Museums AssociationSocial Media and Museums Mark Ellis @sparkellis www.sounddelivery.org.uk

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3. What’s changed? 1970 1702 1916 1930’s 2011 First newspaper published Computer TV Radio 3

4. Why Should We Care? Last year 30.1m adults in the UK – about 60% – accessed the internet every day 19.2 million households with an Internet connection in 2010, representing 73 per cent of households 43 per cent posted messages to social networking sites, chat sites or blogs 31 per cent of internet users aged 45 to 54 go online to post messages. 140 million tweets are sent a day Around half a million new twitter accounts are set up each day

5. How we spend our time online http://www.iabuk.net/en/1/ukomrevealshowbritonsspendtimeonline190510.mxs

6. But its all young people isn’t it? More than two in five (43 percent) of Brits aged 55 to 74 use the internet frequently, says Age UK.

7. A few statistics More than 500 million active users 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day Average user has 130 friends on the site Average user clicks the Like button on 9 pieces of content each month Average user becomes a fan of 4 Pages each month 7

11. To engage with visitors/communities with similar interests

12. Finding cheaper ways of communicating/marketing our events and exhibitions

13. To get information that that might be useful to us

15. 12 A Tale of Two Twitter feeds Dr Samuel Johnson Dr Johnson’s House Museum

16. Dr. Samuel Johnson’s House Museum - @drjohnsonshouse Just over 1000 followers Tweets are from the staff Updates on museum activity, word definitions and interaction with other twitter users

17. Dr. Samuel Johnson - @drsamueljohnson Fake account taking on the persona of Dr. Samuel Johnson Over 33,000 followers Frequent coverage in the media, book of his best tweets released at Xmas 2010 Tweets about modern topics in the “voice” of Samuel Johnson

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20. Torquay Museum, Devon Have a standard Fanpage Have also created a profile for a sarcophagus of a young boy on display in the museum, portraying him as a real (albeit deceased) boy Often referred to as a “friend finder’, this type of account is a creative way to reach your fans on Facebook

21. Speaks like a real person would, uploading images like you would on your own Facebook profile Personable, using language that the followers will understand to describe what’s going on Responds to interaction from the visitors, ensuring conversation continues

22. Giving information to the visitors of the museum in an original way Encouraging people to interact with the museum’s other presence on Facebook

23. Why does it work? Original and engaging – Psamtek’s profile gets much more interaction than Torquay’s other fanpage An entertaining way to interact with your audience Can help to shed the “stuffy” impression that many young people have of museums More likely to be shared by your audience than a standard fanpage

25. “bloggers in residence”

26. Social Media Landscape These are the tools that allow you to do something Its up to you to figure out what the *something* is! 23