1. M u s e u m o f
F a r n h a m
3 8 W e s t S t r e e t
F a r n h a m
S u r r e y
7 / 7 / 2 0 1 1
Emma Traherne
A strategy for using social media and the reasons for
its use at the Museum of Farnham and how social
media can assist the museum to fulfil its own
objectives and those set out by Waverley Borough
Council.
Social Media
Strategy for the
Museum of
Farnham

2. Contents
Table of Contents
Here to Stay and Available Everywhere................................................................................4
Responsive.............................................................................................................................4
Openness................................................................................................................................4
Traffic.....................................................................................................................................4
Free........................................................................................................................................4
Keeping up with the industry.................................................................................................4
Networking............................................................................................................................5
Increasing Access and Interpretation.....................................................................................5
Reaching New Audiences......................................................................................................5
Strategic aims of the WBC website.......................................................................................6
Museum of Farnham Mission Statement, Access Plan and Customer Charter......................6
WBC Cultural Strategy 2009-2013........................................................................................7
What social media to use?......................................................................................................9
Cost......................................................................................................................................10
Analysis................................................................................................................................10
Posting..................................................................................................................................12
Response..................................................................................................................................13
Social Media Platforms pros and cons.................................................................................16
Introduction
This social media strategy for the Museum of Farnham seeks to explain...
•What social media is
•Why social media is important and should be used by the Museum of Farnham
•How social media can help fulfil the objectives of the Museum of Farnham
•The social media plan for the Museum of Farnham
•Concepts about the future development of social media at the Museum of Farnham
•Recommendations
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3. This document is not an in-depth look at all of the different forms of social media.
What is social media?
Social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn
communication into social interactive conversations. Some of the most common
social media platforms are facebook, twitter and YouTube but there are many more.
Why should the Museum of Farnham use social media?
Below is a list of the benefits and positive arguments for using social media.
Here to Stay and Available Everywhere
Social Media is not a phase and is not going away. It will evolve over time but it will
not decline in the near future.
The second largest search engine after Google is YouTube and the third is
Facebook. People look to their friends and followers online (as in the real world) for
recommendations about where to go and what to do. If the Museum of Farnham can
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4. tap into this it will increase its visibility in the local community and future afield. This
increased publicised will help it to achieve its objectives as set out below.
Responsive
People will talk about the Museum of Farnham. They may say good things and bad
things. Through social media we can respond to this feedback quickly and almost
instantaneously. By responding to peoples complaints/compliments/comments we
show the public that we care about people’s opinions. Responding to complaints in
particular we mean we get to put forward our side of a story and apologies. By
receiving feedback in this way and responding to it we will also be able to improve
our services.
Openness
There is a demand from the public for organisations to be more open and increase
transparency. Social media can be a tool to show people what goes on behind the
scenes at the museum and can help to publicise all of the events we hold and
organisations we deal with which might not be very visible.
Traffic
Social media will drive traffic to the Museum of Farnham website for further
information and therefore may also lead people to explore other pages on the
Waverley Borough Council website.
Free
Social media is free with the only cost being staff time. Social media therefore is a
very appealing option for publicising and marketing events, audience research and
starting discussions.
Keeping up with the industry
Through social media the staff at the Museum of Farnham can keep up to date with
developments and news in the museum, gallery and tourism sector locally, nationally
and internationally. This will assist staff by informing them of news and current affairs
within the sectors.
Networking
Social media acts as a networking tool and it will mean that the Museum of Farnham
can build networks of organisations and people efficiently, cheaply and swiftly. This
may result in benefits such as loans, advice shared, publicity or donations
Increasing Access and Interpretation
As in most museums many of the Museum of Farnham's objects and archives are in
storage and unlikely to be placed on display in the near future. Through social
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5. media, photographs, information and films about objects and archive material can be
placed online and therefore become accessible to everyone all over the world.
Through opening up the collection in this way it is important for the Museum to ask
people to comment on the objects and material and interpret the collection for
themselves. This brings fresh ideas and stories to the collection and therefore makes
the collection exciting to a whole new group of people.
Reaching New Audiences
Museums are notoriously bad at attracting people aged 15-30 and it is this age
group that uses social media the most. Therefore by increasing the museum’s
presence on social media platforms more people in this age group will be informed
about museums and may become museum visitors or interact with the museum
online.
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6. Objectives
There are three main streams of objectives that social media at the Museum of
Farnham can aim to work towards.
1.The WBC (Waverley Borough Council) website strategy
2.The Museum of Farnham Mission Statement, Access Plan and Customer
Charter
3.The WBC Cultural Strategy for Museums.
Strategic aims of the WBC website
One objective for the Museum of Farnham social media is to support and
compliment the strategies outlined below by WBC with regards to its website.
•Provide good customer service for local residents. This means ensuring the
website (social media) gives residents and other visitors what they need
quickly and easily
•Use the website (social media) to become more efficient as an organisation.
Directing residents to carry out certain transitions or find key information on
the website is more cost-effective than doing so on the phone or in person
•Ensure the website (social media) reflects how WBC wants to be perceived, and
supports its objectives and priorities
The social media at the Museum of Farnham would fit into these objectives by
following the guidelines set out in this document.
Museum of Farnham Mission Statement, Access Plan and
Customer Charter
The Museum of Farnham's Mission Statement is...
To protect, preserve and interpret the material evidence of Farnham’s past for the
enjoyment and enrichment of the present and future generations.
As outlined earlier social media can help the museum fulfil this statement by
•Increasing access to collections
•Increasing the interpretation of objects
•Ensuring the protection of material evidence by raising the collections profile and
building links with the local community.
The Access Plan for the Museum of Farnham includes six points (see below) that
social media can assist in achieving.
6.6 The museum will explore a range of innovative ideas and communication
techniques to enrich the user experience and make the museum service accessible
and relevant to a wider audience.
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7. 6.7 The museum will ensure that its education service is marketed throughout the
educational community, and that schools and groups with special educational needs
are equally well provided for.
7.1 The museum will investigate different ways of presenting and disseminating
information about the museum and its services, in order to take account of the
different needs of users and to reach the widest possible audience.
7.3 The museum’s facilities for users with disabilities will be actively promoted, and
staff will ensure that up to date access information will be available in a number of
formats.
8.1 The museum will be proactive in working with other organisations to improve
provision for those who are not traditional museum users.
8.2 Community outreach programmes will be developed to extend the access of the
museum’s services to people who are unable or unmotivated to visit the museum.
The Museum of Farnham Customer Charter can also be supported by the work of
social media. The three points below from the charter link strongly to what social
media can achieve at the museum.
•To ensure that the museum service is intellectually and physically accessible to
all sections of the community
•To respond to requests for advice and assistance promptly, courteously and to
the best of our ability
•To ensure that the museum’s service and facilities are publicised as widely as
possible and to all sections of the community
WBC Cultural Strategy 2009-2013
Social Media can help the Museum of Farnham to full fill its goals as outlines on the
Waverley Borough Councils Cultural Strategy 2009-2013
Improve standards of collections care in Waverley Museums by enhancements to
archiving and cataloguing
Social media does not directly influence this strategy however it does provide a
platform for the Museum to publicise the work that it has achieved in its archiving
and cataloguing. This helps to explain to the public why this work is important,
publicise any information or stories we discover when carrying out this work and
gives museum staff a moral boost to be able to inform the public of any milestones
reached in archiving or cataloguing.
Increase access to collections and services, through the Waverley website
Social media will drive people to the WBC website to find out more information
therefore increasing the number of hits on the WBC website.
Increase the number of education and outreach programmes
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8. Social media is a form of outreach. It can reach people on the other side of the world
and leads to many more people accessing the collection and assisting in
interpretation.
Create new webpage for the exploration of Family History by 2012
Social Media could be used to ask people what they would want from such a
webpage and then could be used to promote it and gain feedback to improve it in an
informal and friendly manner.
Seek external funding to encourage investigation, preservation and protection of
Waverley's cultural heritage
By promoting and discussing Waverley's cultural heritage on social media the public
become more aware of the value of the cultural heritage in Waverley and its
importance. This can encourage investment and protection. Social Media could also
act as a platform for promoting and encouraging fund-raising for specific projects.
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9. The Social Media Strategy for the Museum of Farnham
What social media to use?
The Museum of Farnham needs to select social media which is suitable for it to
achieve its objectives. The social media chosen must also fit into the resources that
the museum has now and in the future.
As most social media is free the main limiting resource when selecting which social
media platforms to use is staff time. Different social media takes up different
amounts of time and it is far better for an organisation to communicate through one
social media platform well than use many platforms badly.
The Museum of Farnham has two options regarding staff time spent on social media.
Firstly volunteers could create social media for the museum and either be solely in
charge of social media or present it to a member of staff to place online. As there are
different volunteers everyday with different interests and knowledge about the
museum and the town this would tap into a wealth of information which would make
the content more interesting, friendly and involve the local community more. The
volunteers would also gain skills in IT and in managing and creating social media.
However staff time and possibly money for training would have to be spent. Many
volunteers are not computer literate and their work would have to be typed up by
another volunteer. All social media would also have to be checked by a paid member
of staff and it might also be the case that volunteers might not want to contribute.
The second option is for a staff member to be solely in charge of social media. The
second option is most suitable to the Museum of Farnham at this time as it requires
less staff time. However if staff hours were increased in the future volunteer
involvement is strongly recommended.
The current Assistant Curator Emma Traherne has undertaken 'Social Media Basics'
training funded by Renaissance and specifically focused on museums. She also
uses social media daily in her personal life and already has an in-depth knowledge
of how to use many different social media platforms. She also keeps up to date with
current issues and thinking with regards to museums and social media as shown
through her recent attendance at talks by Digital Surrey and lectures by the Centre
for Audio-Visual Study and Practice in Archaeology (CASPAR). Emma is also the
webpage editor for the Museum of Farnham and therefore can connect up the
museums online presence in a coherent manner.
It has been decided that the Museum of Farnham will begin with a Facebook page
and use this social media platform for the near future. The pros and cons of the most
relevant and popular social media platforms in relation to the Museum of Farnham
and examples of other museums using these platforms can be found at Appendix 1.
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10. Cost
As stated staff time is the main cost to the Museum of Farnham when using social
media. A social media calendar needs to be drawn up followed to help manage the
time spent on social media. This is relatively easy as it will fit into the website
updating calendar and events calendar.
The estimated time costs are detailed below
Day Action Time
Monday Check and respond 5 minutes
Tuesday Check and respond 5 minutes
Wednesday Check, respond, post 15 minutes
Thursday Check, respond, post 15 minutes
Friday Check, respond, post 15 minutes
Saturday Check and respond 5 minutes
Sunday Check and respond 5 minutes
Total Time = 65 minutes
Check and Respond = look for any new followers and respond to any new posts,
comments or likes
Check Respond and post = is linked to the days that the Assistant Curator is in the
office and they will do as above but also post updates on the Museum of Farnham
wall, upload any new photographs and post on other organisations walls if
appropriate
It is difficult to estimate exactly how much time social media takes as sometimes
there has been no activity and therefore a 'check and respond' could take 30
seconds. However if there is a lot of activity it will take longer. These are
approximate times and would increase if more social media platforms were added.
Analysis
Facebook has its own in built 'Insights' which produces graphs and statistics about
active users which details whether they have been liking posts or commenting. It
also details how many new people like the site and their demographics. Lastly it
states where people have reached the page from and what they have been looking
at. There is also a section about interactions detailing how many people have viewed
our posts in total and how many people are viewing and placing feedback on each
individual post.
All of this information will be printed off the first week of every month and will be
stored as a hard copy in the Museum of Farnham. The information will be collated by
the person in charge of social media and emailed to staff members. The information
will also be written in the Museum of Farnham Memo Book so that volunteers can
also view the data.
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11. From this data the person in charge of social media will decide what improvements
can be made to attract more people to the page, what has succeeded in the past
month and what has been less successful and therefore keep track of this
information and develop when the best time is to post and what posts will get the
more interaction from followers.
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12. What, when and how to post?
There are two main ways of interacting in social media. Posting information and
responding to information. As the Museum of Farnham has chosen a Facebook
page to begin with this strategy will be focused on how to post and respond using
Facebook. On Facebook most posting will be on the Museum of Farnham page. The
museum can also post on other organisations walls. The museum can respond to
posts directed at them or can respond to posts not about them but which they find of
interest or think their followers might find interesting.
Posting
The majority of posting on Facebook is through the creation of statuses on your own
organisations wall. The informal nature of social media means the content of posts
can be anything. The strategy for the Museum of Farnham posts is to publicise...
•New exhibitions in the Museum and in the Garden Gallery
•new acquisitions or conservation of objects
•progress made with cataloguing and digitising the collection
•school group visits
•events, talks and lectures
•hiring of the Garden Gallery
•other events or information which link to the Museum of Farnham or its collection in
some way
Posts should be...
•Short. The maximum length of a post on facebook is 420 characters but it is
recommended that they should not really be this long. 200 words should be
enough.
•No more than 3 sentences
•linked to other pages if appropriate
•supplemented with pictures where possible
•friendly and informal language should be used but slang terms avoided
When to post
•It is important not be viewed as spam. A general rule should be not to update
the page more than 4 times a day and these updates should be spread out
throughout the day. More posts might be acceptable if there is a special event
running all day but even then the posts should all be very different
•Only analytics over a number of months will reflect when the best times during
the day and week to post are
Posting on other organisations walls
•This will increase the visibility of the Museum and help to build new networks
that the Museum can benefit from
•It is important that the posts are relevant to the organisation that the museum is
posting on and not viewed as spam
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13. Response
The Response Flow Chart below is a useful tool when responding to something said
directly about the Museum of Farnham.
This flow chart is based on one developed by the US Air Force and has been used
effectively in the UK in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter.
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14. The Future development of social media at the Museum of Farnham
As outlined in Appendix 1 many social media platforms are suitable for the Museum
of Farnham and would help it to achieve its own and WBC objectives.
In the future if more staff hours become available it would be advisable for the
Museum of Farnham to create a Blog. This could be updated once a week with short
posts and material for the blog could be sourced from staff, volunteers, visitors,
researchers and people holding events and exhibitions in the Garden Gallery.
If a member of staff became full time and their time was not already taken up with
other duties Twitter would be a very good option for the museum. This would only be
feasible if someone was full time at the museum and if the museum had control of
the twitter account so that tweets could be replied to in a swift manner.
In the future it would be desirable for the volunteers at the museum to become more
involved in social media so that they gain new skills, feel more involved in the
museum, and the museum can gain from their knowledge and stories.
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15. Summary
•Social media will assist the Museum of Farnham to achieve its own objectives
and the objectives set out by WBC
•At the present time social media will be the responsibility of the Assistant Curator
and is in the form of a Facebook page
•The Facebook page will be checked at least once a day, updated at least 3 times
a week and all comments made on the page will be responded to swiftly and in
line with the Response Flow Chart
•It is expected to take approximately 65 minutes of the Assistant Curator’s time to
manage the social media of the Museum of Farnham every week
•The Assistant Curator will print off the analytics for the Facebook page once a
month and report the findings back to staff and volunteers
•in the future if more time became available to develop social media at the
Museum of Farnham it would be advantageous to expand into blogging and
twitter and to ensure the volunteers were involved
Recommendations
•Management of the Museum of Farnham Social Media should in future be part of
the essential criteria for the post of Assistant Curator
•If the Assistant Curator job no longer exist and no other member of staff has the
skills and/or time to carry on social media this should be explained on the
Facebook Page and the page should be placed 'on hold' and not updated until
someone with the appropriate skills and/or time is brought onto the staff
•The Assistant Curator needs to monitor the analytics of the Facebook Page to
discover when is the most effective time to post certain types of information so
that it reaches the widest possible audience
•If more staff hours are added in the future the Museum of Farnham should look
to increase its use of social media with a recommendation of firstly a move to
blogging and then to twitter
•If more staff hours are added in the future the possibility of volunteers becoming
more involved in social media should be explored further especially in regards
to blogging
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16. Appendix 1
Social Media Platforms pros and cons
Facebook
Pros
Cons
Twitter
Pros
Very instantaneous
Very short posts
Images and film not so important
Cons
Replies to tweets really need to be within an hour of posting if not before. Therefore
although tweets are short a larger amount of time needs to be spent monitoring
twitter
Images and film not so important – less visual
YouTube channel
Pros
Visual so can help brings the museum to life
Cons
Equipment for filming needed
Software for editing needed
Less about a conversation
Blogging
Pros
Only update once a week
Short 400-200 words
Could ask volunteers to contribute
Can be more indepth than twitter
Cons
Takes up quite a bit of time
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17. Not so interactive
Less about the ‘conversation’ aspect of social media
More difficult to get people involved with blogs – people are already on facebook and
twitter.
Have to inform people more about the blogs
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