Before we start, I just want to make one thing clear, when we say Museums & Galleries (UK) we mean the those museums and galleries on a twitter list that we created. I am sure that there will be more as we have no doubt missed some (let us know if we have). So, with that cleared up let’s start with why we created the Museums & Galleries (UK) twitter list.
View and follow the Museums & Galleries (UK) twitter list
Between 2010-2012 the Middle East and North Africa changed forever. And, twitter (among other social networks) are widely credited with contributing to this change. OK, we’re not suggesting that Museums & Galleries organise an uprising. But, the principal is similar, in that each museum and gallery have broadly similar objectives: to generate revenue, attract visitors, friends or members and keep them coming back for more.
It’s the existence of these common goals that lead us to create this twitter list, in an effort to help museums and galleries, share ideas, knowledge and inspiration (one channel at a time) – working together to grow the sector as a whole, as well as individually.
Here are just a few of the ways we believe that Museums & Galleries can utilise this list to help, inspire and support each other. If you have more ideas, don’t hesitate to comment – Let’s build a brighter future for the sector together.
Use the Museums & Galleries (UK) Twitter list as a research tool
Museums & Galleries follow each other, thats true, but they also follow patrons, supporters, members and followers, which fills up the twitter timeline making it harder to focus especially when trying to research. Here’s a few ways that museums and galleries could use the list as a research tool:
1. #Hashtag Research
You spend time creating a great Twitter content and Tweet copy and you want your Tweets to reach the right audience, and as many prospective members, friends or visitors as you can. In comes the Hashtag. But which ones do you use?
I am not suggesting that museums and galleries give up searching for popular/trending hashtags or stop creating new hashtags for campaigns and events. More that there is a logic to museums and galleries utilising the same hashtags (even collaborating on them) as followers of the hashtags already have some exposure and likely affinity with museums and galleries and are therefor more likely to follow and engage with others.
For example, the hashtag #[Hashtag] is already used by a number of museums…
Try looking through the post from other museums and galleries to see which hashtags they use.
2. Biography refinement
The words (or emojis!) you choose, and the hashtags or handles you include on your Twitter bio, speak volumes about your brand. And, whilst directly copying the bio from another museum or gallery is a no no – You can use this list to quickly review relevant bios for inspiration.
3. Find content themes
Not sure what to post on Twitter? With every social media platform needing different strategies and content, it can be difficult to pinpoint what types of posts perform well on each. Use the Museums & Galleries (UK) list feed to quickly identify tweet themes adopted by your colleagues, see which type of tweets gain the most engagement, and adapt the theme to your own location, facility, collection or service offering. For example:
[Insert example]
4. Tweet inspiration
Twitter is a unique platform. And, some types of content tend to do better than others. But, what types of posts work best for museums and galleries. Going it alone could mean an awful lot of trial and error. Or, you could follow and use the Museums & Galleries (UK) feed twitter to quickly identify what types what types of content other museums and galleries are posting – do posts with images get more retweets better than those with videos
You can also find out how the different types of posts are performing by from the volume of favourites, retweets and see what people think about them by assessing the conversations. For example:
This tweet by @Tate (published at 11.30 AM on the 4th Jan 2023) had 182,000 views, 27 retweets, 10 Quoted Tweets and 251 likes (at the time of writing). But, when you look at the combined views of the 84 replies the tweet had (again at the time of writing) of 57,473 (excluding offensive replies) that’s a significant extended reach from their own follower count.
https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1610599448312221696&lang=en-gb&origin=https%3A%2F%2Flhreviewstg.wpengine.com%2Fmuseums-galleries-find-follow-share-and-inspire-each-other-on-twitter%2F&sessionId=61fb3055e5c313460e040fb3d175e2245d652c23&theme=light&widgetsVersion=aaf4084522e3a%3A1674595607486&width=550px
This tweet is clearly aimed at soliciting engagement. With a simple question, a nice visual (that’s a little risqué) and a clear call to action ‘We’d love to hear your best answer below’, I’d say that it hit the mark.
Now, look at the tweet again and you’ll notice a few nice touches providing additional inspiration. For example, the use of emojis (always a winner) a campaign hashtag #TateTrivia and some background info about the image. So, in terms of inspiration what can you take from this?
- Have you got any slightly risque images that may peak peoples interest?
- Could you pose a ‘Guess who’ or ‘Guess what’ type question about an item in your collection?
- Could you create a campaign hashtag along similar lines?
- Could you add to the conversation with a witty reply, a favourite or retweet (it’s not too late)
By the way, @Tate followed this tweet up nicely with a response to the replies providing the the correct answer, closing the loop for those people that bothered to reply.
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Use the Museums & Galleries (UK) Twitter list to experiment and collaborate.
1. Identify the best time to tweet.
OK, there are loads of blog posts and best practice guidelines about the best time to post on social media like this one from Sprout Social. But, they are more often than not based on algorithms that that are not unique to one sector.
In real terms, every sector is unique, with topics and types of posts adding more variables into the mix.
Use the Museums & Galleries (UK) list to scan posts, see if you can spot times of day that work best for your peers. Or, pick a top performing post and see what time of day it was posted then scan the posts again to see if you can find commonalities.
2. DM’s or Group Messages
You can start a private conversation or create a group conversation with anyone who follows you. Us the list to find and follow comparable museums or galleries, and create twitter groups to ask questions help and support each other without leaving twitter.
Host a collaborative Twitter Chat
A twitter chat is a twitter-based public discussions usually based on a specific topic and generally held live at a regular time on a regular day. Chats are tweeted using a hashtag so participants can follow and join in the discussion and participate if they wish. More often than not, it takes time for one account to build up momentum for a twitter chat. But, working together, agreeing the chat topics with other organisations on the list then amplifying the chat amongst each accounts followers, there will be more attendees, more engagement and each Museum or Gallery will gain more insights from the wider attendance.
[Insert Example(s)]
Use the Museums & Galleries (UK) list to recruit followers, visitors and members.
In most cases museums and galleries are not directly competing with each other on a day to day basis as they are geographically based. However, people travel, go on holiday, visit friends and when they do, they are often looking for something to do in their destination. And, it’s logical to assume that a person who follows, visits, joins or engages with a museum or gallery in their home location, is a good candidate to do the same when they travel. So…
Engage with each other
If you do nothing else with the Museums & Galleries (UK) list why not use it to tap into the wider ready made audience. Simply scan the lit feed, look for topics, tweets, images that align with your organisation, join the conversation engage publicly with other museums and galleries across the country? If nothing else, you will have a regular source of tweets. And, each participating organisation will be extending their reach.
[Insert Example(s)]
Share the list.
Let’s look at the maths, there are currently 300+ Museums & Galleries on the twitter list, the average number of followers is [xxx] but when you add all of the followers together, you get [xxxx]. OK, there will be some twitter users who follow multiple accounts on the list, but even so, together there are significantly more than any one museum or or gallery alone.
Obviously, there are more creative approaches to sharing the list than the examples below (especially with a little collaboration) but, as a basic illustration if every museum & gallery on the list used just one of the tweets below to share the Museums & Galleries (UK) list even those with the most followers would extend their potential reach by [x%]
[Insert Click to tweet Examples]
A note from the author
Whilst the Museums & Galleries (UK) list links back to @ThinkLighthouse (well we created it) we have given the list a consumer brand, look and feel (excluded any Lighthouse styles or imagery) so that it can be used and shared by the sector as it is. We have also created a library of image assets and templates that are freely available for museums and galleries to download use and adapt as they see fit when sharing the list in an effort to make it as useful as possible out of the box minimising the effort required.
That said, if there is an appetite for it, and if it facilitates collaboration and growth in the sector, we are more than happy to adapt or even hand over image templates etc to industry bodies or answer any questions, provide more detailed guidance, host collaborative workshops to expand any of the ideas above. Just add a comment below, send us a tweet, contact us or use the chatbot below to reach out and we’ll help in any way we can.
Either way, we will continue to use the list for our own research and publish the results and ideas in our blog which you can subscribe to here.
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Topic: Member Engagement > Collaboration
