1. Tell your readers who is speaking.
Twitter is a person to person network, and the people who use it like to know who they are talking too, so even if your tweeting on behalf of an institution, you should let people know who you are.
Here is an example of how Brooklyn Museum do this on their Twitter profile.
2. Be a person, not an institution.
The big advantage of saying who is writing on behalf of your institution is that it allows you to be a human being rather then an institution. The way that people speak to each other on Twitter is very informal and if you start to send messages that sound like they have been written by the PR department, then you’ll stand out as having not taken the time to understand the way people use Twitter.
3. Tweet often, but not too often.
Getting the frequency of your tweets right is a tricky business. Remember that you’re still a museum, not my best friend and I really don’t need to hear from you three times a day.
4. Follow people
It is polite to follow the people who have taken time to follow your institution, it also means that people can send you direct messages.
5. Take twitter in to the real world
Many institutions set up a Twitter account and don’t link it to their real live venue.
Take a look at this card I noticed recently in Brooklyn Museum, are you sign posting your visitors to Twitter?
6. Use Twitter to show a different side of your organisation
Think about the interesting things that happen in your organisation which might interest your followers (in fact write them down). Museums are fascinating organisations, and while it wouldn’t be appropriate to post pictures of your stuffed baboon being cleaned on your corporate website, Twitter is the perfect place to share stories of what happens behind the scenes.
7. Don’t just broadcast
Twitter is a platform for conversations not just another space to broadcast information about your latest exhibition. Get involved in discussions with the people who follow you, and take the time to reply when someone mentions your institution.
Hi Jim, great post. There’s one thing I’d like to add (or, rather, discuss): point 2 and 3 don’t match in a way. I agree with point 2, but do not or at least not entirely with point 3.
As you say, it’s tricky to get the frequency of your tweets exactly right. Nevertheless, Twitter is not only for best friends. In fact, I prefer to talk with my best friends by phone or in a bar. Twitter is – for me – a tool to stay up to date and discover new things.
As somebody interested in arts and multimedia, I follow certain museums (such as the MoMA and Brooklyn, but also specific Dutch museums) to discover new applications, installations or simply to be amazed by beautiful photos. Some of these museums tweet 10-20 times a day (and more!). No problem; the good thing about Twitter is that you can simply let it go. There’s no need to read everything, so there’s no problem in a museum sending 10-20 updates a day, as long as they’re useful.
In addition: What I think is a great one is point 4. Quite some museums send a DM when you start following them, but don’t follow you back in return. Consequence: there’s no way to respond to the friendly DM with a DM. That does more harm then good, in my opinion.
Hi Jasper
I agree ‘There’s no need to read everything’ but I think that the average user outside the sector probably isn’t as interested as museum tweets as us.
Jim
[...] Le Musée d’Orsay, l’Opéra de Paris et autre ministère de la Culture) la lecture de cet article (valable pour tout type de twitter) paraît [...]
Point 3 is such a tricky one and a real sticking point. Definitely one of my pet peeves when people go over the top with their tweets and shameless self promotion.
In addition it probably worth suggesting that users stay relatively on focus. That’s not to say they should stick within a very narrow band, but said focus can be a real boon for those following you, and it is super easy to end up tweeting about all and sundry.
Hello Jim, very inspiring post! Thanks, I’ll retweet it right away… Cheers!
[...] a aussi publié un excellent article donnant des astuces pour améliorer ses tweets…A lire absolument [...]
[...] It is disappointing that several of the Institutions falling in to the 100 – 249 follower category have not progressed past this. While I believe that the depth of relationship that Twitter allows a Museum to have with it’s audiences is more important then the number of people who follow it, a Museum must attract enough followers to justify the time that they are spending updating Twitter (this institutions may benefit from reading this piece on improving Museum tweets). [...]
I think in terms of quantity of tweets it sort of boils down to knowing and understanding your audiences. People follow organizations for diverse and varied reasons. If your organizations is really prolific, putting out amazing ideas 24-7 then I would probably be following too!
In terms of taking a more personal approach…. I think an interesting question would be the reverse. Why is it that we live in a world were institutions find it normal to treat individuals as a mass group of people?
I have been working for a traditional organization for the past 6 years. From my experience, people often don’t seem to want to be personal with their public in an open format environment because other voices get heard on an equal level and the message cannot be as easily controlled. Maybe our societies need for constant control and hierarchical structured organizations is a product of museums lack of personal engagement on open formats like twitter.
Any ideas?