It has been well documented that word of mouth recommendation is the most effective form of marketing. People trust good word of mouth far more then advertising, even if they don’t know the person who has started it.
Last month I wrote an article which asked why more museums don’t feature reviews from visitors on their websites, but in discussing this with collegues it became clear that this is only one way in which museums could use word of mouth marketing.
Ask people what they thought!
I noticed a couple of museums doing this on Twitter, and I have since recommended it to all my clients. When you see someone mention a visit to your museum, ask them to let you know what they thought. If your giving your visitors a great experience, this should lead to lots of good reviews in Twitter.
You could also ask anyone who writes something nice about your Museum on twitter to also post a review on websites like TripAdvisor and Yelp.
Get recording
When you next have an exhibition opening, take a video camera along and ask people to tell you what they thought on camera (you could do this on a regular day too). Put together your favorite reviews and post the video on YouTube, Facebook and your museum website.
Signpost Twitter in your venue
I saw this sign when I visited the Brooklyn Museum last year, it encourages people to go online and share their experience. Are you actively directing people to your Twitter presence from your real world venue?
How do you encourage your visitors to spread positive word of mouth about your Museum?
We ask for people’s feedback on events on our YuffyMOH Twitter profile. It has produced some lovely comments in the past, although we don’t actually use them elsewhere. This might be something to look into.
We have started to advertise that we are on Twitter on noticeboards in the museum, but it simply states our profile name. I think we could be inspired by the Brooklyn Museum to ask for feedback on these labels rather than simply stating we are there. People may not realise from our current in-gallery advertising that we welcome comments on Twitter.
[...] Originally posted here: Word of mouth marketing for museums « Museum Marketing [...]
Signposting Twitter is something we (At-Bristol) are looking to do, with regards to collecting visitors’ opinions on a future exhibition. We’ll have a lightbox on the floor telling visitors about the forthcoming exhibition, with a section to them to stick up comment cards for all to see and encouraging Twitter users to post their thoughts to @AtBristol.
What might be nice is to intersperse comments from Twitter amongst the ‘real world’ gathered opinions by means of a differently branded comment card.
Interesting the way Brooklyn Museum phrase their piece “@reply brooklynmuseum”, wondered if this was easily understood by people. Does “@reply to brooklynmuseum” or “reply to @brooklynmuseum” work better? Other people’s thoughts appreciated.
Hi Jim,
I really enjoy reading your blog posts. I am currently working on my master’s thesis which focuses on how US museums are integrating social media.
In regards to word-of-mouth marketing initiatives the Mattress Factory museum has integrated some really interesting projects to engage its visitors. More specifically, their iConfess series asks visitors to comment on their Mattress Factory experience and then their video is uploaded directly to YouTube. http://bit.ly/9104bD
Jessica
Thanks Jessica, I am writing a piece on YouTube right now and will include the Matress Factory as an example.