Lets face it, some Museums don’t use Twitter for much more then broadcasting events listings, and press releases about upcoming exhibition, but to attract a good following on Twitter, you need to create content that people really want to read.
Here are a few tips for creating more interesting tweets for your Museum:
1. Add pictures - There are lots of ways of getting links to pictures in to your tweets, Twitpic pictured above is one of the most popular. You could post pictures of a new exhibition being built, an event or exhibition opening or even objects from your collection.
2. Fact of the day – Did something relevant to your collection happen on this day in history? Do you have an interesting fact about a historic figure connected to your exhibitions which you could share with your followers? Why not have a fact of the day?
3. Link to your visitors video and pictures – Have you found pictures posted on YouTube or Flickr by your visitors? If not have a look and you might be surprised how many you find. Could you link to a picture or video of the week?
4. Ask a question – Ask you followers something, this could be for their opinion on something or it could be a weekly Museum quiz relating to your collections.
5. Twitter as a historic figure – Got an exhibition connected to a historic figure? Can you get your curators to help you to write tweets as that individual, do you have a diary which you could tweet extracts from?
6. Talk about what is going on behind the scenes – Museums are interesting places, and people are interested in what is going on behind the scenes, tell your followers about some of these experiences.
7. Retweet - Has somebody said something nice about a visit to your Museum on Twitter? When they do, be sure to share that with the rest of your followers by retweeting their comment.
8. Talk to people – Check daily for people talking about your Museum using the Twitter search facility, and answer peoples questions and contribute to these conversations.
Related Posts:
A step by step guide to using Twitter for your museum
Great advice as ever Jim – thank you.
Even the smallest places should be able to find at least one thing of interest every day for their followers.
Engaging tweets with pics, asking questions and revealing behind the scenes stuff are amongst the best I see.
I’d add that keeping tweets informal and less impersonal really helps too. There have been some great examples during the recent snow – lots wonderful pics of places in the snow, staff and visitors braving the elements or being creative.
You write such interesting posts that I’m becoming addict to comment
This list covers practically all the essentials, I’d just add:
-Include, now and then quotations from the artist, if a monographic museum like ours, or from different artists, authors, scientists, etc. directly related to your museum
-Retweet not only comments abt your museum, but also interesting tweets by other museums or individuals.
-share your knowledge, your expertise
-be honest, explain difficulties you face or failures
-add a touch of humour now and then
-celebrate good museum experiences
-Highlight ideas of yours or heard on Conferences about Museums, Social Media, etc.
-Recommend interesting books, provide good links
-offer stats
-if your museum is based in a non English-speaking country (like ours is), mix your native language with tweets in English (but no need to repeat everything twice, either!)
-be open, generous, informal, varied, interesting and followers will engage.
The only problem I see is that the more engaging you become and the more followers you have, more time-consumig Twitter gets… but I believe is really worth.
Conxa
@innova2
Here’s a comment I tweeted: “Re: tips for museum tweets from @museummarketing.
“I enjoy following museums that don’t talk AT everyone, but instead talk WITH everyone.”
Added comment: Thank you for posting these tips! Museums, I’m an unabashed follower. I’m trying to learn from you. I enjoy sharing your insightful, educational, or just plain fun tweets, often RTing to others. I love how social networking includes everyone. A museum that engages us all on Twitter has the attitude needed to engage us at the actual museum, no? Pat Murkland
Not to mention hashtags. #museumfactmonday is gently bubbling away at the start of each week.
[...] Posted on | januari 16, 2010 | No Comments An initiative by Jim Richardson, Museum Marketing. Lets face it, some Museums don’t use Twitter for much more then broadcasting events listings, and press releases about upcoming exhibition, but to attract a good following on Twitter, you need to create content that people really want to read. Here are a few tips for creating more interesting tweets for your Museum: by Jim Richardson: [...]
Very good tips Jim. I posted some more on our site http://museummedia.nl
9. Create a Museum Channel on Youtube and tweet regularly about it
10. Present a nice monthly Twitter Tour with video back-up on youtube
11. Post Jobs and internships
12. Use handy or significant hashtags beginning with #, and don’t forget them in your tweets! See Ultimate Guide to Twitter Hashtags
13. ALMOST ALL YOUR MUSEUM TWEETS should contain a link to a blog or page with more info! Use a URL shortener! Tweets without links are frustrating in my view, I mostly skip them
14. If possible begin your museum tweet with a short CATAGORY keyword in capitals, for example: VIDEO, BOOK, NICE, NEW, PDF, AUDIO…. This has not the same function as your hashtaged word! See Ultimate Guide to Twitter Hashtags
15. Observe the timezones in the world if you tweet worldwide!
16. MULTILINGUAL In my opinion twitterring in more than one language is very acceptable: English, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian and Chinese are important languages in the museum world! Our tweets on museummedia are in English and Dutch, sometimes in French and few in Spanish, depending on the message.
More tips will follow soon… please come back
[...] You can find my previous blog post on writing more interesting Museum tweets here [...]