I read with interest today about Bill Gates joining Twitter and amassing a following of more than 236,000 people in a little over 24 hours.
The Museo del Prado is the leading Museum on the micro blogging website with 92,431 followers, but as I wrote earlier this month, most of the 871 Museums on Twitter have fewer then 500 people following them.
Of course quality of followers is more important then numbers, but I wondered if we could co-ordinate a mass retweet for February 1st saying ‘Today is follow a Museum day” and get people on Twitter to think about following a Museum.
If the Museum community on Twitter worked together to get this message out, then perhaps we could collectively get more people to engage with Museums on twitter.
Would you retweet the message about Follow a Museum day? What do you think?
I would retweet, but might need a reminder…..Great idea, perhaps one way to succeed in getting the message out there is to identify some big tweeters and have them include the tempting offer. e.g. Bill Gates mother (?) Mimi Gates is influential at Seattle Art Museum, that could be an in. Or have some other million follower pick their favourite museum and run from there?
I would re-tweet too, but to be fully effective, I think it would be good to suggest museums, or have a central list of all museums.
I keep a list of the museums / event venues that I follow, so something like that would be good.
I would definitely retweet. A little reminder from the blog on the day would be handy, but it’s a really good idea.
Could we broaden it to “follow culture day” so that galleries and arts centres could also benefit?
yup, we need a little help finding new museums to follow (i have so many already) – how about everyone on feb 1st tweets with a hashtag something like #followmuseum and then @twittername @othertwitter @culturalpersons etc etc?
I would retweet, in fact I´ve been doing it! I love to recommend expositions….
This is a great idea, and I’ll definitely RT it. I already suggest the museums I follow on Follow Friday, but that has kind of lost its luster. A specific day, and the first of the month, at that, would be excellent.
I also would (will) definetly retweet.
to @aoifeflynn: I would keep it related to museums only, though, because opening to a “culture” dayu might be too broad (culture is not just museums + art centers, it’s also theatre, libraries, dance, music, etc;)
To get more successful, I would maybe offer that every museum that gets new followers that day will make public (on their blog, website or Twitter) a selection of the best museum tweets of the day.
Conxa
@innova2
I’d be happy to retweet this across the three NMSI Twitter accounts, @sciencemuseum @mediamuseum and @railwaymuseum
All this positive feedback is great!
I have started to build a website for follow a museum day, which will list all the museums on Twitter with links to their twitter pages.
Not much time to pull this all together, but if everyone is prepared to retweet and spread the word on feb 1st, then we should be able to make a real impact.
Thanks
Jim
We will definitively retweet. I find Alexandra’s proposal on using a hagstag very useful, although I would find more specific, #followamuseumday
Any thoughts about that?
Pilar
@museoreinasofia
This is a great idea, Jim! We’ll gladly retweet this from @thewomensmuseum now & on the day of the event. We’ll also pull a few lists together of museums we love to follow.
Hey
For sure. Great idea, and I’d definitely retweet
@bmuseum received a tweet about this today from the @americanart – and we’ve already sent a retweet. We will definitely tweet again on the 1st of Feb. I like Pilar’s suggestion of using the hashtag #followamuseumday too.
I’ve been working on http://www.followamuseum.com today, i think it will take a few more days to pull together, but we still have a bit of time.
I am interested to hear what people thing we could do to signpost ‘Follow a Museum day’ in actual venues. Can we use this as an excuse to look at how we can tell our visitors that we are on Twitter?
Interested to hear your idea’s.
Jim
Thanks Jim, I have marked my calendar!
Looking forward to supporting the idea. Good stuff.
Also, I wonder if it’s worth setting up a Twitter List of Museums? Or does one already exist? I know you have compiled an impressive list globally via your blog.
In terms of spreading the word, what about a virtual icon/ button that could be made available for downloading to museum websites or other relevant blogs?
Martin
Sounds good to me! @avoncroftmuseum will retweet #followamuseum for sure. We have a (not really) massive 28 followers, so could always do with a few more!
Happy to retweet the idea in a personal capacity, and have already scheduled a few posts ready to go next week, including #museumfactmonday.
It strikes me that the big-hitting museums could do a great service by ensuring they promote some of the good museums which currently only have a few followers, rather than just other big, well-known museums.
But would they perhaps also have enough sway to approach or DM some of the more famous “cultural” or TV twitterers in their own region or country and encourage them to RT the idea, too? That’s something the small museum twitterers probably can’t do.
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This is a great idea! I co-tweet for @nelson_atkins. It would be wonderful to use it as a way to formally announce our presence on Twitter and to support our fellow institutions.
This is a terrific idea, which I have just tweeted for @MoMath1, the Museum of Mathematics in the US. We will also retweet from our traveling exhibition twitter account, @MathMidway. Thanks!
Great idea Jim! I’ll be tweeting from the @museumvictoria, @scienceworks_mv, @immigration_mv, @melbournemuseum twitter accounts!
I’m also gunna give it some thought on the weekend around supporting the campaign onsite too.
Just a query, how often would you envisage we run a ‘follow a museum day’ on twitter? would it be a regular thing like #ff or #museumfactmonday? I’d say let’s make it a regular thing to help build and support the community over time!?
Thoughts?
Hello,
Please add @MuseumofHealth (Museum of Health Care at Kingston) to your Canadian directory for Follow a Museum Day. Thank you!
I tweeted to you from my personal Twitter account but wasn’t sure if you could see it or not since my tweets are protected (?? still not quite sure how that works within Twitter).
Great initiative!
Catherine
Hey!
I tried to tweet to @followamuseum, but the account seems suspended.
I’d love to retweet, but could you add @RealArtWays to the directory, please?
Thanks!
[...] a Museum on Twitter Day is the brain child of Jim Richardson over at MuseumMarketing. The purpose is to draw attention to the thousands of museums on Twitter who could use a little [...]
This is a wonderful idea! I have been following this blog since doing my MA in Museum Studies dissertation in Leicester.
I now work at The New York Botanical Garden, and wish we were included. Maybe this can be expanded to include other types of Cultural Institutions – although at the moment it is a wonderful range from arts to history.
Love this idea and already Tweeted and mentioned on NYBG sites. Please keep us in mind for any further pushes for the cultural world!
Thanks again!
Encountered the same issue as Abby (@followamuseum account is suspended on Twitter).
Will you please add @MCNASantaFe (Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe, NM) to the directory please?
Many thanks…cheers!
[...] entre cyberlectores y museos en Twitter; Jim Richardson, autor del blog Museum Marketing, propuso crear el Follow a Museum Day (Día de seguir un museo), pues de acuerdo a un estudio que realizó [...]
I am pleased to say that is great idea, Krakow / Poland – we’ve just oened an Exhibition: House for an Art Lover. Arts in Bohemia and Moravia 1870-1930 From 2nd February in the ICC Gallery – everybody is invited !
sorry I’ve missed the website: it is: http://www.mck.krakow.pl and the exhibition is open till April 25th, see you !
@MuseumMarketing nuestro contacto para estar en #followamuseum @MAPJH Museo de Arte Popular José Hernández, Buenos Aires
gracias!!!
[...] en este followfriday, uno de los twitteros ha lanzado la idea de dedicar el día de hoy, 1 de febrero, al seguimiento de un museo. La idea es excelente y parte del hecho de que los museos tienen más de un millón de seguidores, [...]
[...] #Museummonday Aan het begin van de week tip je andere twitteraars, je wijst ze op leuke musea die het waard zijn om te volgen. Bijv. via de lijst @museumavond/twitterendemusea-nl. De hashtag / zoekterm #museummonday wordt hierbij gebruikt. Deze onderlinge uitnodiging om musea te gaan volgen wordt op maandag getwitterd, in navolging van de #followfriday (#ff). Het initiatief begon volgens mij met Jim Richardson (Museummarketing.com), die op 1 februari 2010 de wereld verrijkte met ‘follow a museumday‘. [...]