Museum Marketing

At the Arts Marketing Association conference last month, Shelley Bernstein from Brooklyn Museum gave a presentation about how they are using technology to reach out to the communities who visit their venue.

One of the things which really seemed to grab people’s attention was her experience with FourSquare the social media tool which turns the real world in to a game in which you check-in to places that you go to and earn points for doing so.

Many people attending the conference seemed to join FourSquare following Shelley’s presentation and it made me look at the application again, which had sat unloved on my iPhone for the past six months. I started to actively use FourSquare and before long I was able to declare myself Mayor of a few museums and galleries, this is the prize that you receive if you are the person to check-in to a venue more then anyone else in a set space of time.

While many venues offer the person who becomes Mayor special offers (free coffee, cheap pizza, etc) none of the museums or galleries which check in to offered any incentive or recognition for my achievement (and it takes a lot of work). Recognition is really the name of the game with FourSquare and a note of congratulations would have made me feel more engaged with a venue.

My guess is that not many museums and galleries are aware of FourSquare, it’s popularity or the way that they can use it to engage with visitors. I’d really recommend that museums and galleries look at FourSquare and think about how they could use the application to connect with their communities.

I have been playing with the location based game Foursquare over the past week, in preparation for talking about how Museums can use mobile technology.

Foursquare is a location-based game which describes itself as being ‘All about helping you find new ways to explore the city, discovering new places, doing new things and meeting new people.’

Foursquare basically lets you leave tips for friends and strangers in your favorite places, when someone else comes to that place, they can read the tips that you have left through Foursquare on their mobile phone.

Foursquare is growing in popularity and many museums and galleries are listed on the application. A lot of these institutions are taking steps to engage with those who use Foursquare and  having spent a little more time using this application I want to share a couple of tips.

The image above is taken from the Foursquare account of The Pollak Library in the United States. The library has used the ‘TO-DO’ function on Foursquare to tell people more about what they offer, for example ‘ebooks’.

This is a really nice idea which I think could work brilliantly to create treasure hunts through museums, where the visitor has to tick off a list of twenty items in the collection which they have to track down in your collection.

The other route which I have found many institutions taking to encourage people to check in with them is to offer prizes to anyone who becomes a major (this happens when you check in the most in any one location). With Pratt Library, I believe they offered a tote bag as a prize.

Foursquare is being hyped as the next big thing, so it is worth checking out and thinking how you can engage with it’s users.

Have you used Foursquare for your museum, what tips do you have?