Following on from my last post about Museums and Digital Engagement, which covered the experiences of the Horniman Museum.  This post turns to the Wellcome Collection and their digital engagement activities.

The next presentation at Show Us Your Assets was by Russell Dornan, Web editor at the Wellcome Collection.  Russell gave a really great overview of the Wellcome Collection’s digital activities, from using social media, blogging, to digital storytelling and video projects. He then focused on three tools (Instagram, using hashtags and blogging stories) that have been particularly successful for the Wellcome Collection.  The nice thing being that these three things can be scaled up and down and applied to any other museum with little or no cost (other than staff time). Finally, Russell provided a range of really helpful dos and don’ts. (NB.  All images are screen grabs from Russell’s prezi which is available online)

Below are the three key things I cam away with:

Be a big tease on Instagram

Instagram is Russell’s favourite platform for regularly sharing and speaking to audiences.   He is a big advocate for being a big tease on Instagram by sharing behind the scenes images for exhibitions. It makes followers curious and intrigued to find out more. Russell gave a great example from their Idiosyncratic A to Z of the Human Condition exhibition where visitors were invited to contribute to the gallery in different ways, submitting Instagram photos for a few of the themes explored in the gallery was one way to participate.   Particularly the theme on individuality where visitors could become part of the exhibition by taking a self-portrait in the mirror in the exhibition share it on Instagram, to extent this engagement activity Russell printed the photos out and put them up in the exhibition.  It’s a bit meta, but there’s something really nice about creating a physical manifestation of a digital output.  Many visitors seemed to like it, and went back to take a selfie of them by their printed instagram photo, and the whole process started again,  creating a circular physical/digital engagement.  Russell also discussed the idea of inviting instagramers and local photography groups into the gallery is a nice way of getting new social content.

Instagram Do’s and Don’t’s

Do

• Be spontaneous
• Use your imagination
• Engage with followers
• Search hashtags
• Encourage visitors (…and reap the rewards)

Don’t

• Be precious
• Just post marketing material
• Post boring pictures
• Fight the format (use filters, be laid back and casual)

 

Have and encourage Curious Conversations

Russell then discussed how they have used the hashtag #CuriousConversations on Twitter and in the gallery to engage visitors by asking questions and entering into conversations.  Every couple of weeks a new question is asked on Twitter and in the Wellcome’s Medicine Now gallery.  The responses are gathered and discussed and a staff member who also happens to have a secret skill as an illustrator interprets the public responses. This is a really nice way to incorporate staff skills in new ways.  This is also another example of how the Wellcome Collection has mixed up physical and digital elements online and in the gallery space.

Do’s and Don’t’s

Do

• Engage with followers
• Enjoy followers talking to each other
• Find out and use staff secret skills
• Have fun
• Relax

Don’t

• Be too stiff
• Try to control the conversation
• Just use RT’s or Favs to measure ‘success’

 

Blogging Museum Stories

Russell discussed how the Wellcome Collections blog is used to enlighten and inform but also entertain readers.  The blog is used in numerous ways:

• Explore themes presented in exhibition and events
• Provide more detail about objects, themes and activities
• Use prior or after an exhibition or events to build a buzz or reflect upon.

Russell also highlighted the example of using the blog to not only talk about Wellcome Collection themes but more general museology questions and issues – like the use of no photography in the galleries.

Blogging Do’s and Don’t’s

Do

• Make noise in museum sector
• Use internal and external contributions – guest posts are useful
• Experiment with content types
• Find that unique hook
• Use lots of images
• Post regularly
• Publisice posts
• Jump on relevant hashtags (#museumcats, #museumselfie, #musbuliding were Russell’s key examples)
• Use different voices

Don’t

• Make posts too long (under 800 words is good)
• Just use text
• Think people aren’t interested
• Give up

Russell’s main takeaways:

• Be creative and experimental
• Trust your staff and your audience
• Find and use what makes your museum unique
• Build a network with museums and museum professionals online to support you no matter how small you are physically
• Transform existing content into new content
• Digital and social media is fun; make sure you’re having some