This is a short editorial piece that I was super excited to be asked to write for the publication Museum ID. I reached new levels of procrastination preparing this at 3 AM on deadline, but I think it came out in a coherently rambly style that feels like my voice. It’s the first written piece I’ve produced in a long time, but I am always thinking about these issues. Felt good to get it out of my head and subject it to some critical scrutiny. Now I have to choose a photo, which by necessity, will have a puppy in it.
—-
Social Media is tool through which I’ve had the privilege of making a lot of little failures in the service of understanding our audience.
This may sound like a problem, it’s actually an incredible gift. Best practices in the use social media are evolving, and the role it can play in nonprofits and cultural institutions is in the process of being defined, challenged, and innovated upon. Everyone is figuring it out as we go along, based on the needs of their institution and audience. Such an open field is rare in a Museum context, as is the level of direct interaction with one’s audience. This technology, far from making things cold and automated, humanizes institutions that might otherwise seem impenetrable, and facilitates conversation that is available to the public and to the institution, as opposed to being contained within tour groups, classrooms, or visitors on date night.
Upon starting our twitter account and selecting our iconic architecture as our avatar, my first question was, “who wants to hear what a building has to say?” This query is still something I ask myself everyday, working to strike the balance between content delivery and relationship building (much like the institution I represent), and creating a tone that is at once relate-able and authoritative. This work can sometimes be messy, fraught with all the delights and potential missteps of other forms of human communication; misspellings happen, rumors are disseminated. However, more often than not interactions are supremely positive, with our audience delighted to sense and interact with a human presence instead of just a building. Seeing cultural institutions in my own facebook and twitter feeds sandwiched between friend updates, news sources, pop culture icons, I am proud to be working towards making sure Museums have an equal presence as another aspect of engaged and connected lives.