MCN2015

For many institutions, social media is an extension of their marketing department.

While there is no shortage of #museumlove amongst museum professionals online, heritage organizations as a whole tend to struggle with working together to engage communities. Provoking dialogue during major current events and truly engaging broad audiences through social media are not tasks we’ve historically excelled at. Happily, this trend is changing, as more and more museum associations and social media groups form.

Looking to fill a void, these groups all share one common value: museums are undoubtedly stronger together and the more collective online efforts we push forward, the better we all do. We (Andrew, Nicholas, and Lisa) will talk about the problems our particular museum communities face, the museum associations we’re a part of, and the work we’ve been doing. We believe that social capital is the dominant currency on social media, and the only way to earn it is through quality content and responsive dialogue.

Moderated by Adrianne Russell, co-founder/organizer of #MuseumsRespondToFerguson, our panel will address the responsibilities of institutions to respond to events like we've seen in Ferguson, Indiana, and Baltimore. Forming associations is only the first step, and with opening the gates of communication on social media comes great responsibility - some that many aren't willing to face. We will address the ways to move beyond using social media as a marketing tool and the benefits of engaging with people in honest and open discourse as a way to make institutions more accessible.

The goal of the panel is to explore the idea that museums can and should talk - regionally, nationally and internationally. Most museum missions have the idea of reaching broad audiences and serving their local publics, but what if institutions start talking across city/county/state lines? We can start reaching much broader audiences and connect our visitors to the missions, stories and collections of other institutions and vice versa. It’s not a marketing thing but a global community thing.