For many of us, social media is still something that we dread getting involved in. Who cares about a cat licking out of a faucet, anyway?
I think if I narrowed down the list of complaints against social media, the most popular (or least in this case) platform is Twitter. No one wants to know what you ate for breakfast and #TheNumberOfHashtagsPeopleUseIsGettingRidiculous. Despite some people giving Twitter a bad reputation – we’re looking at you, celebrities – there are positive ways to use the platform as well.
This past week, Lake County Historical Society and Ohio Museums Association paired up for the state’s first #OHMuseumChat. The purpose of this monthly Twitter conversation is to connect museums statewide on issues that involve all of us. Whether our mission revolves around the latest trends in science or technology, preserving historic documents, or educating visitors on the Impressionists, we can all learn from each other on how to better attract younger generations, improve our membership and donor relations, make ourselves relevant in the community, tackle collections issues, and the list goes on and on.
Did you know that according to Ohio Museums Association, Ohio is ranked 12th for heritage tourists to visit in the nation, and that Ohio has over 1,200 museums and historic sites? In fact, for every 100,000 residents, Ohio has 10.4 museums. That’s practically double the national average! Our state has a wealth of knowledge that can improve our collective ability to serve our visitors, students, members, donors, and partners.
Our first chat revolved around “Attracting and Maintaining Members.” We had a lively discussion with 131 tweets reaching 209,180 timeline feeds. Just imagine if we had that many people come in and see one of our exhibits! While Twitter is fast-moving and at times filled with nonsense about breakfast, it’s also a remarkable platform to bring information to people on an incredibly large scale.
Ohio Museums Association put together a great resource list following our chat. You can find it here. If you are interested in seeing the highlights from the conversation, check out the Storify here. We even had some museum professionals look outside the traditional membership model and look at different industries for inspiration.
“@jhughes314 #OHmuseumChat I just became member of WKSU NPR and membership contained discounts on hotel, rental car, etc. That added value for me”
We also talked about collaboration, camaraderie between institutions, and my personal favorite – digital humanities.
We are now getting ready for our next #OHMuseumChat on May 21st at 12 noon. It is on “Collections and Exhibits.” If you have a question you would like answered or discussed during the chat, please leave it in the comments below and we’ll get it into the agenda.
If you are interested in participating in the next chat, make sure to follow @LakeSociety and @OhioMuseums.
Submitted by Elizabeth Connor, Executive Director