Keep It Conversational and Other Tips From Social-Media Gurus on How Art Institutions Can Grow Their Audiences Online

One lesson that the lockdown era
has laid bare is that, when it comes to museums, not all social
media presences are created equal. While many of them offer outstanding IRL
experiences, cracking the code of what will gain traction online is
a different skill altogether.

“Coronavirus means we can’t do business as
normal, and that goes for social media too,” Adam Koszary, social
media and content editor at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, tells
Artnet News. “People are scared, bored, and in desperate need to
fill their time. This is a time to shine for museums, but it means
being far more interactive than many institutions are used
to.”

Koszary, who has been dubbed the
“king of memes” by the New York
Times, is credited
with paving the way for museums to adopt a more informal tone
online. Here are some
top tips from Koszary, as well as other museums social media gurus,
on how to craft a quality museum presence online.

Aim For the Right Metrics

“As tempting as it is to focus on follower
growth, our key metric is engagement,” the Field Museum of Natural History’s Katharine
Uhrich tells Artnet News. “We’re more interested in the quality of our
online relationships than the quantity.”

Uhrich explains that while it
can be tempting to use social media like a megaphone,
it works better when you approach
it more like a telephone, and talk to your audience as well as
other institutions.

“People love to share,” the
Royal Academy’s Koszary adds. “Whether it’s their opinion, their
experiences or something they’ve created.” The expert suggests that
museums invite participation from their audiences. To that end, the
Royal Academy has been issuing daily challenges under the hashtag
#RAdailydoodle to encourage its followers to get creative and
participate in activities such as its recently viral challenge:
“Who can draw us the best ham.”

Claire Lanier, the social media
manager at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, agrees. “I think one of
the best things we can give followers right now are things to do,”
she says. The Met issues its own prompts and challenges, such
as the #MetTwinning
challenge, which encourage people to recreate art from its
collection at home. Museums elsewhere are launching similar
challenges, such as the Ashmolean Museum’s #IsolationCreations
campaign, or the viral Getty
Challenge, which has
yielded some hilarious results from people attempting to copy works
from its collection using homemade props.

Find the Museum’s Voice

The Field Museum’s Uhrich
stresses that it’s important to know your museum’s voice and mission. “It’s that
‘be authentic’ cliché, but it’s important,” Uhrich says. “More
practically, consider what’s unique about your institution. What
can your social presence bring to the conversation that others
can’t?” 

The Musée d’Orsay has its
own Instagram
artist-in-residence, who
has been having fun imagining what the Impressionist masters in the
collection might have posted on their own social media accounts if
they were alive today. 

And who can forget Tim, who runs
the social media for the National Cowboy Museum in Oklahoma? When
the museum shut down, they handed their Twitter reins over to the
museum’s head of security, Tim, who gamely took on the challenge,
even though he had never used Twitter before. Tim made endearing
mistakes, such as spelling out the word “hashtag” and signing off
every tweet with “Thanks, Tim.”

“His very wholesome
misunderstanding of Twitter and his stories of the objects in the
museum are the escapism we all need right now,” Kozsary
says.

Observe Other Institutions

Uhrich suggests that if you’re
struggling with original content, you can join other institutions’
hashtags and prompts—there is plenty out there to get you through a
dry spell. “There are so many brilliant examples of engagement and
creativity,” she says. “Don’t worry about dreaming up the next
viral moment.” 

Adrienne Poon, the digital
content creator for the National Museum of Women in the Arts tends to agree that collaboration is important.
“Many of our most successful posts come from collaborative
campaigns, such as #5WomenArtists or #MuseumsThankHealthHeroes,”
Poon says. “Even simply joining other campaigns is a great way to
increase engagement. She gives the example of the #MuseumBouquet
campaign started by the
New-York Historical Society and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture
Garden.

Museums are “one big family,”
adds Tim.

Have Fun

Tim from the National Cowboy
Museum says the biggest lesson he has learned from taking on the
role is “that making people smile makes me smile.”
His advice for other museums?
“Look for that thing that
makes people happy and lifts them up. We all need some happiness in
our lives.”

A lot of successful museum
tweets have an off-the-cuff and conversational
tone. “The key thing is to talk to people and not be
a robot,” Kozsary says, adding that among the great joys of
visiting museums is talking to an enthusiastic and knowledgeable
gallery attendant, shop assistant, curator, or educator. “People
often perceive museums to be aloof and elitist, but all it takes to
demolish that perception is an engaged dialogue.” 

One of the Field Museum’s prize
artifacts is the remains of a 67 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex
named Sue. One of the museum’s curators has been having fun in the
empty galleries by dancing around in an inflatable T-Rex
suit.

“People are craving humanity now
more than ever and are seeking it on social media,” Uhrich says,
pointing out that “even the most revered museums can have a social
presence that’s entertaining and relatable.” As an example, she
offers up the Met, which made a “sun’s out, buns out” reference on
Instagram on the first day of spring.

Don’t Be Afraid to Try Something New

In the Wild West of the
internet, anything goes, and museums’ social managers shouldn’t be
afraid take a shot at something original if they feel so
compelled. “If
something doesn’t quite work out then it’s easily lost in the
never-ending stream, but when that one thing blows up you’ll know
it,” Kozsary says. 

Sometimes a fresh perspective on
a collection can have interesting results. The Orsay’s “A week
with…” project, where they invite thought leaders to offer their
own viewpoints on the collection, has been very popular. It kicked
off with Julian Schnabel, and the series will continue with the
philosopher Emanuele Coccia, writers Maylis de Kerangal and Linda
Lê, followed by the South African artist Marlene Dumas and then art
historian Hans-Ulrich Obrist.

Speak to the Moment

It is also important to
acknowledge relevant concerns of society. “For a long time museums
have developed the ambition to be not just conservatories of the
past, but also actors in the way the world is moving forward, and
to take their full part in the current discussions about society,”
the community manager at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, Eric Jouvenaux
says. While the external world may be in chaos, many are turning to
art for a moment of serenity. With many trapped inside, the Musée
d’Orsay has been sharing a landscape from its collection each
day.

“Especially right now, it’s
important that we find ways to speak to the reality of the present
moment—in isolation, in pajamas all day, in Zoom meetings—while
being sensitive to the fact that there is very real tragedy
happening around us,” the Met’s Lanier says. “Calming, moving
artworks and powerful stories in art history offer us very
authentic ways of relating to followers”

But Don’t Forget the Museum’s Mission

Amid the urge to create fun and
relevant content, the National Museum of Women in the Arts’s Adrienne Poon says it’s important to
remember the core mission of the museum. “Staying true to our mission not only
determines what content we should post, but it also lends our
social media a unique perspective,” Poon says.

“Any museum can share cute pet
photos, but what about cute pet photos alongside each pet’s
favorite woman artist? Both options are delightful, but the latter
remains on mission for us while also adding educational value for
the audience. That tiny added value is key, because it gives people
a reason to engage beyond a quick heart emoji.”

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Social-Media Gurus on How Art Institutions Can Grow Their Audiences
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