Social Media and Museums

Carol Vogel has an interesting article in the NY Times about museums and their increasing use of social media. The article sites the need to keep information fresh, new and connected through various channels, including web applications. The use of social media goes beyond having a simple website, and looks to engage the viewer. As the web changes, it is important for appraisers, like museums, to change along with the needs and desires of the viewers and embrace the new technology.

Jane Brennom, ISA CAPP and I wrote an article for the 2011 edition of the Journal of Advanced Appraisal Studies about appraising, the use of social media within the profession and the importance of connecting the various channels for full web branding and maximum exposure and benefit.

Vogel reports

While museums have long strived to be welcoming places as well as havens of learning, social media is turning them into virtual community centers. On Facebook or Twitter or almost any museum Web site, everyone has a voice, and a vote. Curators and online visitors can communicate, learning from one another. As visitors bring their hand-held devices to visits, the potential for interactivity only intensifies.

However, there is a caveat. The new technology is “stimulating, and we’re giving a lot of thought to the amount of information we provide,” said Thomas P. Campbell, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But “we’ve got to keep people in a heads-up mode, to make sure they are looking at art.”

As technology and all its tools change, so do the challenges facing museums. Among them: how to install wireless Internet access in old buildings so visitors can use their own devices, how to keep up with the constant demands of social media and, most important, calibrating how much the public should influence what goes on the walls.

Also, not getting too caught up in fads. “Everyone had a pogo stick and a scooter,” Mr. Campbell said. “Now everyone is tweeting.”

The Met built its online timeline of art history in 2000, and the feature has only grown in depth and popularity, attracting more than six million visitors in the last year, officials at the museum said. The entire Web site it is undergoing a redesign to be made public at the end of the summer.

To read the compete NY Times article, click HERE.