Some Highlights from #nytmuseums Twitter Chat

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Robin White

Participants in today’s hour long #nytmuseum twitter chat were pelted with tweets full of questions and great answers. It all happened so fast that human minds and the twitter server couldn’t keep up in real time.

So I favorited as many of the tweets as I could to review later. Since @hypoallergic posted a summary of highlights here I thought I’d add my notes to create a fuller picture of the event.

Highlights from #nytmuseums twitter chat:

How can we integrate gameplay to engage visitors and prospective visitors (PerfectPlum)

Q In what ways has info/content gathered from sm made its way into the web/mobile content offered by your museum? Sandy Goldberg

Social media networks should be looked at as “relationship builders” rather than just an extension of a sales team (anthonybrown)

A combination of voices representing a museum of different social media channels is good, but consistency is the key (Rob Stein and Shelly Bernstein).

Retweeting different staffers through the main museum feed may be an answer (Museumnerd)

In response to a question about what content visitors share on social media:

We are finding the behind the scenes experience to be very valuable (AMNH)

Show us your visit as you see it! (Shelly Bernstein)

Q: Does your museum have a collections object/specimen as your SM rep? Like Mr. Blobby, or SuetheRex http://tinyurl.com/328qtwq (Future of Museums)

@MovingimageNYC has exhibits where patrons can create something and share on Social Media.

Q How can museums best reward social “ambassadors” through shares, retweets? (henry art gallery)

Work to bring the visitor voice inside the institution at every turn (Shelly Bernstein)

Perhaps a behind-the-scenes trip/pass for opening (Jessica Faye Carter)

That’s a great idea! To invite tweeters to come to press previews! (Anulfo)

Q What would you like to see from Museums on line? Insight into exhibition decision making processes (Loni Rocchio)

Q How are your museums using social media to enrich content?

Facebook ads have delivered more response than Google adwords. (various)

I found facebook ads easier to use than google adwords. I think the target is easier to set and cost is WAY easier to manage. (Museum Secrets)

Big thread about the meaning of metrics:

Tynt is an often overlooked tool which tracks copies and pastes…we love it. Free too! www.tynt.com (The Warhol Museum)

The links we tweet from @SFMOMA are now #2 source of website treffic after Google search. Which is insane. (@origful)

Good article about Klout, metrics, etc: adage.com/u/u97KBb (@chelwhita)

Q about the use of QR codes:

QR codes optimize an effect of serendipity, discovery and surprise…powerful emotional/memory/stimulants (Len Steinbach)

Look to @mattressfactory for QR implementation that rocks (Shelly Bernstein)

Did anyone see what the Virginia Museum of Fine Art did with QR codes? Amazing! http://www.facebook.com/#!/myVMFA (Kimbell Art Museum)

In response to a tweet about an 80 yr old visitor scanning QR codes with her iPad in the gallery:

iPads do seem to be changing the game. Several of our board members have them (Brooklyn Historical Society)

I’ve always loved the idea of putting a sign w/a specific hastage by a piece in Museum & then collecting/displaying those tweets (Julie Brubaker)

Q from Rob Stein: you all agreed that its key to combo numbers and user feedback to determine overall impact?

Q5 How do your social media channels communicate w/each other? Twitter/FB.Flickr/etc (@MetEveryday)

I think the different outlets often have different constituents (museumnerd)

Our twitter followers are younger/biz-related, our FB followers tend to be moms and dads. We tailor content differently. (Children’s Museum, NH)

Important to also share different content on different platforms-keeps the convo interesting (Dia Art Foundation)

I agree that museums should lose the idea that museum content only belongs on their own site. (Rob Stein, Shelly Bernstein)

Q What is the ratio of people engaging w/ SM before, during & afeer museum/art visit? (Nancy Proctor)

Have you looked at @storify http://storify.com? It won an #sxswi competition this week. (from CCA wire)

Then by all means check out the full chat – link is in the first sentence above.

What Does it Take to Get a Conversation Going?

Posted on October 7, 2010 by Robin White

Shelly Bernstein at the Brooklyn Museum, wrote a blog post on Oct 4th, in response to Ed Rothstein’s fairly disparaging article “From Picassos to Sarcophagi, Guided by Phone Apps”,in The New York Times, three days earlier, about museum smart phone apps. She defended her museum’s efforts to date, and the efforts of all museums, to bring their content into this all important environment, the mobile landscape. I completely support the arguments she made.

Toward the end of the piece Rothstein dismissed the BklynMuse app’s capacity to allow visitors to leave comments about artworks for other visitors to find, saying “The various votes for “likes” in the museum are equally unilluminating. The result is a kind of scarcely literate cybergraffiti that does nothing to help reach a deeper understanding of the works or reveal their artistic traditions or cultural significance.”

It’s true that Likes and one word tags are not all that illuminating. I’m reminded of Malcolm Gladwell’s New Yorker article, Small Change about social media and revolutions. Pressing the Like button next to an object is easy. It takes a higher level of commitment and interest to write a quick comment about an object, and an even higher level to write a thoughtful comment.

I left a low level comment about a little Figure from the Nicobar Islands via BklnMuse when they launched the mobile web version back in March. I wrote about my experience in this blog post, expressing excitement about the possibility of being able enter into a dialogue with other visitors and even the curator, about works of art that I love for one reason or another.

But, six months later I see that I’m the only person who left a comment, even though the little figure has been Favorited by four other people. Why did they Favorite him? Do they see what I see? What else do they see? Why has no one else chimed in? Did they not really care enough to comment?

Rothstein’s article got me thinking. How do you prime the pump to get that conversation started? How do you get people to say something that inspires a response? And how do you keep them coming back?

Could one of the curatorial staff have responded? Obviously curators can’t be responding to every comment. But – what about docents or volunteers? Could this be part of their job description?

I know I’d be more likely to leave comments if I thought that someone would read them and respond. No one wants to be lonely.

When SFMOMA created a blog for their Olafur Eliasson show visitors to the show left lots of advice for others about how and what to see. Part of the allure was the time sensitive nature of the exhibition – it was temporary and therefore it was an event.

Perhaps featuring certain objects for a specific period of time – turning them into an event based experience – would generate some action, and interaction.

What are other successful examples?

Mobile Recommendations from the Think Mobile Conference, Part 2

Posted on April 14, 2010 by Robin White

According to the report by Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker, published on April 12, 2010, the mobile internet will overtake the fixed internet in the next five years. Museums have always had unique rich content to offer. The challenge now is to design ways to present that content in formats and markets where their current and future audiences are. Recent statistics indicate that 60% of users carry their smart phones with them, including at home, at all times. By 2013 the US smart phone market will quadruple to 160 million users.

Last week’s Think Mobile Conference, while aimed at large media companies, offered advice and insights that can help museums who are trying to create a meaningful and successful mobile experience. In Part 1 of my report I described three topics that dominated the presentations:

- the importance of defining the user experience before you begin

- the need to decide what mobile platform/s you’re going with

- the recognition that compelling content or a unique feature are essential to success

Here in Part 2, you can quickly read about the other three key elements to focus on.

Don’t Make Your App a Graveyard! Keep Users Coming Back to It

Everyone worried aloud about the issue of how to keep users coming back to their applications once they’ve downloaded them. It’s important because one of the ways to support the building and maintenance of your application is with ads, or in non-profit parlance, sponsorship. Sponsors want to know that they’re reaching users frequently, not just once. Their recommendations:

Build a content management system for your app so it’s easy to update. Providing fresh content is one way to ensure sustainable engagement.
Be ready to iterate, as improvements are made to the software, be ready to take advantage of them to improve the user experience.
I’d recommend adding your Twitter feed, blog and or Facebook feed into the app to ensure that there’s a minimum of fresh content, and help users contribute to the conversation.

Ways to Support the Development and Maintenance of Your App

Since people download more free apps than paid ones, most companies want to make their apps free. But they also want to recoup their costs and/or make a profit. Conference attendees talked about three approaches to financing.

Sell advertising within the app. For museums, this would translate to sponsorships. Everyone had statistics from surveys showing that users don’t mind advertising in applications, as long as the ads aren’t bad. (I know, how do you define “bad”?)
Make your app free to download but sell upgrades within your application, either for premium content or new features.
Alternatively, since people do pay for content they really want, charge for your app. The Apple store takes 30% of each sale, but you still get 70%.
Museums could also sell memberships, have links to donate, or to shop.

Last But Not Least, Spread the Word That Your App is Available!

What good will it do to produce a beautiful mobile app or web app if no one knows about it?

Museums have a built in membership base and many communications tools to help them get the word out: your website, newsletters, social media accounts, blogs, and of course onsite events, so you can remind visitors and members repeatedly about your mobile applications and how to download them. Reaching out to your base is one way to stand above the crowd in the app stores. Apple’s store is very crowded, with over 185,000 apps available and the number growing daily.
Tie the release of your app to an event, when you’re generating and receiving publicity anyway.
Build social links into the app so people can share your content on Facebook and Twitter at least, and promote your app simultaneously

Museums have always had unique rich content to offer. The challenge now is to design ways to present that content in formats and markets where their current and future audiences are. Recent statistics indicate that 60% of users carry their smart phones with them, including at home, at all times. By 2013 the US smart phone market will quadruple to 160 million users.

Mobile Recommendations from the Think Mobile Conference, Part One

Posted on April 12, 2010 by Robin White

Some of today’s most active developers and strategists spoke at the recent Think Mobile Conference about the current and future shape of our mobile experience.

The conference focused primarily on newspaper and TV organizations, but I was keenly interested in how their advice could be applied to museums who, like media companies, are big institutions, slow to change, have great content, want to stay relevant, are looking for guidance about how to succeed in mobile, and who can’t afford to lose money doing it.

Among the media companies represented were NPR, Bravo, Pandora, Associated Press, CNN, Bloomberg Media, PC Magazine.

Here are the big ideas they shared about successful strategies. I’m posting this in two parts over two days.

Part One will cover:

- Start at the Beginning: Define the Experience

- Decide if Your Application is for the Mobile Web or specific Devices

- Find the Wow Feature for Your App

Part Two will cover:

- Don’t Make Your App a Graveyard, Keep Users Coming Back to It

- Ways to Support the Development and Maintenance of Your App

- Last But Not Least, Spread the Word That Your App is Available

Part One: Start at the Beginning: Define the Experience

First, you need to define the experience you want users to have. For museums this can mean defining where their audience will be accessing mobile content. For example, are you delivering content to people who are in your museum? If so, they’re already in an environment that provides a context for your content. If you’re focusing on people off site, then your app will need to give users an informative context and a reason for engaging with your content.

Take into consideration how people consume mobile content. In the words of Paul Reddick, CEO of Handmark, a leading developer of mobile software, people use their devices for time sensitive information, like news; for reference content, so they don’t need to go out to Wikipedia; and for convenience, to access information when and where they want it. If you can look at your project this way, you’ll be able to offer a satisfying experience by providing the right content at the right time, and meet the expectations of your users.

Also, define what you want to achieve with your mobile app and how you could measure success.

Decide if Your App is for the Mobile Web or specific Devices

The general consensus is that while it’s useful, and cheaper, to build a mobile web app, it’s better to deliver your content on applications designed for specific smart phones. Here’s why:

to take advantage of the rich user experience features of phones;
to make the content available even when there’s no connectivity to the internet;
to provide unique content that you can charge for, either from sponsors, or users;

The big drawback is that no one version of your app will work on every phone; platform specific development is required. Currently, not even most big media companies can afford to build apps for every device out there. This means making more choices. They recommend:

iPhone; iPad – not the biggest user base but this user base downloads the most apps, on average 37 per month (free and paid).
Android: – number of users and applications rising quickly.
RIM – blackberry: biggest user base but not much interest in downloading apps; this platform is also problematic because there are so many blackberry devices the software works differently on them, so it’s been hard to develop applications. This may soon be changing. If so blackberry apps will have access to the widest user base.

Either way it’s important to understand how people use their phones so you can design your content to fit their behavior.

Find the Wow Feature for Your App

Everyone wants to figure out how to design it so that people want to use it more than once. Here are some tips, given by Brian Meehan of Sourcebits

One great feature is better than feature overload, for example, the interactive ocarina on the MIA iAfrica application, the multi-tiled dinosaur portrait/interface in AMNH’s Dinosaur app, or the compelling story line in the Van Gogh Museum’s Yours Vincent app.
Use the core features of the phone, such as multi-touch, accelerometer, location services to provide rich experiences. These things don’t work on the web.
Make the app work with wi-fi and 3G (soon to be 4G)

10.User interface really matters. Think about what your users expect and make the navigation clear and simple use.

11.Build in connections to social media like Facebook and Twitter so people using your app can promote the app as they talk about your content;

I would add, as many others did, start with the content. Provide stories people want to read/watch/hear.

Part Two will cover

- Don’t Make Your App a Graveyard, Keep Users Coming Back to It

- Ways to Support the Development and Maintenance of Your App

- Last But Not Least, Spread the Word That Your App is Available

Use BklynMuse!

Posted on March 29, 2010 by Robin White

I think this is a very exciting time for museums who are willing to be experimental. Yesterday I whiled away an hour in the Brooklyn Museum‘s galleries, trying out a new version of BklynMuse, to access their online collection, on their newly upgraded mobile website.

Here’s how it works: once you’ve joined their public wi-fi network, you stand in front of an object, type in its number on your phone and, presto! you can pull up the image, “like” it, a la Facebook, leave your own comment, see other visitors’ comments and learn more about it from experts.

You can also play Gallery Tag, where you collect points for every item you tag, and extra points for doing this on more than one floor.

I wanted to try out BklynMuse because I was curious to see how disruptive the social media activity would be to my experience. Normally when I go to a museum it’s to see a specific show, or just wander with a friend through the galleries. I couldn’t really imagine wanting to interact on my phone.

There’s a piece that I’ve always loved in the Arts of the Pacific Islands gallery, so I went there first. Here he is, a little figure from the Nicobar Islands.

To me he looks like kind of a crazy, happy guy, and maybe he’s surfing.

I typed in his number and, to my surprise, this is where it got to be fun. Thanks to BklynMuse I saw right away that five other people have also “liked” the Nicobar Island man so I know I’m not the only one. I happily left a comment, and am eager to see what future visitors think of him, and how that might give me fresh ways of looking at him.

I tried the tagging game too, and racked up 25 points, which put me in 3rd place! BklynMuse just launched this week so very few people are using it yet. Gallery Tag reminded me of a home made version of FourSquare.

What’s unique about BklynMuse is that it’s entirely visitor driven. It’s not a tour or guide to the collection designed by Brooklyn Museum. It’s a vehicle for visitors who are motivated to feed their curiosity about particular artworks; it encourages them to voice their reactions to the works, and validates what they have to say by publishing their comments.

Tagging too can have its serious purpose; even as a kid just playing a game, you have to look at the object you’ve chosen, look at the tags that are offered, think about which is most appropriate, and if there isn’t one, create a new one to use. It’s empowering in its way!

We’ve been members of the Brooklyn Museum since we moved here from Manhattan 20 years ago. I took my son to more Arty Facts sessions than I can recall. In 1997 I produced a big, beautiful 24 screen video wall program for the exhibition Monet and the Mediterranean, in their old, cavernous lobby. That was large cutting edge technology for its day, and the Museum used it to make the space more friendly for visitors waiting on line to see the show.

Today they’re carrying on that tradition of being out in front in using technology, with imaginative, experimental efforts in social media and mobile, to make the Museum friendly to new audiences. As a visitor I really feel that they’re trying to give me a wonderful experience and I’m willing to try it. In the process, I learn from them and they learn from me.

The Grateful Dead Shaking Up The New-York Historical Society

Posted on March 20, 2010 by Robin White

We recently went to the opening of a Grateful Dead exhibition at the New-York Historical Society – a very unusual show for them. As you would expect, the normally staid N-YHS crowd was rockin’ to live music and the vibe was good!

In the gallery everyone was animated, swapping stories, looking closely at the concert posters, tee shirts, album covers, memorabilia and at the amazing, lovingly designed envelopes and letters sent by fans requesting tickets to concerts or just expressing their love. It’s a small exhibition but you could spend a very happy hour there.

The New-York Historical Society is on to something with this exhibition. The Grateful Dead were a part of New York City’s history, having played the Fillmore East at least 12 times between 1967 and 1970, not to mention Sheep’s Meadow in Central Park and other venues many times during the 28 years before Gerry Garcia passed on.

Three things occurred to me as I was walking around.

One: why couldn’t N-YHS do a series of exhibitions on the history and impact of the music scenes in our fair city? New York has always been a place where reputations were made, and where music has deeply influenced the culture. Think about the East Village in the 1970s and ’80s; or Harlem and the jazz clubs in mid-town in the ’40s and ’50s. It’s probably been that way since there were enough people living here to be an audience, all the way back to the 17^th century.

With a series of exhibitions about the history of music in NYC, new audiences of avid music fans would discover N-YHS. They’d be fascinated to see the music they loved and their own lives as part of a larger social history. This would probably change their perception of what History is, and make it feel personally relevant. They might even become members!

Two: this content really inspires visitors to share memories and comments. N-YHS could collect these stories to share with other visitors on their website, and on social media sites. It would be a wonderful way to help give N-YHS a fresh look.

Three: the Grateful Dead were really early adopters, probably pioneers, in the social media sphere in the way they embraced their fans’ entrepreneurial activity. Instead of outlawing fans who taped their concerts, they created special areas where tapers could stand and record the music. When fans began designing their own Dead t-shirts and other gear, instead of hauling them off the streets for illegally using the brand, they encouraged them to submit their designs and helped promote the best stuff. The Grateful Dead were way ahead of the curve in so many ways!