Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
o
Mission:
“The Van Gogh Museum makes the
life and work of Vincent van Gogh and the art of his time accessible to as many
people as possible in order to enrich and inspire them.”[1]
The Museum Association’s page on outlining social media practice
in museums states that that the starting point for using social media in a
museum setting should always be about “fulfilling your mission as a museum.”[2] The
use of social media, though not mentioned in actual words, is built right into
the Van Gogh Museum’s mission as they aim to provide “as many people as
possible” access to not only their collection, but to all information
concerning Van Gogh, his artwork, and other artwork created during and around
his own time period. By using the words “as many people as possible” the museum
is explaining that their main endeavor is to reach beyond the scope of those
who can physically come and visit the museum.
o
The Van Gogh Museum actively uses:
|
-Twitter
-Facebook
-Google+
|
-Instagram
-Youtube
-Pinterest
|
With
approximately 160,000 followers on Twitter, the Van Gogh Museum is consistently
on Museum Analytics “Most Engaging Twitter Content” list. The “typical” posts
of prominent pieces in their collection, marketing plugs for upcoming
exhibitions, and visiting guests are prominent among the tweets with the
content repeating itself across the museum’s other social media sites;
including, Instagram, Facebook, and Google+. The museum’s Twitter feed appears
to be the most prominently used and there are many tweets that contain content
that does not appear on their other social networking sites, as well as
retweets from other institutions.
The
Van Gogh Museum is does not necessarily follow the typical trends of its fellow
art museums when it comes to their Instagram posts; while they still include
the “typical” posts like on Twitter, they also include #FanArt. This hashtag
was designed to connect Van Gogh’s masterpieces with his contemporary fans that
use his works to inspire their own creations and the museum does not only share
the fan art that would be considered “fine art”. My favorite by far is their
posting of a beautiful tiered cake that has been decorated to resemble Van
Gogh’s painting “Almond Blossom”.
Posts
between Instagram and Facebook can be fairly repetitive with various posts
relating to Museum events and special guests cropping up more often on Facebook
then they do on Instagram. Additionally, Facebook receives a great deal more
video posts than Instagram, which is not surprising as Instagram was originally
created as just an image posting social networking platform.
While
the Van Gogh Museum appears to update each of their social media sites at least
once daily, their Twitter feed appears to receive more attention from staff and
consistently has multiple posts per day. In terms of followers on each site,
they appear to have the most on Google+ with a little less than 5 ½ million and
on Facebook with a little more than a million “likes”; these are significantly
greater numbers compared to their Twitter’s 160,000 followers. I find it
unusual that they post the most frequently with the most diverse forms of
content on their Twitter when those posts are not receiving nearly as much
traffic and visibility as the posts on Google+ and Facebook. The reasoning
behind this could be, as the American Association of Museum’s Social Media
Handbook puts it, because Twitter “requires a constant, engaging presence.”[3]
With only 140 characters, each tweet must be to the point and a constant stream
on information may keep followers more attentive to your museum’s activities.
Their
posts on Google+ and Facebook tend to be the “typical” posts highlighting
pieces in the collection with #ArtOfTheWeek, advertising exhibitions, and
sharing interesting facts about Van Gogh and the collection. The social media
team is clearly making an effort to engage with their users on social media
sites, by posing questions to them about Van Gogh’s art, and encouraging users
to comment, share the post, and essentially, start a conversation. The AAM’s
Handbook states that social media is not just about technology; “it’s all about
conversation and storytelling. If you have a good story to share, people will
want to listen and respond.”[4]
Under the Facebook section of the Handbook they provide tips and tricks, one of
them being, “Promote engagement. Ask for questions, opinions and comments. We
want to begin a dialogue.”[5]
For example with this Facebook post:
One
issue I have found with the Van Gogh Museum’s posts on social media is that
when they post an image of an artwork, either a work by Van Gogh or another
artist, they do not always include Tombstone information about the object.
Instead, they use hashtags to relay the information to the users. Whether or
not they do include it appears to depend on the social media site being used. For
example a painting by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was posted in March on their
Facebook, Google+, and Instagram. The postings on Facebook and Google+ were
identical in content and contained the Tombstone information; however, when the
image was posted to Instagram they only used hashtags to describe the object
and did not include any of the other contextual information given in the
Facebook/Google+ post.
 |
| Instagram with Hashtags |
 |
| Google+ with Tombstone |
The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library
Since
the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library is operated by the National Archives
and Records Administration they follow NARA’s strategies and policies,
including those pertaining to social media. NARA’s Social Media Policies include
the policies on blog posting and comments for NARA, Dipity, Facebook, Flickr,
idea forums, contributing to the National Archives Catalog, Pinterest, Twitter,
Tumblr, and YouTube. They also provide a social media “Project Proposal Form”
and “Guidance on managing social media records” which was last updated in 2014.
The purpose of the “Guidance on Managing
Social Media Records” is to provide “high-level recordkeeping requirements and
best practices for capturing records created when Federal agencies use social
media. The use of social media may create Federal records that must be captured
and managed in compliance with Federal records management laws, regulations,
and policies.”[6]
I felt that this statement was important to highlight as the Herbert Hoover Presidential
Library and Museum is a Federal archives; therefore, we must not forget that
any record produced by the library, whether born digitally on social media or
not, must follow Federal laws, regulations, and policies.
o
The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library actively
uses:
|
-Facebook
|
-YouTube
-Twitter
|
While
I am unable to locate a mission statement for this library and museum, their
blog contains a very clear mission statement on their “About Blog” page.
This mission reiterates AAM’s
statement in their Handbook that social media is “all about conversation and
storytelling. If you have a good story to share, people will want to listen and
respond.”[7]
Users are able to follow the blog by entering their email, interact with the
content by submitting comments and sharing posts, and are able to search back
through the blogs archives. The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library is very
transparent and provides NARA’s “Comments and Posting Policy” on the top menu
bar.
The
library and museum’s Facebook and Twitter posts are consistently the same in
content, with the exception that their Twitter feed will often feature retweets
and promoted tweets, and both sites are updated at least once a day. Posts
include historic photographs from the institution’s collections that often
correspond to the date
information about upcoming
exhibits, workshops, or lectures, and even links to outside articles that
relate to President Hoover. Like this one about Meatless Mondays which
discusses President Hoover’s position as head of the then brand-new United
States Food Administration in 1917 when he wanted to make Tuesdays meatless and
Wednesdays Wheat-less…
The library and museum’s YouTube
channel contains recorded lectures, promotional videos, and historical footage.
The content that is shared on here relates to their mission shared on their
blog about introducing their audience with information about Herbert Hoover and
his history and about sharing their educational programs and ideas.
Guides to “Best Practice” for Social Media Use by Museums:
· American Association of Museums, Museum Assessment Program, “Social Media Handbook,” 2011, https://www.imls.gov/assets/1/AssetManager/AAHC_Convening_MAPSocial.pdf.
· The Museum Association, “Museum Practices: Social Media,” http://www.museumsassociation.org/museum-practice/social-media-basics/15032011-strategy.
· The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. “Guidance on managing social media records,” http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/bulletins/2014/2014-02.html.
[1] The Van
Gogh Museum. “Mission and Strategy,” accessed April 5, 2016, http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/about-the-museum/mission-and-strategy.
[2] Rebecca
Atkinson, “Museum Practice: Developing a Social Media Strategy,” March 15,
2011, accessed April 5, 2016, http://www.museumsassociation.org/museum-practice/social-media-basics/15032011-strategy.
[3] American
Association of Museums, Museum Assessment Program, “Social Media Handbook,”
2011, 10.
[4] Ibid, 5.
[5] Ibid,
11.
[6] The U.S.
National Archives and Records Administration, “Guidance on managing social
media records,” http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/bulletins/2014/2014-02.html.
[7] “Social
Media Handbook,” 2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment