Social (Media) Butterfly? You Betcha!

Social Media Butterfly!
photo by Casey Roon taken at
Sam Houston Memorial Museum.

by Casey Roon, Curator of Exhibits

You might think that a Museum that focuses primarily on the past might somehow be ‘behind the times’, but that couldn’t be further from the truth! In today’s tech-savvy world, it has become imperative for museums to fully embrace social media, even history museums!  Social media has transformed the way the world communicates and does business, and here at the Sam Houston Memorial Museum, we understand that the use of today’s technology and social media is a vital key to sustaining our growth and enhancing our mission.

Technology has created new opportunities for us at the SHMM to engage our visitors… but wait, what is a visitor these days? In today’s world, a visitor is anyone that can be counted as having engaged in our Museum and its programming, whether in person or on line.  We have creatively been working towards ways to increase our visitors, both in person and online and in doing so, we have created an off-the-cuff type of transparency that gives people an inside, more personal look at our museum, the programs we offer, and the people who work here. 

In the fall, we posted photos on Facebook of curators cleaning artifacts behind the glass cases in the Rotunda. Another day, we posted pencil drawings by Sam Houston Jr. that are safely tucked away in the vault.  The public response to having a peek behind the scenes like this was overwhelming.  We strive to give our visitors an authentic look at the Museum using social media and the results have shown themselves in bigger numbers across the board for daily visitors, event attendance, gift shop sales, school tours, and rental requests. We have fully embraced the use of social media for this museum, becoming one of over 17,000 museums nationwide that are doing the same thing. 

Beyond our regular website (www.samhoustonmemorialmuseum.com), which is the basic platform for outbound communication from museum to viewer these days, we have integrated several other tools into our social media toolbox. Most of the social media we use today allow for two-way communication between the visitor and the SHMM. We have long strived to be a welcoming place as well as a haven of learning, but the introduction of social media to our efforts has turned us into a virtual community center where everyone is welcome. Whether it is Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Pinterest, or our blog, everyone has a voice, and a vote. Curators, historical interpreters, and online visitors can communicate and learn from one another. As visitors to the SHMM bring their hand-held devices with them when they visit, the potential for interactivity only gets greater.

When it comes to Facebook (www.facebook.com/samhouston.memorial.museum), we understand the power and importance that Facebook has. With more than 845 million monthly active users, 2.7 billion likes and comments per day, we know that Facebook is a MUST for our museum. We post at regular intervals throughout the day in an effort to:

• ·         Create interesting content;

• ·         Share interesting content that is relevant to Sam Houston and family, SHSU, Huntsville, Texas, other museums and organizations with similar interests to ours;

• ·         Engage our visitors and invite them to keep up with our museum and visit our beautiful complex in person;

• ·         Stay connected to loyal fans;

• ·         Tell people about the awesome work/programming that goes on here.

On our newly established blog site (www.samhoustonmemorialmuseum.blogspot.com), we offer a more personal, interactive experience with a more behind-the-scenes type of look at the SHMM and the activities that go on here. Although this is a new site, the idea here is to allow curators and staff to take a more personal approach to explaining their work at the museum and interact with visitors through comments and postings. 

Blogging may be the oldest form of social media in this recent social media frenzy, probably the first form that started the platform of two-way communication (if people allow comments, which we do). The blog format is a nice way to update daily, create new content easily, and keep the site fresh and inviting, while still allowing authors to write at length, if they choose.

You can find us dabbling on Youtube (www.youtube.com/channel/user/SHMMuseum), and we plan to use video in 2013 to help us:

• ·         Announce new programs/exhibits/information;

• ·         Help people plan their visit;

• ·         Showcase our different types of group tours;

• ·         Highlight special artifacts, collections, exhibits, events, areas on the grounds that would appeal to others.

The Museum joined Twitter in 2009 (www.twitter.com/SHMMuseum), and uses the 140 characters to tweet short quips of information or links to images, articles and other content that our followers might find interesting.  We have learned that Twitter is a great way to respond and communicate with the public, a way to keep people informed, and an easy method to connect with visitors across the world. Curators and other museum staff can easily answer questions and interact with visitors using this quick and easy form of communication.

We’ve all heard that “a picture is worth a thousand words” and that has never been more true since the introduction of Pinterest (www.pinterest.com/SHMMuseum) . It has been said that Pinterest is now generating more referral traffic than Facebook. There's also mounting evidence that Pinterest, because it is visual, creates a stronger emotional connection with the visitor, and therefore a higher level of engagement with an organization. The key to success on Pinterest is having great imagery of your museum that people will want to pin. The Museum staff knows this, and we are working to integrate Pinterest into our social media strategy, which is to promote the Sam Houston Memorial Museum and to further our mission as an educational and cultural institution that benefits audiences at the local, state, national, and international levels.