Cultural Institutions as Social Beings.

Taking on the online social persona of a cultural organization is a huge undertaking that can not be understated. While working at The Franklin Institute I played the role of @thefranklin and experimented with different voices. At the time not many museums were on Twitter and the ones that were used the service as an extended RSS feed. Trial and error using a new channel  allowed me to realized that to be true to the org, I had to be transparent and honest. I had to be three things in one: me,  the sum of all employees and the Institution itself.

In order to be honest and allow personality to shine through as well as give a sense of who it was that was the voice of the museum on Twitter I would take random photos around the museum of whatever I came across both on the floor and behind the scenes, post what I was listening to, and sharing links.

To be the sum of all the employees the goal was to focus more on behind the scenes and show more of who makes up the museum. Any kind of peek behind the curtain gave followers a better sense of the workings of the museum as well as showed off what might not otherwise be seen. A more direct connector were things like question and answer sessions with our Chief Astronomer, curatorial photos and the such which generated attention with little effort.

To be a storied 180+ year old institution was the hardest of the tri-personality to live up to. Show off the academic work, get the right information out to followers for events, tell the history in a way that connects the mission directly to the goings on within the physical walls. We all know more goes on than what the general visitor might see and we want to make sure that aspect gets its due.

These three things seem like they may be a lot but once you have your targets set and a strategy in mind its not as hard as one might think.