alyssagardina.com - museums

Museums on Twitter: Girl Power Edition

agardina — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 21:53:50 +0000

I'll be the first to admit it. I love Twitter. I’ve been able to connect with so many people, organizations and companies in the past year - it's incredible! That being said, something awesome happened on Twitter yesterday. #Women2Follow, a hashtag that's the brainchild of @WomenWhoTech, had a few of us focusing on museums with women directors (thanks, @cjn212!). The geneder imbalance in leadership positions at museums is well-documented, so we felt it was important to shed light on the museums who are not only led by women, but who are taking a technological leap and getting involved in social media.

Here’s the list that we got of museums on Twitter that are headed up by women directors, CEOs, and presidents. Did I miss one? Let me know in the comments!

The Women’s Museum (@thewomensmuseum)
Metropolitan Museum of Art (@metmuseum)
American Museum of Natural History (@atAMNH)
New Museum (@newmuseum)
Brooklyn Historical Society (@brooklynhistory)
Dallas Museum of Art (@dallasmuseumart)
Nasher Museum of Art (@NasherGirl)
Kemper Art Museum (@kemperartmuseum)
Seaport Museum NYC (@wavertreewire)
Asia Society Museum (@asiasociety)
Museum of the City of NY (@museumofcityny)
Magnes Museum (@magnes)
Tacoma Art Museum (@tacomaartmuseum)
Miami Science Museum (@miasci)
MOCA North Miami (@mocanomi)
Frost Art Museum (@frostartmuseum)
Minneapolis Institute of Arts (@artsmia)
Walker Art Center (@walkerartcenter)
Tree Museum (@tree_museum)
Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (@crafthouston)

More! (Added 8/19/09, thanks to @CJN212)

Cleveland Museum of Art (@ClevelandArt)
Weeksville Heritage Center (@Weeksville)
Museum of Florida Art (@MuseumofFLArt)
Shiloh Museum of Ozark History (@ShilohMuseum)
Rogers Museum (@RogersMuseum)
Skyscraper Museum (@SkyMuseum)
Museum of Arts and Design (@MADMuseum)
White River Valley Museum & Mary Olson Farm (@wrvmuseum)
Log Cabin Village (@logcabinvillage)

Non-Profits on Twitter - Figuring Out the Basics

siteadmin — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 03:54:29 +0000

My foray into social media (beyond using Facebook to "friend" people I haven't seen since middle school) began very very late. Over the past summer, I tried out Twitter with my own personal account. In June, I began working for The Women's Museum, a national women's history museum in Dallas, Texas. I did some research and, in October, told my boss that I wanted to Twitter. The following conversation ensued.

Me: I'd like to start a Twitter account for the Museum. I think it will help with our awareness.
Boss: You want to WHAT?
Me: ...

Thus, our Twitter account (and the related innuendo comments) was born. It's been a journey of trial and error, and we currently have over 3,000 followers built through a completely grassroots network. I'm not going to tell anyone how to get that many followers overnight or the exact steps to success. Because, to tell the truth, I don't know them. I don't think anyone else does either - social media is still relatively new, and we're all still feeling our way through it and seeing how it goes. I will share where we faltered and where we succeeded, in hopes that I can help other non-profits and museums who want to start building relationships on these networks.

To start, I think that non-profits stand to gain more from social media than just about any other user. In a world of shrinking financial means, non-profits continue to have to find affordable ways to market themselves and communicate with their audiences. Social media, give or take a Flickr membership and some staff time, is essentially free. Add to that the fact that non-profits don't just market and don't just advertise - getting awareness of your organization is all about relationships. Social media has been more effective than our website could ever be. I'm there to answer questions, receive feedback and ask for opinions. It's helped with our exhibits, our programs and even gotten us answers to some of our IT questions.