Social Media Breakdown for Museums

It might be challenging for museums to stay relevant with today's technology. How can social media help drive interaction with core audiences?

Let’s start with the basics. Here are some tips on leveraging different social platforms in the most effective way.

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Facebook

First, list all the necessary information in your “about” section: address, website, ticket price, phone number, other social accounts, and mission statement. Create event pages, and invite your followers to engage in a conversation around your content.

There are many different ways you can customize your museum page on Facebook - by adding a donate call-to-action button to support charitable giving, by turning on reviews, and many more. 

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Instagram

On Instagram, you should switch your account to a business profile. This gives you access to features like buttons for directions, analytics, and advertising within the network. This also allows you to add more details about your museum, like a phone number, email, and directions. Remember IG posts do not allow links, so have some sort of link-tree in your profile so people can get to your website content.

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Twitter

On Twitter, you’ve got a similarly condensed bio space. You can still fit hours into it and utilize your cover photo to include some necessary admission information. Twitter gives you freedom in terms of branding: you can choose a brand color, change your cover photo, and keep essential tweets pinned to the top.

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Pinterest

Make sure you switch to a business profile. This allows you to access analytics and set up advertising. There’s little space for general information, but you can enter your website and location. For your boards, you’ll want to make the names relevant to your brand and easy for search results.

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Now, let’s talk strategy. Social media should be more than a megaphone for all of the activities that are happening. Define your goals first: do you want to increase brand awareness, educate, or perhaps drive admission and memberships?

Only with a defined strategy, can you move forward with the next steps - creating an internal communication plan, writing social media guidelines, developing your brand voice, establishing photo guidelines, and a long-term content calendar.

There are enormous opportunities for museums to engage audiences with their unique and educational content. It’s important to understand how to take advantage of these opportunities to and use them in the best way for your organization.