This presentation was created in order to educate marketing staff at a local museum, specifically in how they can improve their current social media approach. Though seemingly basic, the presentation offers insight into elementary social media strategy that is essential for clear communication with the audience.

1. Social Media
Assessment
HILLER AVIATION MUSEUM
by Mariya Nikiforova

2. UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL MEDIA

3. Why Social Media Is
Important To Non-profits
Social media is a low-cost, effective marketing channel
that allows you to empower your supporters to share your
organization’s mission and achievements, by:
1. Building awareness of your mission by driving traffic to your
website and social media properties
2. Growing your organization’s influence by cost-effectively
acquiring new supporters, donors and volunteers
3. Harnessing the passion of your most active supporters by
empowering them to promote your organization’s programs

4. How Do Non-profits
Use Social Media
• Non-profits post on average 1.2 Facebook and 5.3 Twitter messages
per day
• 37% of non-profits spend 6 or more hours per week on social media
• 22% of non-profits pay for social media publishing/analytics tools
• 1 in 2 non-profits do not measure their social media in any way
• 81% of non-profits are not tracking the social media of their donors
or volunteers
• For every 1000 email subscribers, non-profits earn 199 Facebook
fans, 110 Twitter followers and 13 mobile subscriptions

5. HILLER MUSEUM SOCIAL ACTIVITY

6. @HillerMuseum
Twitter Assessment
The @HillerMuseum twitter account has
made a total of 53 tweets from
September 1 to December 10:
• Of the 53 tweets, 14 were retweets of
content created by other users.
• Of the 39 original tweets, 16 were tweets
about food trucks. There are more
postings about food trucks than any other
topic or idea.
• Of the 39 original tweets, 9 were about
donating to #GivingTuesday. All tweets
were made on one day, December 2. The
campaign had 6 contributors and raised
$160 .
Tweets & Retweets
Original Tweets

7. @HillerMuseum
Twitter Assessment - Examples
• Some tweets include grammatical
errors – this is not good for the image
of a core-compliant learning institution
• There is no apparent link between
food trucks and the Museum’s mission
or projects, but they take up over 40%
of original tweets from the Museum
• There is a tweet which appears to
promote drinking (and flying) – it’s
unclear how this is aligned with the
museum’s mission (or audience)

8. Hiller Aviation Museum
Facebook Assessment
The Hiller Aviation Museum Facebook
account has made a total of 37 posts from
September 1 to December 10:
• Of the 37 posts, 9 were posts about food
trucks.
• Of the 37 original tweets, 4 were about
October-fest. Neither Santa Clause nor the
Pumpkin Drop (nor any other event, including
#GivingTuesday) received as many posts.
• There were 10 posts about specific events:
Sled Driver, Noon Years, Author’s Book Sale,
Happy Birds, Santa Arrives, DaSH, Planes Fire &
Rescue, Halloween Hangar, Dream Rocket,
Open Cockpit Day.
• There were 3 posts with links that could be
considered to have educational or scholarly
content.
All Posts
All Posts

9. Hiller Aviation Museum
Facebook Assessment - Examples
• There is no apparent link between
food trucks and the Museum’s mission
or projects, but they take up over 25%
of posts from the Museum.
• There are several Octoberfest posts
which clearly market beer (this of
course makes a lot of sense for a
drinking holiday, but not for a flight
education institute).

10. Assessment Summary
• There is no formal social media strategy, which is a roadblock to
coherent and comprehensive communication with your audience.
Also, it’s almost as if two different teams are posting on each
network.
• There appears to be a disconnect between the institution’s mission
and vision, and some of it’s social media posts.
• There is no clear strategy or understanding of how to grow and/or
engage followers.
• Neither the Facebook nor the Twitter account successfully utilized
#GivingTuesday opportunities (the average online gift for all
participating non-profits on #GivingTuesday last year was $142.05)

11. RECOMMENDATIONS

12. Social Media Strategy
 Set quarterly goals for retweets/followers (Twitter) and likes (Facebook) to have concrete benchmarks.
Make a decision about what value you aim to bring to your audience with your social media.
 Create an editorial calendar for planned daily posting throughout the month. The content should reflect
the events, educational information, and peer/partner relationships of the museum. At least 2 people
should contribute to the editorial calendar for diversity of voice.
 Develop formal partnerships with similarly-focused institutions (i.e. National Air & Space Museum and
The Museum of Flight in Seattle) to improve social media presence and reach a wider audience –
specifically, plan to interact on Twitter (i.e. retweeting, mentions) and Facebook (mentions)
 Focus more posts around educational materials/articles (which would be easy to plan in advance), and
around projects for which you’re seeking donors.
 Social Media planning should be especially focused in December. 30% of all giving occurs in December,
with 10% occurring in the last 3 days of the year, typically between 12PM and 7PM.
 Make sure that ALL content is mobile-compatible (including the Hiller website). 78% of Facebook users,
and 60% of Twitter users access social media from their phones at least once a month.
 Create Facebook marketing campaigns to (1) increase email subscriptions, (2) increase attendance at
events, and (3) raise money for specific projects
 Track and interact with the social media accounts of your volunteers/staff and donors

13. Twitter Tactical Guide
 Create a list of hashtags that visitors and staff will use and recognize; tags that are
unique to Hiller; and tags that are general to people browsing aviation terms. For
example: #MyDayAtHiller, #HillerFieldTrip (children & educators), #Aviation, #AvGeek,
#AviationGeek, #MilitaryAircraft (for general audiences).
 For best results, aim to tweet 2-5 a day. Post on the weekends: twitter engagement
rates are 17% higher on Saturday and Sunday as compared with weekdays.
 If Food Truck tweets are important to you, then associate them with more Museum-
driven content, so that they are more consistent with your messaging to the public.
 Occasionally, incorporate tweets that ask followers to “Retweet,” which receive 12X
higher retweet rates than those that do not ask. 78% of engagement with a brand
happens through retweets (i.e. great for specific awareness/engagement campaigns).
 Aim to post interesting/beautiful photographs and infographics that fit the specific
twitter dimensions (image posts receive 2X higher engagement than text posts):
◦ Minimum to appear expanded 440 x 220 pixels.
◦ Maximum to appear expanded 1024 x 512 pixels.
◦ Appears in stream collapsed at 506 x 253 pixels.
◦ Maximum file size of 5 MB for photos, and 3 MB for animated GIFs.

14. Facebook Tactical Guide
 Prioritize posting beautiful/engaging photos over links. At the minimum a picture
has to be 500X500 in size for optimal viewing.
 Experiment with posting during peak activity times for Facebook, Noon PST and
Wednesdays, using the native scheduling function.
 Occasionally “Pin to Top” popular updates (such as the Santa Clause or Pumpkin
Drop posts) to drive more exposure from people visiting the Fan page.
 Post shorter messages – posts with 80 characters or less get 66% higher
engagement than posts with a higher character count
 Question posts get 100% more comments than posts that do not encourage
dialogue.
 Turn on “Similar Page Suggestions” for you page (your page will be included in
the user’s Similar Pages menu).

15. Think Like Your
Social Media Peers
1. Recruit Volunteers
2. Teach Aviation History
3. Promote Your Store
4. Engage With Other Museums

16. Think Like Your
Social Media Peers (cont’d)
5. Mention Your Supporters 7. Post Content People Want to Share
6. Talk About Your Exhibits

17. APPENDIX

18. RESOURCES
Social Media for Non-profits Blog
Twitter, Facebook, Google+ - An Exhaustive Guide to Social Profile and
Posting Dimensions
The Top 4 Nonprofit Social Media Campaigns of 2013 (and what you can
learn)
Where Nonprofits Spend Their Time With Social Media
The Three As of Nonprofit Social Media Engagement
Mobile Marketing Watch on Twitter Engagement
Nonprofits Online: The 2014 MR Benchmarks Study results

19. RESOURCES
Ten Holiday Gift Programs That Benefit Nonprofits
Infographic of #GivingTuesday: 2013
How to Get More Likes on Facebook
The Digital Giving Index: 2013 Year in Review
Why Smart Social Marketer Think Mobile First