Presented at the Museums Australia 2012 National Conference in Adelaide. A simple guide to how community museums can effectively use Twitter and avoid some of the common pitfalls.

1. Twitter for my museum:
Interactive workshop to get you started
Tuesday 25 September 2012
Laura Miles, Museums Australia (Victoria)

2. Courtesy of: VanCityAllie
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30691679@N07/2891691360/lightbox/

3. What’s the
point?
Why bother?
Isn’t it
something
the big
museums
do?
My friends use it but I don’t get it
I don’t have time
I’m not
sure what
to say
There are more
important
things to do at
my museum

4. Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum collection, London

5. http://museumvictoria.com.au/
Websites
In 2011-2012,
3 million visits
10 million page views
(Source: Kate Chmiel)

6. http://www.facebook.com/museumvictoria
Facebook
Museum Victoria
4,595 ‘likes’
but also…
Melbourne Museum
16,716 ‘likes’
Scienceworks
13,881 ‘likes’
Immigration Museum
2,920 ‘likes’

7. http://www.facebook.com/pharlapfanpage
Facebook ‘people’
Phar Lap
13,077 ‘likes’
As popular as
Scienceworks
Only 3,000 less than
Melbourne Museum
itself

8. http://www.facebook.com/pharlapfanpage
Facebook can be used a
bit like Twitter

9. http://www.facebook.com/pharlapfanpage
https://twitter.com/melbournemuseum/status/235628764376207362
Some museums use
Facebook and Twitter

10. https://twitter.com/museumvictoria
3,000+ tweets
7,000+ followers:
@melbournemuseum
3,983 followers
@scienceworks_mv
1,577 followers
@immigration_mv
906 followers

11. What’s the
point?
Why bother?
Isn’t it
something
the big
museums
do?
My friends use it but I don’t get it
I don’t have time
I’m not
sure what
to say
There are more
important
things to do at
my museum

12. We only
use it for
big news
It gets visitors interested
We borrow
ideas from
the big
museums
that work
for us
Another volunteer is keen to have
a go but I do other things to help
It’s quick
We repeat
messages
used on
our website
We only invest
a few minutes a
week on it

13. To be covered today
1. Getting started
2. What’s appropriate?
3. Writing tweets
4. Finding audiences
5. Finding out/joining in
6. Measuring success
7. What’s appropriate
(again)?

14. To be covered today
1. Getting started
2. What’s appropriate?
3. Writing tweets
4. Finding audiences
5. Finding out/joining in
6. Measuring success
7. What’s appropriate
(again)?

17. Getting a profile
1. Check settings
2. Edit profile
3. Say thank you
4. Follow others

18. https://twitter.com/_mavic
To be covered today
1. Getting started
2. What’s appropriate?
3. Writing tweets
4. Finding audiences
5. Finding out/joining in
6. Measuring success
7. What’s appropriate
(again)?

19. Some suggestions:
Promoting events
Congratulations
Linking to website
changes
Thanking people for
coming/hosting an event
Retweeting someone
else’s news

20. Potential pitfalls:
Jokes.
Responding to ‘trolls’.
Tweeting really long
URLs.
Not crediting others
when retweeting (RT).
Not mentioning that
you’ve modified
somene’s text when
retweeting (MT).

21. To be covered today
1. Getting started
2. What’s appropriate?
3. Writing tweets
4. Finding audiences
5. Finding out/joining in
6. Measuring success
7. What’s appropriate
(again)?

22. 140 characters is
not much space

23. @historyvictoria
121 things you can
do in History Week
http://www.historyv
ictoria.org.au/wp-
content/uploads/20
11/06/HISTORY-
NEWS1-SEPT-OCT-
2012.pdf
(147/140)

24. @historyvictoria
121 things you can
do in #HistoryWeek
http://bit.ly/SvWK8
m
(75/140)

25. @historyvictoria
3,000+ spooky
stories and behind
the scenes at the
Supreme Court: 121
things to do
#HistoryWeek
http://bit.ly/SvWK8
m
(130/140)

26. To be covered today
1. Getting started
2. What’s appropriate?
3. Writing tweets
4. Finding audiences
5. Finding out/joining in
6. Measuring success
7. What’s appropriate
(again)?

27. Who’s online?
@_mavic 225 followers
@VicCollections 204 followers
@laura_miles 197 followers
@artsHub 21,176 followers
@YRRMuseum 123 followers
@BgoArtGallery 392 followers
@SovereignHill 820 followers
@lands_vic_hist 10 followers

28. To be covered today
1. Getting started
2. What’s appropriate?
3. Writing tweets
4. Finding audiences
5. Finding out/joining in
6. Measuring success
7. What’s appropriate
(again)?

29. Searching for ‘museum’
www.twitter.com

30. https://twitter.com/CultureVictoria
Links to blog posts:
Linked open data
workshop =
127 click throughs
The Wing Thing Story =
22 click throughs
(Source: Eleanor
Whitworth)

31. https://twitter.com/_mavic
To be covered today
1. Getting started
2. What’s appropriate?
3. Writing tweets
4. Finding audiences
5. Finding out/joining in
6. Measuring success
7. What’s appropriate
(again)?

32. https://twitter.com/_mavic

33. https://twitter.com/_mavic

34. Searching for @_mavic
www.tweetreach.com

35. To be covered today
1. Getting started
2. What’s appropriate?
3. Writing tweets
4. Finding audiences
5. Finding out/joining in
6. Measuring success
7. What’s appropriate
(again)?

36. What’s appropriate?
Be polite.
Trolls: ignore, report,
block.
If in doubt, don’t.
Decide whether you like
to shorten URLs or not.
Credit others if
retweeting (RT).
Show if you’ve modified
a tweet (MT).

37. Takeaways:
Factsheets & videos: www.mavic.asn.au
Slides and images on Pinterest and Slideshare
Follow on Twitter: @laura_miles and @_mavic