Just because you’re doing social media doesn’t mean you’re automatically reaching diverse audiences and making museums relevant to a wider public. Georgina Brooke busts some social media myths.
This is part of a talk I gave to University of Glasgow Museums Studies students on 9th March 2021. In this written piece I’m just going to focus on the section of the talk that looks at 1. the history of the social media platforms 2. Mythbusting: you don’t automatically get viral growth and diverse new audiences on social media, 3. The folk who have created great organic social media content that has made their museum relevant to a broader public.
Facebook, the largest and earliest of the main social media platforms we still use today. This was originally launched in 2004 but by 2006 had opened up in the UK and was available to non university emails.
I’m 30, I joined Facebook when I was 16 in 2006 — and the role it filled for me and my cohort was that when we went to uni we no longer needed to ask for peoples’ numbers to stay in touch, we could just look up their name and keep in touch that way. In the UK Facebook has a pretty strong base in this 25–34 age bracket.
Worldwide, it’s still by far the biggest of the social media platforms. People talk about Facebook’s power waning, and it is declining in daily usage in the West, but the other platforms still have a way to go before it’s eclipsed and in terms of your international audience — it’s still got much better penetration that the others... Keep reading on Medium.
This is part of a talk I gave to University of Glasgow Museums Studies students on 9th March 2021. In this written piece I’m just going to focus on the section of the talk that looks at 1. the history of the social media platforms 2. Mythbusting: you don’t automatically get viral growth and diverse new audiences on social media, 3. The folk who have created great organic social media content that has made their museum relevant to a broader public.
Facebook, the largest and earliest of the main social media platforms we still use today. This was originally launched in 2004 but by 2006 had opened up in the UK and was available to non university emails.
I’m 30, I joined Facebook when I was 16 in 2006 — and the role it filled for me and my cohort was that when we went to uni we no longer needed to ask for peoples’ numbers to stay in touch, we could just look up their name and keep in touch that way. In the UK Facebook has a pretty strong base in this 25–34 age bracket.
Worldwide, it’s still by far the biggest of the social media platforms. People talk about Facebook’s power waning, and it is declining in daily usage in the West, but the other platforms still have a way to go before it’s eclipsed and in terms of your international audience — it’s still got much better penetration that the others... Keep reading on Medium.