What cultural institutions can learn about social media management
Tags: Social Media Marketing, Culture, Music, Social Media Management, Museums

Business solutions

What cultural institutions can learn about social media management

Museums, concert venues, and theatres are suffering from a lack of visitors due to the pandemic. So how exactly are the others managing to stay afloat? Sotrender May 15, 2020·9 min read

Image courtesy of Deanna J on Unsplash

Right now, we live in an age where just about anyone with an internet connection can experience culture. Museums, concert venues, theatres, and galleries have regular visitors, but they’re not the only forms of culture. In the digital age, artists commission their art online, while music producers and content creators set up Patreon accounts so that their patrons can have regular access to their content.

The difference between these two groups is that the latter understands the importance of using social media to establish a loyal fanbase that is invested in them. Staying relevant on social media is a key component of a business strategy, which includes gathering hype, staying relevant, and encouraging your patrons to support your work. This is especially true now.

By the way, we have a special discount prepared for cultural institutions. Keep reading to find out more. 😉

Accessibility of Cultural Institutions and Events

Most people are actually emotionally invested in different aspects of culture. Whether it’s music, video games, performance art, or visual art. So why aren’t more people visiting some venues?

The location — some events require flying out, which is currently impossible with many borders being closed, visa restrictions, and price.

— some events require flying out, which is currently impossible with many borders being closed, visa restrictions, and price. Movement accessibility — some people with disabilities or people who use wheelchairs might struggle to move around in the space. Designated parking spaces might be unavailable.

— some people with disabilities or people who use wheelchairs might struggle to move around in the space. Designated parking spaces might be unavailable. Pricing — this one is pretty obvious, but consider how much a day pass can cost, as well as how much those with a low socioeconomic status.

So how can cultural institutions make participating easier? By going online, obviously!

For example, the New York Public Library is encouraging users to access their resources using the app SimplyE. Libraries provide value for everyone, so app is a great idea.

Before you begin planning your content strategy too far into the future, think about what your audience needs to know about you. On platforms like Facebook, you should consider adding:

your location

the ticket price, including potential discounts

hours when you’re responsive or open

TripAdvisor for visitors to check reviews

You and your team of social media managers or marketers should also make some internal notes, such as:

What is the point of your strategy?

Learn about your target audience.

Internal communication: write social media guidelines about your tone and consider creating a content calendar

Now let’s see how some of the most popular institutions and artists are using social media and what you can learn from them.

Museums & Galleries

Have you heard of Google’s Art and Culture platform? It’s a non-profit initiative where museums and galleries can basically upload their collections. Just like Google Maps, you’ll be able to “walk” through different areas of the museum. Up until now, they’ve partnered with over 2,000 museums and archives that you can now visit through cyberspace. Here’s an example of what you can find on the platform:

Museo Frida Kahlo, Mexico City

Take a tour of Frida Kahlo’s house and see where she and Diego Rivera spent their time creating priceless paintings.

If you want an up-close experience with the artwork, you can view the collection in high-resolution. Google allows you to explore movements, collections, mediums, and historical figures, not just street views.

Examples of museums and galleries on social media

Some museums seem a little unorthodox. You might not know this, but BMW has its own museum. They currently have 130k followers, use relevant Instagram hashtags, and they know how to write the perfect Instagram bio. Basically, they know what their audience is interested in and how to attract the right people to their profile.

They’re making the most out of their Stories by uploading virtual tours that their followers can watch. Although you can only see a glimpse of it in their Highlights, you might see more if you consistently follow their page.

Consider the pinned post feature on Twitter and Facebook. It’s a simple way of helping your fans find the information they’re looking for quickly. After the pandemic, you can use it to announce special events. Here’s how the Guggenheim Museum’s profile used it.

And some tips from Kate Carter, the British Museum’s Senior Digital Marketer. She had an interview where she described what their museum’s online strategy looks like. These are the insights that we’ve gathered from her:

Have channel-specific copy and to avoid direct crossposting

Comparing yourself to the competition is important

Storytelling is crucial for not only getting attention but keeping your audience’s interest

Theatres

Like we said before, cultural events can be pricey. Many people complained about how they spent money on plays that they won’t be able to watch after all.

The National Theatre in the UK started uploading their plays to YouTube, where you can watch them for free. What’s more, the audience can share the content with their friends, further adding to visibility.

Meanwhile, the Bolshoi Teatr has created an Instagram account with an aesthetic that is easy to remember. Their Highlights icons are all red, while their posts include pops of red and warm colors. Their strength is that they stand out for their visual presentation.

They’ve also managed to make their content accessible to both their Russian and international audiences. This is a good move on their part, because they are able to stick to engage a wider net of people. Their strategy went beyond Instagram, though. They made their plays and ballets available on their YouTube channel.

Music

There’s something really special about seeing your favorite artists live in concert. Music artists have a lot of pull and influence, so it’s no wonder that some of them are doing their best to support their fans during the pandemic.

The most popular ones like Lady Gaga successfully organized the One World at Home event, where they live-streamed a concert.

If you want to relive the music, you can click here to stream all of the performances ☺️ https://t.co/PA5AQuvWQK - Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) April 20, 2020

You might have noticed that other artists are making use of Facebook and Instagram Live, like Sofi Tukker, who went live on Instagram every day.

On the topic of festivals, some have taken the approach to postpone their events to 2021, but they still regularly post about them to generate hype. Open’er festival left an explanation on their Facebook about what will happen next, and how festival-goers don’t need to worry about losing money on the tickets.

They’re also reminding their fans of the headliners that will perform. That way, fans won’t get discouraged, and they’ll have something to look forward to.

You should also strive to be memorable and make it easy for users to recognize your profile when they see it. Remember to let your followers know what hashtags they should use to get your attention.

Track performance metrics

If you run a social media profile as a cultural institution, it’s likely that you have to report the overall performance to someone (e.g. government statistics offices or others). That’s why it’s so important to have reliable data.

However, some platforms’ built-in analytics don’t make it easy to gather data, or limit you to seeing only 7 days of historical data. It’s harder to reach concrete conclusions about your performance. Alternatively, a tool like Sotrender gives you access to a longer range of data, the ability to interact with your followers, and autogenerate reports from one application.

Let’s break down what some of the most important metrics mean.

Follower growth

Why keep track of your follower growth? The reason is simple: More and more businesses and institutions are going online. That means you should check if your audience grew and whether there is growing interest in your profile.

What’s more, you’ll be able to see if you’re more popular with certain demographics over time. Try to check in every once in a while to see if you have more followers from specific countries or age demographics and adjust your content to fit what they might find entertaining or helpful.

Engagement

Don’t just rely on your follower count, though. Having a huge following doesn’t mean much if no one is paying attention to you or interacting with your content.

Engagement is a crucial metric. It reflects how many people are passively engaging with you (with likes and reactions) and how many are actively engaged (leaving comments, posting about you using your hashtags, and sharing your posts).

You can analyze engagement in Sotrender in a few ways, such as:

The Interactivity Index

User activities

People Talking About This (PTAT)

Frequency of interaction

Here’s what the engagement tab overview looks like in the app. Each graph can be downloaded individually, or you can download them in a ready-made report.

Best-performing content

You might have noticed that one of your posts generated a lot of engagement, but is there a larger pattern that you can pick up on? Here’s how you can find out.

Go on the content tab, and check your top-performing posts. This saves you time scrolling through your feed because it’ll immediately rank your best posts in a specific period of time.

Site traffic

Ideally, your social media profiles should increase your site traffic, and encourage your audience to follow you. One way that you can measure site traffic is with Google Analytics. The metrics that will matter on Google Analytics here include:

All site traffic as well as monitoring sources and campaigns.

as well as monitoring sources and campaigns. Time spent on-page. You can learn more about how interesting the content is and if your audience is paying attention to it.

You can learn more about how interesting the content is and if your audience is paying attention to it. Bounce rate. This shows you how many people clicked away after opening your site. You might have to make adjustments to your theme or content altogether.

We also recommend that you analyze different amounts of time, which could be a weekly basis, monthly basis, or before and after a specific campaign.

Looking for a deeper dive?

Hopefully, you can see how social media can be used to promote your events to a wider audience and make the experience accessible to more people. Are you managing your social media regularly? If not, it’s never too late to start.

We know that you and your institution are in a tough spot at the moment, so we’ll give you a helping hand. If the price is the only obstacle, we can alleviate that. If you’re a museum or other cultural institution, you can contact Sotrender’s Sales Team and get a 30% discount on all of our packages. 😉