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I saw this earlier in the year and the talks from the artists are up online to watch either during the space by using a QR code or by going to the written web address.

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Digital Project and Exhibition
2021-2023

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They have a strong social media presence. They use facebook to market new events such as 'Garden Wildlife Week' - the 'Bug safari' & 'Wildlife Trail' through their extensive gardens. This platform in particular encourages 'users' to create the narrative through commenting on posts and sharing to their own pages to widen the marketing opportunities. This also encourages feedback from the visitors, creating a narrative from both parties.
- Facebook also enables the heritage site to conduct competitions to not only expand their digital presence but also continue to develop the engagement of current and potential visitors.
- Lastly, facebook allows for direct but informal communication with the Castle which allows the visitors to get rapid responses to questions and creates a sense of community with the castles and its visitors - I believe this is an important aspect of digital purposefulness and communicating with their visitors because it opens dialogue, enabling them to cater for them in a bespoke manner. (https://www.facebook.com/leedscastle)
They're also engaged with visitors through Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and Tripadvisor, each platform further developing that narrative. They use these platforms to market particular campaigns such as 'LeedsCastleFalconary', sharing images of the birds of prey they have on display and particular events they are hosting.

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The project has a really fun and engaging facebook and twitter feed, that is topical, cheeky, and often incites competition amongst other heritage sites and museums. They even have a volunteer travel blogger, and often create  memes - such as the Gurness Vin Diesel 'I don't have friends, I have family' -
Brochs belong to a 'family' of structures known as a Complex Atlantic Roundhouses; so the prject are actually making history funny and memorable. Its openess encourages other to send in videos, projects, work, and ideas, and they share loads of them, so it becomes more like a friendly forum. Many student volunteers at work thought it was brilliant, they rave about it as a really effective use of social media to show the values of the project!

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The Nelson-Atkins Museum Art is in Kansas City. As part of its Instagram content
whilst it was closed due to the global pandemic it documented an unusual visit, from three Humbolt penguins from the nearby Kansas City Zoo. The concept started out as an April Fools joke but it was quickly realised that it was actually something that would enrich the penguins lives, as they were missing the visitors. It is also documented on Kansas City Zoo's YouTube channel in the form of a video. I think that it was really effective in finding a fun and lighthearted way to continue to engage usual visitors whilst the institutions were closed, it seems as thought the penguins had a good time and were genuinely interested in the art on show. I think it also has the potential to draw in new visitors, as well encouraging usual Zoo visitors to visit the Art Museum and vice versa. Without the presence of social media this event would not have been conceived and also could not have been documented and shared with the audience in the way that it has. It is something that would not have been able to take place whilst human visitors were present in the gallery so this documentation  meant that it could be enjoyed by all.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CANleeApSqN/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14bmdE-UjUU

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The Black Country Museum in Dudley UK gained over 360,000 followers during the lockdown by using TikTok videos to connect with their audiences when they were unable to visit the museum. This was a huge hit and made local and national news.
I think what is interesting is that they weren't just talking about the museum or the historical things around them but also giving people life advice and offering some comfort to people in a very difficult and isolating time.
What is nice about this is not only did it build the audience at a time when visting wasn't possible, rather than just a funny twitter feed or gimmick it was a social role as well. The museum is well know from being the filming location for the TV show Peaky Blinders, but that audience may not have been aware of other offering the space has. I will be interested to see if this translates into visitor numbers now things can re-open (Covid issues and visitor confidence aside)
https://www.museumnext.com/article/how-black-country-living-museum-became-a-tiktok-sensation/

https://www.bclm.co.uk/whats-on.htm

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"Since posting our first video back in August 2020, we've found TikTok to be the perfect avenue to fire up people's imaginations about the past by telling the real stories of real people in new and creative ways," Ms Bird said.

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Black Country Living Museum to feature in TikTok marathon

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"Since posting our first video back in August 2020, we've found TikTok to be the perfect avenue to fire up people's imaginations about the past by telling the real stories of real people in new and creative ways," Ms Bird said.

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This campaign started in lockdown and made the headlines worldwide as the museum called upon others, and their curators, around the world to submit their best bum from their collections. This reflects the mission that the Yorkshire Museum has at its core, to raise the Trust's profile nationally and internationally to maximise YMT's impact. It certainly did that as the challenge took off and evoked a hilarity of responses from hundreds of museums worldwide and had millions of views.

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/jul/22/race-to-the-bottom-museum-curators-in-battle-for-bestmuseumbum

The challenge grew further and #curatorbattle went on for a few weeks asking for creepy objects, mystery objects and fabulous fakes. It was short in nature but it still had a very profound impact. It was a successful campaign to raise awareness of the museum, encourage learning and market the museum to a wider audience.

The curator battle has now been shortlisted for numerous awards for YMT. The hardest part for the trust will be looking for a new digital media practice to creatively reach out to audiences but they have established a good start.

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DATE: 2 July 2021
York Museums Trust's project #CuratorBattle received a Highly Commended from the Museum and Heritage Awards last night (July 1).
The online project, which has been enjoyed by millions on Twitter over the last year, received the award in the Best Use of Social media category, with the Black Country Living Museum winning the accolade.

The recognition is the latest success for the battles, which helped the Trust win Best Performance During COVID in the PRCA's national Just Marketing Awards earlier in the year.

The project has also been named a finalist in this year's Association of Heritage Interpretation (AHI) Awards. The winner will be announced this November.

#CuratorBattle was created in March 2020 as one of the ways to share the Trust's collections and stories while closed because of the pandemic. The impact it had can be seen here

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#CuratorBattle received a Highly Commended from the Museum and Heritage Awards - York Museums Trust

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DATE: 2 July 2021 York Museums Trust's project #CuratorBattle received a Highly Commended from the Museum and Heritage Awards last night (July 1). The online project, which has been enjoyed by millions on Twitter over the last year, received the award in the Best Use of Social media category, with the Black Country Living Museum winning the accolade.

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The last couple of years have seen many museums and cultural organisations develop much more interactive social media strategies, which create a closer link with their audiences due to their proximity and flexibility. I really like the example presented here and it reminds me a bit of the interaction that also happens between many libraries on Twitter, such as the National Library of Scotland (https://twitter.com/natlibscot/status/1413144605537701889), which are very active and respond in an informal and friendly way. I think this is a good practice, as it makes the potential audience feel closer to the institution.

In this sense, I would like to highlight the work that the Museo del Prado has been doing since 2019 and which has led to its Instagram and TikTok accounts gaining hundreds of thousands of followers throughout the Spanish-speaking world. On the occasion of the museum's 200th anniversary, they began to broadcast live videos on their Instagram account (https://www.instagram.com/museoprado/channel/?hl=es) in which different specialists talk about a specific artwork, explore key concepts in art history, explain the thematic remodelling of certain rooms or show restoration work in the workshop. The videos are generally around 15-20 minutes long: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CQvQuUqosDj/?hl=es.

They have also incorporated Reels (https://www.instagram.com/museoprado/reels/?hl=es), which are shorter and also allow interaction with TikTok's audience, and which have begun to be subtitled in English: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CPss2wCi9vv/. I see this as a great opportunity to broaden the range of action of the institutions and to perhaps boost the new digital audiences that their social media networks reached during lockdown.
Nora

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A multi media campaign was started by the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles during the COVID-19 lockdown. The challenge was to recreate art with everyday items that could be found in their home. It became a very popular Instagram hashtag, and Twitter campaign that received national attention. It really made people spend time looking at works of art and to get creative- I know that it also expanded their audience and grew their online presence.  The images were then published in a book!
https://mymodernmet.com/recreate-art-history-challenge/

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I haven’t met this kind of social media engagement when a museum calls out another institution, but I found it a very interesting move. Cooperation between museums is very important, because we can achieve more together than if we just exist side by side. Exciting collaborations can result and our visitors can learn about another institution they may not have heard of before or simply had no reason to visit.
In the previous years I discovered some take-over social media strategies by international museums to attract a wider range of audiences. The first one was a practice by the London-based Design Museum, when they invited artists and designers to take over the museum’s Instagram profile and to create posts for a short period of time. In the posts they introduced themselves to the followers, shared their stories related to the museum.
https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/beazley-designs-of-the-year-2018/made-thought-x-design-museum-instagram-takeover#
Similar type of project was initiated at the Museum d’Orsay. It launched an artist-in-residence program last year, in the framework of which the artist posted an image every week for a year in the museum’s Instagram account. The first artist was the French illustrator and painter Jean-Philippe Delhomme, a contributor to the New Yorker and UK Vogue.
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/musee-d-orsay-unveils-instagram-artist-in-residence

The Tate Britain decided to launch a GIF animation competition. The public could create GIFs animations from 5 selected paintings in the 1840s gallery. It was a very successful project. According to Museumnext (2020), “the public GIF submissions were re-blogged and liked 85,000 times, with one GIF reaching 77,000 alone.”
https://www.museumnext.com/article/creative-museum-marketing-ideas/
Rita