I've never posted anything on a listserv, so here goes.
I'm Amy Fox, the University of Washington museology graduate student with an
unhealthy obsession for Twitter. Stan Orchard kindly mentioned my thesis
research account ( http://twitter.com/museumtweets ) My followers list on
that page is the most complete list of museum Twitter accounts as far as I
know. Searching for museums can be tricky for a few reasons, so if anyone
else has accounts I haven't yet discovered please let me know and I will
update sometime in the next week.
My tips for starting to "tweet" are to watch for a while, both museums and
individuals in your target market. Decide what you want to accomplish with
this account. Do you want to start conversations? Do you want to post
updates about events? Trivia and information? Will it be another RSS feed? I
suggest a mixture of all of these, but do whatever feels comfortable and
whatever best fits into your mission. Then start to update. Try using the
@username feature to start conversations with your audience.
Here are some of the ways I have observed museums using Twitter, to give
some ideas:
Blog feed
Website Links
Podcast/Video Links
Trivia/Facts
Contest
Exhibit/Object/Animal updates
Special Event Notices/Reminders
News - Specific to Museum (articles, etc)
News - Related news (about museum's topic, genre, etc)
News - Local but unrelated other than location (The town fair is going
on this weekend!)
Unrelated (Weather, Chatty, Personal/Random non-museum related)
Question / Input requested (What do you think about x?)
Local Events
Recruiting (Jobs, volunteers, etc)
Social Networking (Check this out on our: Facebook, Myspace, YouTube,
Flickr)
Staff Update (What the staff is doing - going to a conference, meetings,
etc)
Window into - Museum halls/rooms - (We just saw saw visitors doing this,
etc.)
I'm in the process of writing my thesis, so if you are interested in my
observations once I am finished, please let me know. I also love talking to
museum people about micro-blogging and social networking, so feel free to
contact me via e-mail or on my personal Twitter account,
http://twitter.com/eneriyma
Since I'm only an observer, I have no behind the trenches experience and I'm
not an expert by any means. But Twitter has some pretty amazing potential to
connect people and ideas.
Amy Fox
amy.i.fox at gmail.com
