#MuseumSelfie 2016 Wrap up

Well that was another fun one!  Every year I promise myself that I’ll keep track of everything but then the day starts and I barely remember to eat.  This is when I’m so thankful to everyone else who is organized and help track the day. Something I noticed this year, a lot more Directors and staff got involved – some with the public!

Stats and Numbers:

Ciaran Blumenfeld, Founder of Hashtracking was extremely generous and ran reports for both Twitter and Instagram this year.  She has asked her team to back track the Instagram data for the past 3 years (don’t think you can do this with Twitter).

Lets start with Instagram. Although there was a @MuseumSelfieDay account on Instagram for 2015 there was a significant rise in that platform this year.

4,538 posts
7,552 comments
323,430 likes
21,588,474 impressions
3,272 contributors
14,248,963 reach 

Next up Twitter.  Again a massive growth from 2015-16.

Australia kicked things off the evening of January 19th and had it trending for most of the day.  I usually try to stay online for a few hours but knew with the amount of support and sharing it was left in good hands.

By the morning of January 20th #MuseumSelfie was trending in Russia and United Kingdom which swiftly moved to the United States and Canada.

Favorites:

I’m often asked what my favorite #museumselfie are – and I my response is that I love them all as each and everyone one of them mean something to the person who shared it.  Some are humorous, some thoughtful, some a tad awkward.  Others with one person, groups of friends, or a painting/statute.  Each one special.

Naysayers:
As with every hashtag, there are always a few people who don’t get the concept of fun in a museum (see this piece from Gizmodo).  That’s ok – life would be boring if we all agreed on everything.  I do, however, feel a little sad that some people still have that Victorian way of thinking that fun does not belong in a museum or art gallery.  A few said they were ‘sad’ about the day while others said they were going to avoid the museum that day which prompted me to tweet:

Article, Post and More
I tried to track as many articles from the day as I could.  Feel free to add to it (it’s on my Facebook page).  As pointed out, there were a few journalist that didn’t do their homework (posted #museumselfie pictures from a year or two ago, getting the hashtag wrong, etc).  But over all, some great pieces.  (Guardian always captures the highlights.)

Save the Date: 

#MuseumSelfie day is on January 18, 2017
Twitter: @MuseumsSelfie Day
Instagram: MuseumSelfieDay
Hashtag #MuseumSelfie

What is #MuseumSelfie?

Whooooooo loves taking a good #museumselfie? This guy! pic.twitter.com/7EzF8U0hFx

— Royal Ontario Museum (@ROMtoronto) January 20, 2016