@MarDixonPassionate about culture internationally. Run remixing events, workshops, create solutions, and an international speaker. Over sharer and Mom who loses arguments to a teen. Projects created: @CultureThemes @lovetheatreday @AskaCurator @MuseumSelfieDay @TeensInMuseums @52museums
Guest blog by Ann Vanrolleghem who runs social media for Texture, museum of flax and river Lys in Kortrijk, Belgium. About how she experienced the Instagram takeover @52museums.
Previously
Who could have known that meeting Mar Dixon at a FARO conference in Brussels would result in an amazing social media adventure? When Mar talked in November ’18 about her initiative @52museums, a weekly international Instagram takeover for museums, all my alarm bells went off. Would this not be a great opportunity for our small museum Texture to show ourselves to the big world, an international community of museum lovers? Yes, I was immediately won over by the idea, so I jumped right in (yes, I’m impulsive… read my previous guest blog) and I’ve put Texture, museum of flax and river Lys, on the waiting list for 2019. And it felt like a Christmas gift when I heard the news we got accepted! And then the big fun started…
Episode one: OMG, having an identity crisis
It is one thing to apply in all your enthusiasm, it is another thing to actually do it! My first reaction was total excitement, but then I started to have some doubts… The account @52museums is not a small account and I didn’t want to embarrass myself nor the museum. I wanted to do a great job (who doesn’t?), so I started to think how I was going to structure the week of the takeover. Content planning like the experts call it. What would I tell? How would I tell it? What pictures would be great? And in this process of thinking… I had an identity crisis (OMG)… Do I know enough about the museum I work for to tell both interesting as well as fun stories? So, step one for me was to dig deeper into our collection. I digested a lot of info in a small period of time and also took the time to wander off into the museum. Yes, you really should do that! Armed with all the extra intel, I felt more confident and started to put up a schedule for the takeover. In seven days I would build up a story, starting from what is flax and how we use it in everyday life. It was an important lesson for me to find a way to tell our story to people who don’t know us, but who would hopefully like us. And that is a lesson I will keep in mind when writing posts for our own museum account.
Our third 52 Museums Instagram project has wrapped up for 2018 and overall it has been another huge success! At the end of each week all participants are asked to complete a survey, give us their thoughts on how it went, what went well and what could be done better in the future. We had 27 respondents to this – not as much as previous years. Thank you to everyone who took the time to send in their feedback it really does help us to make it even better for everyone each year.
Finally, a big thank you to all of you who took part and made 52 Museums 2018 such a success, and now with over 18.800 followers on the account here’s to an even bigger and better 2019!
For the 2019 list and sign up information please see this link.
In the beginning of the year we lost quite a few followers (over 3000) but climbed back up throughout the year to end with an additional 1,200. We are seeing a lot of likes but not as many comments. Looking over the account, it seems there wasn’t a lot of questions or post that encourage engagement/interaction with the public. Post that were longer and had more substances (eg story behind the item in the collection) were popular. But for 2018 – Stories were the favorite.
Please note: The selection of quotes are anonymized as much as possible.
Thank you to everyone who took part, followed, liked, and got involved with @52Museums on Instagram and Twitter in 2018. It grew bigger than anyone could have expected. The report for 2018 can be found here. The year is almost full but there is a waiting list. The gaps are there as waiting for a few to respond.
Thank you to everyone who took part, followed, liked, and got involved with @52Museums on Instagram and Twitter in 2017. It grew bigger than anyone could have expected. The report for 2017 can be found here.
Our second 52 Museums Instagram project has wrapped up for this 2017 and overall it has been another huge success! At the end of each week all participants are asked to complete a survey, give us their thoughts on how it went, what went well and what could be done better in the future. We had 36 respondents to this, which is amazing, thank you to everyone who took the time to send in their feedback it really does help us to make it even better for everyone each year.
Finally, a big thank you to all of you who took part and made 52 Museums 2017 such a success, and now with over 17,400 followers on the account here’s to an even bigger and better 2018!
For the 2017 list and sign up information please see this link.
Increase in 52 Museums Instagram followers: 3,700 (correct as of Dec 2017)
Average increase in followers on Museums personal accounts after their week: 68 (based on those that responded to feedback)
We are also really excited as we’re on Instagram this year also! Oh and if you haven’t heard, we’re also mirroring 52Museums and created 52Stages – it’s all going on with theatres this year (and every year to be fair).
#LoveTheatreDay is back for 2017. The social media phenomenon will return on Wednesday November 15, 2017. For the first time, the day will be run in association with The Stage to ensure the participation of as many individuals and cultural organisations as possible.
The day will celebrate theatre around the world using #LoveTheatreDay on Twitter and other social media platforms. There will be three themes throughout the day:
#Backstage (10am to 12pm): go behind the scenes and see parts of the theatre you would never normally get to see.
#AskATheatre (3pm to 5pm): talk directly to the creative teams about their shows, and ask the questions you’ve always wanted to.
#Showtime (7pm to 10pm): show us what you’re seeing at the theatre, and find out what happens off stage during a show.
Our first 52 Museums Instagram project has wrapped up for this year and overall it has been a huge success, far better than even expected. At the end of each we ask all participants to complete a survey, give us their thoughts on how it went; what went well and what could be done better in the future. We had 44 respondents to this, which is amazing, thank you to everyone who took the time to send in their feedback it really does help us to make it even better for everyone each year.
Finally, a big thank you to everyone who took part and made 52 Museums 2016 such a success, and now with over 13,700 followers on the account here’s to an even bigger and better 2017!
First, a big thank you to everyone who took part, followed, liked, and got involved with @52Museums on Instagram and Twitter in 2016. It grew bigger than anyone could have expected. The evaluation will be shared (once there has been time to process it!)
Since launching @52Museums I’ve been amazed to see the growth of museums on Instagram (yes it was happening before but this is my point of view). As the project has been running, more and more museums have contacted me to join in on the list and to say they are starting an Instagram account just because of @52Museums which is brilliant!
Every museum who host @52Museums is asked to fill out an exit form at the end of their week. I will share the complete findings after we have a year in but the feedback has been very positive. All said they would do it again and all said they felt it was worthwhile. With this account they get the open instructions:
If you can post a few for LA time, East coast and Europe time that makes a difference.
Post 7-10 times a day – it sounds like a lot but really works with our current audience.
Try things you can’t do on your own account.
HAVE FUN!
Another project I run is @AskACurator Day (September 14th 2016 – eek!). There are over 1200 museums on the list to take part (with more signing up each day). It got me thinking that I should combine the @52Museums list with the @AskACurator list to make a ‘Master List’. Sounds simple enough, right?
How wrong I was. But it has led to some insight that I’d like to share:
I was interviewed for the Creative Review magazine July’s edition – go buy a copy 🙂
How self-styled trouble maker Mar Dixon makes museums more people friendly
Mar Dixon has been at the forefront of museums’ engagement with social media. She tells Mark Sinclair about how museums can use such platforms to broaden audiences, learn from their peers and excite people about culture
The idea of the museum as a dusty old repository of long-forgotten and obscure objects is an outdated concept that itself belongs in a glass case. Many institutions have brought both innovation and technology to the design of their collections, while in recent years opening them up to millions via the internet, further encouraging discovery and interaction through a variety of social media channels.
Museums have embraced platforms like Twitter and Instagram as a way of sharing their content – enticing visitors to experience it first-hand of course – and the sector has become particularly adept at engaging with its audiences in this way, with initiatives such as @52Museums and #MuseumWeekreceiving a level of traction that many companies can only dream of.
CultureThemes.com
CultureThemes runs a hashtag on social media (Instagram, Twitter and Facebook) once a month to promote and engage with museums and visitors.
MuseumCamp
MuseumCamp
An unconference for people interested, working, want to work or who like to visit museums, art galleries and cultural venues. It’s a cakefest.
MuseumNext
MuseumNext 2018
MuseumNext is a global conference on the future of museums. Since 2009 it has acted as a platform for showcasing best practice today to shine a light on the museum of tomorrow. Our Museum Conferences have acted as a catalyst for change within the museum
Open Community Lab
Open Community Lab/MuseomixUK/Remixing
OPEN COMMUNITY LAB (OCL) is a community of experts in their field who offer an intervention to areas where there is a customer experience.
Our third 
Thank you to everyone who took part, followed, liked, and got involved with @52Museums on Instagram and Twitter in 2018. It grew bigger than anyone could have expected. The 
First, a big thank you to everyone who took part, followed, liked, and got involved with @52Museums on Instagram and Twitter in 2016. It grew bigger than anyone could have expected. The evaluation will be shared (once there has been time to process it!)
Since launching 