Who knew how powerful a hashtag could be? Ok ok, I always said it was one incredible way to spread the word but I never expected it would be so powerful and change laws.

There was a feeling that #MuseumSelfie #MuseumSelfieDay was going to be big a few weeks prior as although I never care about stats I did notice I was getting a lot of hits from countries that were new to CultureThemes. Then the Sunday prior it was being promoted on a Sunday Breakfast show in the UK.

All the hashtags on CultureThemes are created for small and medium museums (as large and nationals have more options to get involved). Countries that are new to social media (which we assume everyone has been on it since the beginning and that just is not true) loved that there was an excuse to be involved without red hands – you know the ones that get smacked for doing something wrong. They could simply blame a trending hashtag – Simple!

CultureThemes and MuseumSelfieDay are on twitter and Instagram but it’s always encouraged to run the hashtag on whichever platform is best for your community and followers. And I don’t mind if you change the hashtag to make sense for your own language.

If you are here looking for stats or metrics, sorry, I can’t help. Truth is I don’t have money to afford to buy the third party software to allow that. But also is I really could care less about the numbers. Actions can’t be captured in numbers. Read the rest of this entry »

Koons #MuseumSelfie

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. Read the rest of this entry »

[EDIT TO UPDATE FOR 2016]

This post has been re-purposed from another one created in 2014

#MuseumSelfie day is on January 20, 2015
Twitter: @MuseumsSelfie Day
Instagram: MuseumSelfieDay
Hashtag #MuseumSelfie
See CultureThemes write up: It’s back! #MuseumSelfie Day on January 20th @MuseumSelfieDay official account

 Objective:  A day to share selfies either in museums or around museums.  These can be on the day or ones from previous visits.  This is a FUN DAY to encourage people to visit museums and participate a bit with art or collections.  

On January 20, CultureThemes is running #Museumselfie.  I’ve been asked what it is all about so thought I’d explain the background a bit (borrowed from previous post in 2014/15):

I’m a Cultural Snatcher – I can’t help it!  I take after my mom who is never without a camera (remember Kodak Disc?  I do.).  When I visit and explore a museum, I love sharing what I’m seeing.  While I’m not a huge fan of taking pictures of myself, I can see why people like a good old selfie.

CultureThemes is a monthly hashtag I help create on Twitter. The idea behind CultureThemes is to have a positive event once a month on Twitter to highlight the fun and ‘unstuffiness’ of museums/culture.  Previous tags included: #WhyILoveMuseums, #MusSocks, #MusMovember, #AskACurator day and more.  We’re also behind @52Museums which you should check out if you haven’t heard about it.

The idea is simple, people around the world have been asked to take selfies at museums for the past month and they will share on Twitter/Instagram using #MuseumSelfie on January 20th.  The pictures could be current or from previous trips. Tag the museum if you remember!

So if you’re visiting a museum this weekend, make sure you take a #MuseumSelfie and share with @CultureThemes this Wednesday!

First and foremost, a massive thank you to everyone who took part in #MuseumSelfie.  ALL credit and an incredible heart-felt thank you to all the social media managers (or related title) that encouraged and inspired their visitors to take part.  Without you, the hashtag would not have been successful.

I’d like to thank each and everyone person who had fun and got involved with #MuseumSelfie day 2015.  The number one question I get is why do I do it? The response: because majority of the public globally enjoy it.  Going from the stats ran by Sree Sreenivasan and Kulturkonsorten there was A LOT of people/museums taking part.

The coverage and messages received have been overwhelming positive with a dash of negativity (see HyperAllergic who labels me ‘the official ringleader of this vast criminal enterprise’ that is #MuseumSelfie).  CNN coverage was lovely as they actually took the time to call and interview me.

Although some say that social media is ‘old technology’ it still works to reach communities and visitors.  I find it interesting that although social media has been around for years, many forget that new people sign up every day and we need to ensure that we provide platforms for them to join in and experience the fun.  These hashtags gives museums excuses to sway a tad outside their policy of 2 tweets a day and majority have said the response is overwhelmingly positive as far as numbers going up.

If someone said to me 2-3 years ago that the Director of Boston Museum of Fine Art would be taking a selfie of himself and sharing it on Twitter, I would have laughed. Did I hope things like this would happen?  Of course – did I think it would, of course not.  Goes to prove it never hurts to dream big.

I started my day posting this message:

‪#‎MuseumSelfie‬ Day
a) yes it’s a thing.
b) it helps get non-traditional visitors to museums
c) It’s a bit of fun – who cares that it’s not a ‘true’ selfie. Are they smiling & enjoying it? Good.
d) This will not solve any problems, stop analysing it.
e) Just enjoy it or mute it but don’t complain, it’s one day.
f) The tag is #MuseumSelfie but if you use ‪#‎MuseumSelfieDay‬ or make up your own, it’s all good. No one will scorn you.
g) Just get involved. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently I went to Worcester to attend a Dementia and Tech talk at the university.  As the talk wasn’t until 4 I decided to catch a morning train and make a day out of sight-seeing.  As soon as I got off the train, I decided I would let the ‘tourist signs’ choose my fate.

First decision was made when I saw Worcester Museum and Art Gallery to the right. I started taking pictures before I even stepped foot in as the building itself is so gorgeous.  

Walking in, I was in awe of the architecture.  As my eyes gazed up, I noticed colorful signage of the steps telling me the art gallery, museum and cafe were upstairs.  Like a moth to a flame I headed upstairs.

In the first room I was impressed with the World War I exhibition.  Yes there are a lot of them out there right now but please take the time to see a few of them as each of them are personalised stories of local people and their sacrifice.  I started to take pictures and asked the attendants for the twitter id.  They were more than pleased to have me tweet and share. 

(Yes, I thought he was tweeting…)

I headed to the other room which had fantastic museum mannequins.  I immediately knew I wanted to try to take a few selfies for MuseumSelfie day and also to share them on #MuseumMannequin tumblr.  However, the attendant in that room told me I had to fill out a form.  Ok, not a big deal.  A tad old fashion but I’m not going to judge.  When I started to read the form (which I will admit I normally never do) there were two particular words that jumped out at me:  morality obligated.  To my photos.  Read the rest of this entry »

Wow – what an amazing day #MuseumSelfie was! 

I’ve been running @culturethemes now for almost 3 years (we’re 3 in March).  [A little background on CultureThemes: it was started when there were massive cuts to funding which caused a lot of negativity on social media.  This was not helping the sector at all.]  The first CultureTheme was #WhyILoveMuseums and went world trending.

Why?  Because people love museums!  What they don’t like is listening to moaning about funds/money.  Who does? Read the rest of this entry »

[EDIT TO UPDATE FOR 2015]

This post has been getting more hits so just to clarify:

#MuseumSelfie day is on January 21, 2015
Twitter: @MuseumsSelfie Day
Instagram: MuseumSelfieDay
Hashtag #MuseumSelfie
See CultureThemes write up: It’s back! #MuseumSelfie Day on January 21st @MuseumSelfieDay official account

 Objective:  A day to share selfies either in museums or around museums.  These can be on the day or ones from previous visits.  This is a FUN DAY to encourage people to visit museums and participate a bit with art or collections.  

Back to Write up from 2014

A little break from Google Explorer updates 🙂

On January 22, CultureThemes is running #Museumselfie.  I’ve been asked what it is all about so thought I’d explain the background a bit.

I’m a Cultural Snatcher – I can’t help it!  I take after my mom who is never without a camera (remember Kodak Disc?  I do.).  When I visit and explore a museum, I love sharing what I’m seeing.  While I’m not a huge fan of taking pictures of myself, I can see why people like a good old selfie.

CultureThemes is a monthly hashtag I help organize on Twitter (we’ll be 3 in March). The idea behind CultureThemes is to have a positive event once a month on Twitter to highlight the fun and ‘unstuffiness’ of museums/culture.  Previous tags included: #WhyILoveMuseums, #MusSocks, #MusMovember, and support #AskACurator day.

When I was coming up with new ideas for January, I happened to catch a conversation on Twitter with Adrian from Horniman talking about creating a Pinterest for Selfies with the Walrus.  Horniman has a lovely, but not-the-best-taxidermy Walrus which people love to see on a visit.  The idea of the Pinterest board reminded me how many people I see in my own travels taking selfies at museums and art galleries.

Suddenly, #MuseumSelfie was created. 

The idea is simple, people around the world have been asked to take selfies at museums for the past month and they will share on Twitter using #MuseumSelfie on January 22^nd.  The pictures could be current or from previous trips.

We’ve museums in Catalan, Russia, South Africa, America, UK, France and more who pledged to take part.

So if you’re visiting a museum this weekend, make sure you take a #MuseumSelfie and share with @CultureThemes this Wednesday!