Museum Marketing and Digital Strategy

Editor's Notes

1. I’ve been in the cultural sector since 1997, but before I ventured into museums and technology, my formal background was in clinical psychology. What’s that got to do with the topic at hand? Plenty, I will argue, because at the heart of it all is PEOPLE (and not, gasp, technology).
2. Digital Strategy v. Strategy Strategy: IMHO, it’s far superior to focus on the Main Thing; digital is in support of AND helping to drive that Main Thing
3. Let’s zoom into the MIA mission statement: concise, meaningful, vital. Let’s see if we can break it down even further.
4. Because, ultimately, THIS is NOT the goal. We do not strive to transform our institutions into halls of computing.
5. THIS is the goal: Happy Visitors! Engaged, excited, inspired, and “attached” to our organizations. We want them to think of us as their “third space” – not home, not work, but a familiar and comfortable place for community, connection, learning and FUN.
6. The MIA’s current strategic plan emphasizes Audience Engagment – top left. Note also the “Museum Lab” and “Omni-channel Approach” supporting strategies. We’ll circle back to those later.
7. Let’s explore, examine, discuss and share some ideas on the past, current, and future state of museum digital technology. This is NOT A LECTURE! Please “interrupt”, and don’t hesitate to share this with anyone you need to – I will post it on slideshare so that you can access it anytime.
8. Love the Film Noir feel of the retro audio devices. Technology in the cultural sector is not limited to audience-facing devices.
9. Technology not only supports all aspects of the business functions, but it is also an intrinsic resource for creating all of the intellectual production of the staff, storing that, and sharing it with the public.
10. Three things matter in digital technology: Content, content, content. It doesn’t matter how pretty it is if it doesn’t tell a story. Elegant nonsense is STILL nonsense.
11. If it’s about people and experience, then at this point in history it’s about mobile, it’s about portability, it’s about a personalized experience.
12. In the 21st century, and B2C enterprise must embrace the fact that it is a digital publishing house. There are multiple channels (more appear all of the time), and it is important for all staff to “think like a writer”, including following best practices in content management and platform use.
13. In essence, a museum’s digital strategy is its audience engagement strategy; or at least an empowering force behind it. No doubt this is a journey, starting with the museum’s mission, then passing through the current strategic plan, our audiences, our activities, and finally coming back to the museum’s vision – or the WHY of what we do. That’s what museum technology is all about.
14. I know, I know. The classic, stereotypical IT operation is the “Department of No”.
15. It’s important that we drive change together.
16. I can give you strategy in less than 20 seconds: Hire talented staff + establish a real, meaningful vision + prioritize the work, focus on what’s most important + use the best methods available. Voila!
17. What NOT to do: hire another senior executive inhabiting a lofty title in a top-heavy organization
18. A capable technology leader will inhabit many different roles (wear a lot of hats) over time. Adaptability is key.
19. Attitude and character are traits; skills can be learned. This is forgotten so often that it’s absurd.
20. The importance of partnership and alignment
21. No guarantee that this will be easy. Work step by step, and accept that some steps will result in stubbed toes. Learn along the way.
22. Where the dialog and drive for innovation takes place. Connect your technology people to:
23. At the MIA, there are four important ACTIVITIES we’ve undertaken that are all driven by overall strategy. 1. Engagement through storytelling
24. 2. Agile methodology
25. 3. Enterprise-level content management
26. 4. Customer Relationship Management, for personalization and loyalty
27. Simply making content and ideas accessible is no guarantee that they are interesting! In order to ENGAGE audiences, and connect them to what is meaningful and inspiring, it’s vital that we re-imagine our assumptions, along with our methods and our modalities, within a 21st century frame of reference.
28. As part of our overall approach to providing engaging content to our many audiences, we have undertaken a multi-year Digital Experience project. The first product we delivered was ArtStories.
29. ArtStories is built on an open-source platform developed at the MIA, called Griot. Available for free, it’s already been adopted by SLAM and FAMSF for specific projects. We expect more collaboration as we move forward.
30. ArtStories engage multiple audience types, and are written to encourage social interaction.
31. We’ve also deployed the platform at small object study tables.
32. ArtStories was built in an iterative cycle, with each new version put into the hands of our audiences EARLY so that we could listen to feedback and make adjustments fast.
33. The stories are shared on tablets in the galleries, and available on visitors’ own personal devices.
34. We want happy customers who love us, eagerly spreading the word.
35. How do you engage an audience that you DON’T KNOW? MIA offers free general admission, most of our visitors simply stroll in anonymously. Currently, we only have data on Members who purchase Exhibition tickets (or transact to attend specific events)
36. Our strategy: a Customer Relationship Management “staircase”: implementing powerful tools to attain the goals of the DNA Not only software, but also new ways of conceptualizing our audiences and how we engage with them. Key decision: adding a Free Membership level, and separating participation from philanthropy. Taking advantage of the entire array of tools to engage our audience like never before.
37. We see Membership and Loyalty as an interactive way to establish what is MEANINGFUL at the individual level, and then to leverage that understanding so that we can delight our visitors, regardless of how they interact with us. We will reflect back all types of participation, because we believe it will motivate behaviors. For example, kiva.org …
38. Kiva shows me – concretely and with images – what the impact of my giving has done for real people. This motivates additional participation.
39. Here are some (very early and rough) prototypes for how the MIA will provide similar data back to our participants. Of course, this is in addition to the other methods of communication, such as segmented emails, social media interactions, etc.
40. Of course, this is no small undertaking. We have ambitious plans, and of course everything comes with a price tag!
41. So let’s turn our eyes briefly to “the future” …
42. As an industry, we are on the cusp of really understanding and utilizing social media (and other technologies). Stay tuned. And share your approaches.
43. From central command and control, we’ve moved to distributed networks (cross-functional teams); next logical step is a mesh network, all nodes equally empowered and understanding wide range of impact.
44. Both approaches are viable and vital to innovation. Too often, both are ignored in favor of tradition and bias. We’ve got to keep working on this!
45. Technology as a true business partner: collaboration to reach goals, instead of controlled access and punishment for offenders.
46. Oculus Rift impresses Grandma!