Social media has taken over the marketing world by storm. Gone are the days where a mailer, simple newspaper ad, or door to door canvassing will do. Times are changing rapidly and it is important to be able to keep up so we can reach wider audiences.
In our effort to stay current with the times, the museum has taken some big steps towards the social media world in the past year. When I first started in early 2015 Tom was hand addressing envelopes to send out the quarterly newsletter. Today, though traditional mailing is done to an extent, we have an e-newsletter that is sent out to anyone on our mailing list. We use a program called MailChimp that makes the process of mass emails simple and easy. There have been times, though, where I sat in front of the computer for hours trying to figure out the program. I got the hang of it...eventually.
We have not been completely out of the social media loop though. A Facebook page has been in existence for some time and is faithfully updated by another museum volunteer, Christy Stanton. She makes sure all upcoming events are posted along with any pictures that may have been taken. Facebook has given us a core group of visitors which we can rely on for our ever growing monthly “Evening With . . . ” programs.
With the addition of the website in the past few months visitors are able to explore the purpose and history of the museum better. We created the site through Weebly.com. The online web design allowed us to create a free interactive place where visitors can see what is going on, sign up for newsletters, donate, and much more. It has been a great addition to the museum. It is always rewarding when I ask someone “How did you hear about us?” and they reply “Through the website!”
As of today we will officially have an Instagram account to pictorially chronicle our adventures. I think this will be fun because we can sum up an event with a single picture. Attempts were made to start a Twitter page awhile ago but we found that it did not catch on. This was ok because not all avenues of social media are for us. We need to find what will work best for us!
It takes a lot of work to maintain all the areas of social media that we connect through. In the end though it is worth it. We have seen a growth of interest in our museum and are averaging over 150 hits a week on our website (that is a lot for us!). We still have a long way to go, like shortening our hashtag symbol (#libraryandmuseumofrevolutionarywarhistory), but like everything else, it is part of the journey. So please post, tag, snap, and share about us when you are out and about. You will still see traditional advertising from us, but social media is a growing way to reach large amounts of people in a short amount of time.
In our effort to stay current with the times, the museum has taken some big steps towards the social media world in the past year. When I first started in early 2015 Tom was hand addressing envelopes to send out the quarterly newsletter. Today, though traditional mailing is done to an extent, we have an e-newsletter that is sent out to anyone on our mailing list. We use a program called MailChimp that makes the process of mass emails simple and easy. There have been times, though, where I sat in front of the computer for hours trying to figure out the program. I got the hang of it...eventually.
We have not been completely out of the social media loop though. A Facebook page has been in existence for some time and is faithfully updated by another museum volunteer, Christy Stanton. She makes sure all upcoming events are posted along with any pictures that may have been taken. Facebook has given us a core group of visitors which we can rely on for our ever growing monthly “Evening With . . . ” programs.
With the addition of the website in the past few months visitors are able to explore the purpose and history of the museum better. We created the site through Weebly.com. The online web design allowed us to create a free interactive place where visitors can see what is going on, sign up for newsletters, donate, and much more. It has been a great addition to the museum. It is always rewarding when I ask someone “How did you hear about us?” and they reply “Through the website!”
As of today we will officially have an Instagram account to pictorially chronicle our adventures. I think this will be fun because we can sum up an event with a single picture. Attempts were made to start a Twitter page awhile ago but we found that it did not catch on. This was ok because not all avenues of social media are for us. We need to find what will work best for us!
It takes a lot of work to maintain all the areas of social media that we connect through. In the end though it is worth it. We have seen a growth of interest in our museum and are averaging over 150 hits a week on our website (that is a lot for us!). We still have a long way to go, like shortening our hashtag symbol (#libraryandmuseumofrevolutionarywarhistory), but like everything else, it is part of the journey. So please post, tag, snap, and share about us when you are out and about. You will still see traditional advertising from us, but social media is a growing way to reach large amounts of people in a short amount of time.