Proposed Session Summary: It’s the holiday season after all, and instead of a cookie exchange at the un-conference, I propose an idea exchange.  My session will be a time when we stop to think about the nuts and bolts of how Museums and Non-Profits use social media – sharing our own organization’s best practices as well as best practices we have seen, listening to other people’s great ideas, and networking with each other.  I will facilitate the session (provided the un-conference organizers will give me a flip-chart and markers, or a projector for my laptop), using the items below as a loose agenda of topics (please comment to add to the list of topics).  Attendees should bring plenty of ideas (and business cards!) to share.  After the session, I will take the ideas we discussed, formulate them into a presentation (that we all can – hopefully – make use of!), and distribute to the participants.

 Proposed Time: 90 minutes (but I would settle for 60)

 Proposed Format: Roundtable brainstorming discussion with marker/flip-chart (or equivalent), led/facilitated by Julie Brubaker, to discuss the items below and generate ideas and best-practices. 

 Proposed items/topics (please comment or DM me at BrubakerConsulting@gmail.com to add additional topics to this list):

1.  ORGANIZATIONAL PLACEMENT.  Where should the responsibility/ownership for social media reside in the organization so that the organization is successful in today’s technology environment?

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  • What is the role of a Museum CIO/DIT related to social media?
  • What is the role of a Museum marketing/PR leader related to social media?
  • How much does an IT department support when it comes to social media?
  • Who creates and governs the strategy for how to use social media to get your institution’s message out successfully?
  • Who creates the messages?

[It seems to me that no person wearing only one hat can do this – I think that it takes a village, to be successful.  But where do we find the time, the energy, the creativity?   How can we make it work?]

2.  STRATEGICAL ITEMS.  What are the best practices related to strategy and goals for how Museums and non-profits should use social media?

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  • What are your goals for social media usage and how are these goals achieved at your organization?
  • What is the return on investment (investment of money, time, resources) for social media usage?
  • What is the strategy for social media at your organization
  • What strategic themes are best practices (i.e. 1-way vs. 2-way communication, etc.)

[I wish every organization had the money, time, and resources that the Smithsonian has for strategic planning around social media (see http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/Strategy+--+Themes).  But knowing that we don’t, what can/should/must we do now?]

3.  OPERATIONAL ITEMS.  How are Museums using social media effectively and efficiently?

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  • What platforms (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, LinkedIn, Wave, etc.) are used successfully and what are not?  Why?
  • What is the content, frequency, tone, and intended audience of the messages?
  • What are the best practices for mobile technology (related to social media)?  Web?  On-site/kiosk?  Etc.
  • What metrics are valuable and how should they be presented?
  • What policies are valuable? (see http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php?f=0)

4.  MAKING THE BUSINESS CASE.  How can we convince our colleagues, donors, sponsors, and directors that we should use social media, that we should use social media differently, that we should use more social media.

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  • Define today’s common objections and roadblocks
  • Define responses to objections and roadblocks

[Take a look at http://smithsonian20.typepad.com/blog/2009/03/web-t.html first so we don’t reinvent the wheel during this session]

5.  MORAL and ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITY.  When we use social media, what moral and ethical obligations do we have to our collections and to the public?  How can these coexist while allowing for free speech and also ensuring that the collection is properly represented?  How much time do we invest in this effort?  Should we edit the content? [I’ll share my story of curators vs. administrators during the creation of www.eol.org]  Anyone have experience with http://www.steve.museum/ (or similar) on this topic?

6.  GREAT IDEAS.  Discuss great ideas we have seen in action (we might need to complete this online together, after the conference).

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  • Partnering with vendors for publicity, in-kind support, etc.
  • Partnering with other organizations
  • Creating apps (see http://mashable.com/2009/09/03/facebook-good/)
  • Creating a revenue stream from social media
  • Funding for social media & projects (grants, etc.)
  • What else?

7.  RESOURCES.  Network with each other.  Create a list of websites that are good resources (perhaps together online, after the un-conference).  [I frequently use http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/Strategy+--+Themes, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTJ8u2HGtrs, and http://socialmediagovernance.com/ ]