A recent presentation on Social Media for museum educators; just a quick introduction, not a comprehensive review.

1. Allowed in the CrowdSocial Media for Interpreters December 2, 2009 Chris Mathieson, Executive Director Vancouver Police Museum chris@vancouverpolicemuseum.ca | Twitter// @policemuseum

2. A Shocking Confession: I don’t know what I’m talking about. (Don’t trust anyone who says they do.Social Media is too new…)

3. About the Police Museum Features history of VPD and forensics Housed in the old Coroner’s Court & City Analyst’s Lab Very active with social media for marketing Great Success!

4. Driving Philosophy Small museum with few resources A reputation for being boring, un-engaging We’re reinventing ourselves, on the cheap Reaching out to new audiences

5. POLL: Which of the following do you spend the most time doing on a typical day? Watching TV Reading books, magazines, newspapers Surfing the internet

6. The Problem How can we be effective interpreters if we don’t know much about the language, customs and lifestyle of those we’re interpreting to?

7. POLL: What’s the first page you see when you open your web browser? news page search page (Google, Yahoo, Bing) a blank page social media page (Facebook, Myspace) customized dashboard (iGoogle, Netvibes) last page visited your browser’s “top visited sites” Something else (write it into chat)

8. A History Lesson As the Internet has matured, the way people use it has changed. One way to describe it is: Passive => Active => Hyperactive Let’s get some buzzwords out of the way…

9. “Web 1.0” Broadcasting to a diverse audience “Sage on the Stage”

10. “Web 1.0”(after the marketing people got done with it) Broadcasting to a segmented audience

11. “Web 2.0” Encouraging interaction “Guide on the Side”

12. The Social Web Being part of the audience We need a new slogan…

13. How about… “Allowed in the Crowd” Not “loud in the crowd” A full participant in the discourse An occasional leader Entirely based on permission

14. Tools of the Trade In some ways, this is the least important part of this talk, but probably the part you’re most interested in. Just remember the classic adage: “When all you have is a hammer,everything’s a nail.”

15. POLL: Have you used any of the following personally in the last month? Facebook LinkedIn Myspace Twitter Blog Discussion Forum Wikipedia Flickr

16. POLL: Have you used any of the following in an interpretive capacity in the last month? Facebook LinkedIn Myspace Twitter Blog Discussion Forum Wikipedia Flickr

17. Choosing Your Tools Puppet shows for every program? Different tools, different strengths Strategy comes first, last and always Just because you can doesn’t mean you should Pick tools that make sense to you (Really, *this* isn’t the important stuff…)

18. Blogs(The lecture) One of the oldest “Web 2.0” platforms Many different software choices with different features Wordpress is extremely popular because it is easy to use behind-the-scenes

19. YouTube(The TV in the Rumpus Room) A video sharing website “Well over a billion views a day” “Channels” allow organizations to have their own identity on the YouTube site

20. Flickr(Part portfolio, part scrapbook) Born in Vancouver as an in-game service to share images Most popular site to share images Access control, filing, tagging, favourites, reuse Tons of content, easy to get lost Flickr Commons

21. Facebook(The school cafeteria) Began as a student directory for Harvard Expanded to include high schools and businesses Added “sticky” features and has moved from being a directory to being a platform It is now the top social networking site The average user spends 5 ¾ hours a month on Facebook

22. Twitter(The cocktail party) Began as a way of distributing phone text messages Anyone could “follow” you if interested Useful in real-time Steep learning curve @ mentions Direct Messages #hashtags URL Shorteners

23. The Power of Twitter

24. Nice Tools, Now What? What do you want to do? What are your organization’s goals? Are you hearing feedback from stakeholders? What expertise do you already have in-house? What kind of time can you afford to spend?

25. Planning Advice from a “Veteran” Never stop refining your strategy Do one thing at a time Connect your efforts together Not every tool connects with every group Do something “exclusive” on each platform Don’t wait for opportunities to come to you Connect to “real life” whenever possible

26. What can you do? Write entries for a local blog, putting current events into context Monitor Twitter for relevant events on which you can share expertise Set up a fan page on Facebook and keep it fed with a moderate amount of current info Tell visitors they can upload pictures of your site to Flickr or Facebook Encourage teachers to submit student work to your social media streams Blog, YouTube, Flickr Keep in touch with colleagues Run a multimedia contest Search for groups talking about your topics online and join in the discussion Tweet or blog on behalf of a character on your site

27. The Important Stuff Listen Be conversational Be yourself Be relevant Build relationships Set a consistent tone Invite interaction

28. Questions Are we going to be relevant to the next generation? Are we missing “teachable moments”? Are opinions going to be solidified well before we get a chance to interact in-person? How can we change attitudes so our sites are not an “elsewhere”?

29. Nervous? Maybe this will help:

30. A Brief Comparison(In their respective natural environments) Interpreters Gregarious Engaging Knowledgeable Enthusiastic Incredibly handsome Social Media Gurus Gregarious Engaging Knowledgeable Enthusiastic Incredibly handsome We’re almost the same!

31. Go gently, be attentive, participate and before long you’ll find yourself… Allowed in the Crowd

32. Allowed in the CrowdSocial Media for Interpreters December 2, 2009 Chris Mathieson, Executive Director Vancouver Police Museum chris@vancouverpolicemuseum.ca | Twitter// @policemuseum