A worksheet that museums and other memory or cultural organizations can use to help them plan their Social Media communications strategey. This worksheet accompanied the "Being There: Museums and Social Media" presentation given by Rose Sherman to the Association of Midwest Museums and Minnesota Association of Museums conference in September 2009. #AMM09

1. MUSEUM SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING WORKSHEET
WHAT – GOALS AND RESULTS EXAMPLES OUR PLAN, OUR IDEAS
WHAT IS IT, EXACTLY, THAT WE WANT TO Goals
Listen – to the conversations and feedback about us
ACCOMPLISH?
Listen monitor volume and sentiment about us
Results: Gives us opportunity to educate our
What are we trying to do? This is the most audiences, or to change our behavior or refine our
important component of a good plan and needs to message
be as specific as possible. Talk – Distribute relevant messages to the right audiences
Promote awareness of our programs and events,
Goals: Your goal is not your mission. Your goal is exhibits, collections, preservation initiatives, etc.
what you want to change. Make sure this is an Reach beyond our market area.
Results: Increased attendance ‐> increased Net
appropriate goal for a social media strategy.
Promoter Score ‐> increased revenue
Participate in the conversations important to our
Results: A good way to determine if our goal is mission; provide context to current events
specific enough is to chart how we will measure Results: Increased number of enthusiastic
our progress. supporters ‐> increased membership, increased
attendance, change our image
Educate and share great practices, information
about collections, research, etc. Create excitement.
Results: Educated and inspired population
Interact with our audiences the way they want,
enable them to manage their own social outposts,
respond to their inquiries
Results: Stay relevant, be approachable, remain
current as the world moves from search to social
context, increased Net Promoter Score
Energize
Energize our passionate fans and enable them to
distribute our message, engage influencers
Results: Increased number of enthusiastic
supporters ‐> increased membership, increased
awareness reach
Embrace
Gather information, e.g. to inform design of
exhibits and programs
Results: Multiple perspectives, increased support,
“crowd sourced” exhibits
Based in part on We Are Media’s Social Media Planning Worksheet at http://www.wearemedia.org/Modlue+2+worksheet Page 1
Rose Sherman, Minnesota Historical Society, September 2009

2. MUSEUM SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING WORKSHEET
WHO ‐ AUDIENCE EXAMPLES OUR PLAN, OUR IDEAS
Niche Audiences
WHO MUST WE REACH TO ACHIEVE OUR GOAL?
Educators
What are their demographics, “social Students
technographics”, and other important Enthusiasts / Buffs
characteristics? What are they doing online? Genealogists
What is their social activity online? Researchers
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
PERCEPTIONS, VALUES, CORE CONCERNS: Teens
How are they talking about us or our mission Families with small children
focus, e.g. art, children, science, history, nature, Young professionals
etc.? Empty‐nesters
Are there misconceptions? Senior citizens
Based on our social media listening, what existing Use Forrester.com’s Consumer Profile Tool
interests or beliefs can we tap into to reach our http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell/profile_tool.html
TM
to identify the social technographics of your niche
audience? What will encourage our audience and
audience.
members to move toward our goal? What can we
do or what talking points can we use to tap into
Technographic Adults% Youth
one of their existing thoughts or beliefs to gain
%
their support?
Creators 18 39
Critics 25 43
Remember this is about THEIR value system not
Collectors 12 14
OURS. How they think and what lens they use to
Joiners 251 58
make decisions are important to understand if we
Spectators 48 66
want them to connect with or organization. It is
Inactives 44 26
always easier to tap into a value someone already Source: Forrester Research NACTAS Q2 2007 North American Social Technographics
holds than to create a new one. They will use online survey and NACTAS Q4 2006 Youth Online Survey
1
In past six months, women over 55 have been the fastest growing Facebook
technology to get things they need from each demographic, so this percentage is likely to be higher.
other, not from institutions.
Based in part on We Are Media’s Social Media Planning Worksheet at http://www.wearemedia.org/Modlue+2+worksheet Page 2
Rose Sherman, Minnesota Historical Society, September 2009

3. MUSEUM SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING WORKSHEET
HOW – WHAT TOOLS EXAMPLES AND TACTICS MY IDEAS
What is the best way to listen to them? To reach them? Strategies and Tools
What is the best way to engage them in conversation?
Goal Tools
Big Shift Listen Google Alerts, Technorati,
From speaking to mass audiences as the institution Twitter Search
about programs, exhibits and collections … Talk Mainstream and niche
To speaking with niche audiences as the attraction, social networks:
about their experiences. Facebook, Twitter, Flickr,
Blog – yours and theirs,
And listening the same way. YouTube
Promote Awareness ditto
PICK YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA TACTICS AND TOOLS. Participate ditto
At this point you are ready to make some decisions: Link Educate Above plus for Educator
your goals, audience, listening strategy and and students:
conversation with tactics and tools. TeacherTube, Glogs
Wikipedia
Energize Mainstream and niche
Passionate Fans social networks:
Facebook, Twitter, Flickr,
Blog, YouTube
Embrace User Generated Content:
stories, their photos and
videos at your venue and
events, reviews, ratings,
member anecdotes
Mainstream and niche
social networks:
Facebook, Twitter, Flickr,
Blog, YouTube
Gather Information Ditto
Interact Ditto
Based in part on We Are Media’s Social Media Planning Worksheet at http://www.wearemedia.org/Modlue+2+worksheet Page 3
Rose Sherman, Minnesota Historical Society, September 2009

4. MUSEUM SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING WORKSHEET
HOW – DO WE IMPLEMENT EXAMPLES AND TACTICS OUR PLAN, OUR IDEAS
HOW IN THE HECK CAN WE EMBRACE SOCIAL Resources
Engage the revolutionaries in your organization who are
MEDIA GIVEN OUR LIMITED RESOURCES ?
passionate about your organization as well as social
WHO ON STAFF CAN SPEAK FOR US? media. Put someone in charge. Re‐define their job to
include some time for social media. Note: this will not
What are our resources (time, money and people) to work for the long term because if you’re serious about
support this effort? engaging in social media, resources need to be allocated
to it – just like the other important organizational
What are our boundaries, our rules of engagement? Can activities.
anyone in the organization represent our institution
through social media channels? Create a collaborative, cross‐functional, team that will
guide the organization based on measurable metrics and
What is our promotion plan? Who are the influencers insights, and provide feedback to content providers and
and thought leaders? How can we can get them to be conversation participants. The team members are from
part of our energized fans? Marketing, Education, Collections, Development,
Technology and Executive.
Make it safe to fail.
Take a First Step
Be patient; cultural change takes time. Get started … a great first step is to just listen to the
conversation about you and your peers.
Start slowly, so it doesn’t feel so scary and risky.
Venture further as comfort levels grow. Work with a
social media that requires less frequent updates. For
example, post photos of your exhibits on Flickr. Or post
weekly updates to a Facebook page.
Boundaries
Establish social media policies which identify tone, key
messages, and builds relationships. Explore the
American Red Cross’s policy at
sites.google.com/site/wharman/social‐media‐strategy‐
handbook . Create rules of engagement about when to
engage and when not to engage.
Based in part on We Are Media’s Social Media Planning Worksheet at http://www.wearemedia.org/Modlue+2+worksheet Page 4
Rose Sherman, Minnesota Historical Society, September 2009

5. MUSEUM SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING WORKSHEET
MEASUREMENT EXAMPLES AND TACTICS OUR PLAN, OUR IDEAS
WAS OUR SOCIAL MEDIA WORTH THE EFFORT? Metrics
Attendance – need to be able to tie social media
activity to an attendance activity such as purchasing
How do we measure the effectiveness of social
a ticket, asking visitors “where did you hear about
media?
us?” or have a countable mechanism such as a
coupon
Gather measurements and anecdotal stories and Inquiries Answered
feedback that can be used to build executive buy‐ Re‐distributions of message, e.g. Retweets
in. Responses to message, e.g. comments, user
generated content submitted
Audience feedback – supportive and non‐
supportive messages
Net Promoter Score – would you recommend us to
others?
Influencers talking about us: how many, number of
times
Metric Tools
Web Analytics, e.g. Google Analytics
Click Thrus, e.g. Bit.ly
Demographic Insights from YouTube and Facebook
Growth of Facebook fans, Twitter followers … note:
the number is not as important as the growth trend
and measuring if you experienced growth because
of a particular initiative.
Twitter Search, TweetDeck to measure
conversation
Based in part on We Are Media’s Social Media Planning Worksheet at http://www.wearemedia.org/Modlue+2+worksheet Page 5
Rose Sherman, Minnesota Historical Society, September 2009