For this assignment I selected Deschutes Historical Museum and Society, which is an important organization in Central Oregon, located at the center of the city of Bend. This institution is one of the most important museums in the area and contains within its walls important pieces of the history of our community. Despite its great location and invaluable pieces, the staff of the museum is struggling to bring new customer, and has also failed to appeal to the younger generations. One of the main adversities this organization is facing is the lack of evolution and transition; while the museum is highly successful organization among the old and privileged population of the area, it is failing to bring younger generations into the museum, either to work or to visit. For these reasons a strong social media campaign is necessary to strength the possibilities of this organization to move into a brighter future.
Up to date, the museum only has use of a few media tools, and they are not being managed to their maximum potential; because they don’t have enough personnel, and because their limited knowledge in social media.
The tools the organization already uses:
Is the norm for every institution to have a Facebook page to feel they belong into the social media world; but in reality, it takes more than just having a page.
The benefits of using Facebook is the potential it has of placing any organization out in the social media world with a great impact; it can reach a great quantity of people in a short period of time, and can promote events directly to people and other organizations. The drawback in the way the museum is using the page, with a lack of constant update of page, announces, and basic maintenance of page promotes (in my eyes) the organization as lazy, and careless.
The benefits of using this channel of communication for this institution is that it places the organization in a different format, it reaches a different audience than those who are in Facebook or Twitter, and can promote future exhibitions as well as portray past ones. The problems with the way the institution is using this channel of communication is that the museum come through to the public as slow and with a boring vibe. This works as a detriment for new visitors, especially younger generations.
This channel of communication is already in use by the museum, but again, the presentation of the materials in the museum channel seems to be detrimental. The benefits of this media channel can present to the public an organization as is; if successfully used, it can be inviting, intriguing, friendly, visually attractive; all of these elements can be of great use, if the place is adequately promoted. The drawback of this channel of communication is the way is being used by the museum, which is actually very harmful; the reason, the YouTube channel of the museum has just a few videos, which are very low quality, and presented just by very old people (nothing against old people, just presentation format); in consequence, all of these elements give the museum a very vintage sad and slow presence, which is not inviting and actually works negatively for the purposes of the organization.
As presented, the organization under scrutiny possess social media tools that can provide a positive service and could be use with promotional purposes, and potentially bring more customers; the problem is that the organization is not using the media channels appropriately, which is bringing a negative vibe to the institution, especially among those they are whishing to attract, the younger generations. In order to improve their presence in the social media world, I think they need to improve not only the tools they already have, but also to expand it.
What they need:
The benefits of using this tool is that is easy and cheap to use, and it can reach many people at a very short period of time. It doesn’t need extensive supervision, neither to be updated constantly, and is just necessary to have a free account and internet to access it, which make this tool very easy to access; it can be managed by one person, and it can deliver important information to a lot of people in a very short period of time. It is a media channel that is used mostly by younger people, which can be a way to attract a fresher audience. The main drawback is that this channel of communication has a limited amount of characters that can be posted. It needs extra promotion to be followed by the audience that the organization is trying to reach.
The main benefit of this tool is that provides free advertisement. It can also reach a younger generation, and increase traffic for other pages in the social media world. Finally, for a museum this tool can be of great use, since it can promote an inviting environment, and cool exhibitions that people would like to go and see in person; it also can be an inviting tool for online exhibits if the museum has this option. The drawbacks of Instagram are that if misused it can be a deterrent for people to go to an organization such as a museum. If the place being promoted in the images uploaded as promotion are not appealing or visually inviting, then the organization will fail; for these reasons is necessary to use this tool correctly and create a visually attractive image to promote any organization successfully.
Facebook is already in use by the company, although is not correctly used.
Facebook places the company in the social media world; it reaches it reaches a considerable amount of people ina short period of time; and it can guide people in the direction the organization wants to for any given situation.
On the other hand, the way this social media tool is being used by the organization I selected for this assignment is the perfect example of how Facebook can be detrimental for the company. The picture of the page is out of focus and black and white, which gives the company immediately an old-fashioned carelessness look to the institution. The page is unorganized and not very clear to the visitor, and as one scrolls down the page, a personal picture out of focus appears, which again, takes away seriousness, professionalism, and gives the institution a negative look to the world. It works against the museum, and I would advise to update and renew the look of the page before moving forward with any other social media channel they wish to create.
The benefit of this channel of communication is that is very effective in the city of Bend, promoting artistic entertainment of all kinds and at all kinds of venues. Usually, making a front page in The Source generates a great public response for any event. For these reasons, I think the museum should try to work in partnership with this social media outlet, which is presented to the public in paper and also online. The only drawback of this media outlet will be to either, receive a bad review in their pages, or having a show in town and not make it in the newspaper at all.
In conclusion, the Deschutes Historical Museum and Society, posses some of the tools that can help them to develop into a broader audience; although the way is being administer is not the correct one. It is important to take in consideration the limitations of the organization, such as personnel shortage, and also budget limitations; but also is important not to forget the strengths this organization posses, which are not being exploded correctly. Finally, the social media tool already in use and those available to them, are cost free and if used correctly can only bring positive things and the younger audience this organization so much desires.
d correctly can only bring positive things and the younger audience this organization so much desires.