Hello!
I’m Roseanna and I’ve been volunteering with Nottingham Museums and Galleries since May 2014.
I was originally drawn to helping out with the commemorative events for centenary of the First World War. As it was so enjoyable, and I met so many great people, I stayed on with Illuminate!
Here are my thoughts on the recent social media training session we attended on 21st January 2015.
Jen Lowthrop is a woman whose presence online is impressive and bewildering to someone like me, whose social media activity is limited to an occasional grumble on Facebook. (I’m still living in the nostalgic MySpace years; music and cool background personalisation...what happened?!)
A proficient and successful travel blogger, Jen is well versed in the ever-changing world of social media. One online search generates an abundance of results- blogs (shegetsaround.co.uk), instagram updates, facebook comments, and related features and interviews. She has effectively established her own personal ‘brand’; but to remain in control of that, she reveals, you have some work to do.
Jen is passionate and engaging, a perfect personality to get Illuminate started in the world of social media, and help us focus on how we can make it work for us. The workshop was well attended, with members of other volunteer groups and staff from heritage sites such as Green’s Windmill all keen to develop their presence online.
We began with introductions and ‘random facts’, about ourselves; I will skirt over Rosny’s Vatican cheese-knife escapade (no holy cheese was harmed, perhaps excluding emmental ).
After some discussion about the various motives of using social media, we were set to work in groups to put together our thoughts on individual sites, and the pros and cons of using said sites.
One of the top points mentioned was how easy and accessible information is in the digital age. No matter what you want to learn, discover, buy, communicate...we can get that information through the touch of a keypad, within seconds. It’s sometimes easier than fishing out your manual copies to find out when that club night/production of Cats/Cliff Richard tour date is happening.
Personally, despite being part of a social media generation, I must admit I was a little ignorant of how useful social media can be. I have been resisting the ‘twittersphere’, anxious to avoid becoming lost in cyberspace, destined to walk into catastrophe, clutching my phone whilst checking Kim Kardashian’s latest antics or worse; snapping a selfie.
Often I had thought the self-promotion shameful, and ugly. But life is what you make it, and not everyone uses social media in the same way. You make it work for you, and if I’m behind the times then I’m missing opportunities and ignoring a whole community. Our ancestors could hardly imagine a time when a whole world of information is at your fingertips, pretty much anytime, anywhere.
In fact, many have taken it upon themselves to make history more interesting by parodying historical figures’ imagined twitter accounts. for example, here’s a twitpic from’ Queen Victoria.' Some actually use real diary entries...again, another example from Queen Victoria.
Jen assures us that it is possible to stand out from the crowd. Real talentwill shine out, and with a little time each day anyone has the potential to get their brand out there.
Practice makes perfect. The more you use social media, get to know trends, strike up networks, contribute, and stay abreast of what’s popular, it is a world of opportunity. It needn’t take up your life either, Jen says; various onsite timers such as tweetdeckcan be set to tweet a pre-recorded message at a certain time of day. However, to stay interesting you do have to be varied and invest some time to ensure the results you want.
These, amongst other tips and tricks, have convinced me that it’s all worthwhile. So, I am going to make an effort to be more active online, to feel the ground, gain familiarity. The future is happening, and I don’t want to miss it...I mean, how will I know if it’s snowing outside (?)
Watch this space for a new twitter account for Illuminate, which will chart our escapades throughout the year! You will get more of an idea of what a volunteer gets up to within Nottingham’s museums and galleries, the likes of which is more varied than you might think!