museumsandtheweb.com - audience engagement

Exploring the Relationship Between Visitor Motivation and Engagement in Online Museum Audiences

rjstein — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 19:28:18 +0000

MW2012

Published Paper:

Exploring the Relationship between Visitor Motivation and Engagement in Online Museum Audiences

Keywords:

audience engagement

Keywords:

audience research

Keywords:

visitor studies

Keywords:

online evaluation

Keywords:

Motivation

Keywords:

online surveys

Abstract:

In the past few years, most museums have witnessed a growing number of visitors to their websites. For the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA), those online visits easily surpass the number of visitors to the museum’s physical campus. Despite this success, however, very little is known about this audience: who they are, how they engage with the site, and what experiences they might take away from their visit.

Information about online users is available to museums via powerful and easy-to-use web statistics tools like Google Analytics. Recent work by Finnis, Chan, and Clements (2011) describes a set of best-practices and analytical approaches for evaluating online success. However, many of these techniques tend to focus on the technical details of visits to a website, and – used in isolation – do not provide a deep understanding of more abstract information about user needs, motivations, and satisfaction. Without this information it can be difficult for museums to effectively design, promote, and evaluate on-line content and services.

User segmentation has been the basis of marketing practice for more than 50 years, but has also been one of the most popular techniques for understanding website users, attempting to provide a predictable model of visitor behavior. While more complex analyses that correlates psychographic segmentation - particularly motivation - with actual behavior, are common practice in the visitor studies field, similar methods have not been extensively applied for online audiences. Prior work by Haley-Goldman and Schaller (2004) at the Institute for learning Innovation and by Peacock and Brownbill (2007) at the Museum Victoria Australia have discussed methods for addressing this kind of audience segmentation. Following up on the work done by these researchers, the IMA is conducting a series of online studies to identify which psychographic variables including motivation have an impact on the way visitors engage with the museum’s website and the definition of segments that can be used as a reference in the evaluation and the development of content and services.

In this paper, the authors will describe the reasons for undertaking such research, the method used for analysis, and the preliminary results of the study. Authors will discuss how these results might provide a reference dataset, and a replicable model for other museums that are interested in better understanding their online audience and in conducting similar studies for their own web efforts.

Haley Goldman, K. and Schaller, D. Exploring Motivational Factors and Visitor Satisfaction in On-Line Museum Visits, in J. Trant and D. Bearman (eds.). Museums and the Web 2004: Proceedings, Toronto: Archives & Museum Informatics, published March, 2004 Consulted September 27, 2011.
http://www.archimuse.com/mw2004/papers/haleyGoldman/haleyGoldman.html

Peacock, D. and J. Brownbill, Audiences, Visitors, Users: Reconceptualising Users Of Museum On-line Content and Services, in J. Trant and D. Bearman (eds.). Museums and the Web 2007: Proceedings, Toronto: Archives & Museum Informatics, published March 1, 2007 Consulted September 27, 2011. http://www.archimuse.com/mw2007/papers/peacock/peacock.html

Finnis, Jane, Sebastian Chan, and Rachel Clements. "Let's Get Real: How to Evaluate Online Success?" WeAreCulture24 | Action Research. Culture24, 19 Sept. 2011. Web. 28 Sept. 2011. http://weareculture24.org.uk/projects/action-resea...

Type:

Paper - in formal session

Optimizing engagement

Authors:

Silvia Filippini Fantoni

Robert Stein

Social Media and Organizational Change

JackLudden — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 03:35:59 +0000

MW2011

Published Paper:

Social Media and Organizational Change

Keywords:

social media

Keywords:

leadership

Keywords:

management

Keywords:

strategy

Keywords:

audience engagement

Keywords:

social media policies

Keywords:

organizational change

Keywords:

organizational structure

Keywords:

social media coordination

Keywords:

managing social media

Abstract:

There has been great attention placed on how to work in the social media space. This includes how to work with social media in order to improve brand recognition, build a fan base, engage visitors, and expand programming. But you cannot accomplish any of this without staff members who understand how social media can be useful to their work and their institution.

There are critical questions concerning how to sustain, organize, and implement social media within an institution. How do we manage the "brand" with so many people creating content, while also being flexible and bringing out the many voices in an institution?

How to manage social media is a question asked by museums of all sizes and types. We will identify trends in the field as well as available resources that can help facilitate best practices for using social media. We will compare different approaches at different types of institutions (large vs. small, history vs. art museums, local vs. international)

The authors of this paper are from various parts of the country, from different type of museums and ranging in size. With our multiple perspectives, we will address:

Internal social media policies and guidelines and how best to introduce and maintain them
How social media can be coordinated. Should you distribute management of social media content across an organization, or should there be one point of contact?
Tactics for educating and training staff about what social media is and how it can further the mission
The new expectations for current staffing positions held within the museum

Promoting a cultural shift that embraces collaborative, agile ways of interacting with our peers and our audiences is critical to our success. We know that different museums have very different attitudes and comfort levels with social media. While risk-taking may not be for every institution, all museums must face the ever-changing world of online engagement. Social media is already altering how museums interact with the public and how museum professionals approach their jobs. This change is fast-paced. It is important that we address it and embrace it as a community.

Type:

Paper - in formal session

Organizational Change

Authors:

Dana Allen-Greil

Susan Edwards

Jack Ludden

Eric Johnson

New Technology in the Museum: a case study of three museums in the Fluid community working together

biblio — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:10:51 +0000

Treviranus, J., Czajkowski J., & Mitchell J. (2010). New Technology in the Museum: a case study of three museums in the Fluid community working together. (Trant, Jennifer, David Bearman, Ed.).Museums and the Web.