Ryan Dodge

Ryan Dodge is Digital Content Manager and Digital Engagement Coordinator at the Royal Ontario Museum.

1. How did you live the #MuseumWeek experience? Did you notice any new dynamic in your institution since then?

March is always a hectic time for us at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), over 10 days during March Break we welcome over 60,000 visitors! For our staff on the floor it is their busiest time of the year. For our web and social media team, #MuseumWeek  was OUR March Break.

We are very lucky at the ROM to have really great engagement from our staff on Twitter already. Just over 1/3 of our staff use Twitter regularly so when Museum Week rolls around we spend time communicating the different themes to the staff and brainstorming ideas for content around the different themes. It was really exciting to see the ideas and content our staff developed around each of the themes last year and we learned some new facts about the ROM in the process!

We are a big family here at the ROM and like a big family, we can rely on each other to help out when needed…so when I asked for some help for our #poseMW theme last year staff turned out!

2. During the event, was there the opportunity to invite specific audiences like fans, Instagrammers, artists, influencers acted upon…?

On the last day of #MuseumWeek  we held a tweet-up for the #poseMW theme. We hosted 25 influencers for a great day of selfies  and creative poses  in our galleries. Mar Dixon even popped in via Hangout to say hello!

3. What is the benefit for your institution to be on Twitter?

Conversations. The biggest benefit we have found with Twitter is the real-time conversations we can have with visitors in our galleries and also around the world. We value social media more as a tool to talk with our community rather than shout marketing messages at them and we’ve seen the benefit of having our staff engaged on the platform time and time again.

 

Interview by @benben71 and @ljaubertie