Those who have to narrate culture on social media know the importance of fast and rapid communication.
If you too have tried to create art content for social media, you will certainly have come up against the need to give concise information without trivialising the message. Which is by no means easy, especially when you have to communicate the complexity of an art project or cultural event.
On Twitter all this is definitely more complicated because there are very few characters available, one cannot edit the content already published, and even the number of images to be inserted is limited.
Twitter, however, was my first love and in this post I want to tell you why it is still a great communication tool for art galleries and museums.
The Twitter profile of a gallery or museum
Twitter is a social network suitable for sharing quick and concise information and is decidedly less versatile than Facebook.
If the only limitation when deciding what to publish on Facebook is imagination, on Twitter the character limit to use is definitely an obstacle for many.
For a single tweet on Twitter, it is 280 characters. However, it is advisable to keep tweets as short as possible, preferably within 140 characters, in order to achieve greater visibility and engagement.
Regarding images and videos, Twitter allows you to attach up to four images or a maximum of 2 minutes and 20 seconds of video. You can also include animated gifs or polls.
It is important to note that images and videos can be a great way to attract users’ attention and increase engagement, but it is always good to maintain a balance between text and media. In addition, it is important to ensure that images and videos are relevant to the message you want to convey and that they are of high quality.
For an art gallery, or a museum, there are different types of content that you can share on your Twitter profile.
Here are some examples:
ANNOUNCE YOUR EVENTS
Twitter is a great container for promoting events, exhibitions, workshops and conferences. You can use multiple tweets, spread out over time, to share details about times, costs and planned activities.
You can also schedule tweets to build anticipation, to tell about the event as it unfolds and to describe details even after the event is over.
SHARE WORKS
If you want to use Twitter for your art gallery, or your museum, you know that you must first identify the goals and reasons why you should use social. The first objective should be to share what your cultural institution does for art and you should also do this with videos and pictures.
Twitter supports photo and video sharing, so you can use the social network to share pictures of artworks and objects, videos showing behind the scenes of the gallery or museum, or interviews with curators or artists.
PUBLISHES INDUSTRY NEWS
Twitter is also an excellent source of information from the museum sector. You can share news, research and articles of interest to your audience.
Don’t think that your profile should only publish what has to do with your gallery, or your museum, but become a reference point for what is happening elsewhere.
Become an amplifier of culture!
CREATE STORIES
Twitter is a good place to share interesting stories about your art gallery or museum, the collections and the history behind each event or exhibition.
You can use Twitter to share funny or interesting anecdotes, the works, the artists or the people who work with you.
When I was in charge of social communication for theMaya exhibition in Verona, I was also responsible for coordinating an event to promote the exhibition on Twitter.
In the planning phase, the exhibition staff and I selected a series of influencers from the travel sector and invited them to see the exhibition to discover a piece of South America in Italy.
The decision to focus on the communication skills on Twitter of the travel bloggers and not of influencers from the art or archaeology sector was suggested by the fact that we wanted to communicate the exhibition in a simple and non-technical language, but above all we wanted to focus on ensuring that the public grasped the aspects of the daily life of the Maya that were visible in the exhibition through archaeological finds.
On that occasion, each profile was able to create the little stories behind the exhibits, telling the story of a mysterious people with a fascinating culture,
The success was resounding and the exhibition entered the Twitter Trend Topics with the hashtag #MayaVerona.
Not bad for an archaeological exhibition!
ENGAGE THE AUDIENCE
Twitter can be used to engage your audience.
You can share polls, create dedicated hashtags, answer followers’ questions and encourage followers to share their experiences of visiting the art gallery or museum.
CONCLUSIONS
In general, the Twitter profile of an art gallery, or museum, should be used to share news and information relevant to the public, while maintaining a concise and engaging communication style.