Publicizing Your Historical Society at Local Events

This past weekend I attended a fall festival where the local historical society had set up a table. The table included a few artifacts, a sign listing the institution's name and hours, some flyers for historical society events and some decorations. The table would be of interest to historical society fans, but to few others in the community. This has prompted me to post a few tips for those of you who are trying to boost awareness of your institutions at tables during the holiday season.

• If you are going to decorate, do it right. A couple of pumpkins and a few leaves at a pumpkin festival is not going to catch the eyes of your audience. (A nutcracker won't do it at Christmas time either.) Think themes and dive in! My library assistants recently made paperback pumpkins to decorate our space. They have gotten a lot of attention. People stop to look at our tables because the pumpkins first catch their eyes. Think unusual, classy and seasonal. DIY decorations are in. Find someone creative in your organization and set them on a mission.

• Create eye catching signs. Stenciled letters and glitter glue scream cheap and unprofessional. Find an artist to do your sign. Or, splurge on a large sign from a company to advertise your work. I splurged on a canvas sign for ArchivesInfo  a few years ago and it was great for displays at book signing events. It showed off my business and hid the supplies I needed under my folding table. 
• Think exhibits! Your table should show off your best side and some of your best items. Bring artifacts to display or photographs of artifacts. Write label copy describing collections. Take the time to explain the provenance of your items and the context. DO NOT COPY INFORMATION ABOUT THE ITEMS OFF OF WIKIPEDIA!!!!! Personalize the experience. Show how your items are relevant to your community.
• Think about your audience and your POTENTIAL audience - Your table should not be aimed solely at people who are already interested in historical societies. If you advertise only to these folks, you are in jeopardy of losing any audience for your organization in the near future. Think about what would attract a young audience. The table I saw had included this idea. They advertised that they were running their train display at the historical society that day. Yet, most of the people who would be interested in the trains would never come to the table to see the advertising because there was nothing there for them. Offer candy. Show off a real train. Give away stickers. Think about what kids like. Think about what young parents want to show off to their kids. They are not going to take a chance to go to hop in their car and drive to your organization from a fun seasonal event if you do not prove to them and their kids that it is worth their time. They are not even going to drag their kids to your table unless you cater specifically to families. Make it easy for parents to convince their children to go. Show them the fun!
• Having a special event for adults? You still should think "show, don't tell". Photos of items you are having at an auction may gain you attendees. Images from past events could do the trick too. Publicize information you have about local families, homes, businesses. Include things that bring back memories and will get people to come over to talk to you.
• Bring membership forms! Seek members at the event! Get as much information from attendees as you can. Ask for emails. Ask people what interests them about their community history. Ask about their family history. Do this to show that joining your organization relates to what is important to them.
• Try to excite the senses. Think sound (old music playing softly from your table perhaps?). Think modern sights (maybe a computer slideshow on a tablet at your table?). Think taste (maybe some old-fashioned treats to give away, or even to sell as a fundraiser?) Think touch (Maybe keep some items at your institution that you are willing to have people play with and bring these to shows to spice up your table?)

• Think of your publicity as an extension of your institution. Is your institution stuffy and boring? If not, don't make your display table appear that way. 

Pinterest for Cultural Heritage

I belong to a small local group of women entrepreneurs who work together to share their expertise and experiences. All of them are brilliant and many of them are social media gurus. When they suggest that I check something out, I try to listen. Thanks to my listening, and thanks to my friend @suddenlyjamie from Suddenly Marketing, I now have a new favorite social media tool that I think is worth pointing out here. Pinterest has burst on the scene as a vision board style tool that at first glance seems best for play. After spending the weekend getting to know the site, I now believe it is so much more than this and that cultural heritage institutions should absolutely use it. This article is about why you should try it and how.

The first thing you will notice on Pinterest is that it is a clean, nice looking site. The concept behind it is straightforward too. Find an image that you like online and "pin" it on your Pinterest page using their handy little button that sits on your toolbar. (I use a similar button to click on gifts to add to a wishlist for a site called Findgifts.com, as a point of comparison for those of you who are familiar with that site.) Your Pinterest page is made up of "boards" or little windows in categories of your choosing so that you can organize images as you wish. Jamie shared a great article covering the basics of Pinterest.

http://pinterest.com/melmannon/

So during my Pinterest weekend, I created the following categories to get me started: Museums I've visited and recommend, Interesting Documents, Fabulous Artifacts, Save Libraries, Favorite Places, Art, Archives, Quotables, and Gardening. Each contains photos I've found on the Internet and "Description" that I've added that describe the picture and/ or why I've chosen the picture for my Pinterest page. From my page, I can see the latest things put on Pinterest and choose to "follow" others and see what they are pinning. I can connect with friends; I can see statistics on how many people are "repinning" what I've pinned. People can comment on what I have pinned.

Early Observations about Its Value

1. For collection sharing and possibly for collaboration - I asked on Twitter which museums are using Pinterest. The Indianapolis Museum of Art responded that they use it to post images from their collections.  http://pinterest.com/imamuseum/ . I can easily see the potential for them to also link to collections from other institutions that relate to their own to create a collaborative Pinterest venture. Pinterest gives you the option to allow others to pin to your page. I have not explored this yet, but I think this can help to make it another kind of valuable collaborative tool that makes room for a participatory experience.

2. For driving Internet traffic and discovering the interests of your audience - Pinterest tells me which of my "pins" are most popular and I can use this to drive people to my Pinterest site. I can also use this to drive Pinterest traffic to other social media sites I manage and to my web page. For example, I made a collage of orphan photos a few weeks ago that I posted on my blog. I pinned it - linking from the blog - in a Pinterest category that I called "ArchivesInfo." I can tell from my Pinterest statistics that a few people have "repinned" the image. From my blog statistics, I can see that many more clicked the image to view my blog post where the image lives.

I can similarly drive traffic by linking to related information in the "description" section. For example, in my category on "Museums I've visited," I realized that there were quite a few museums about which I've written blog posts. So in the comments section on specific applicable museum pins, I've added links to these posts. My National Heritage Museum pin is a sample of this.

3. For sharing expertise - One of the "pins" that I created in a category called "interesting documents" relates to a diary that I recently found in the public library in Kennebunk Maine. My friend commented on the diaries started and we began a conversation about the act of diary keeping and about paper preservation. Cultural heritage institutions can keep this in mind to encourage similar information sharing about collections and educational topics.

4. For generating dialogue - When I created the category "Save Libraries," I was thinking about all of the images, cartoons and news articles that I've seen out of Britain discussing their library closures. I am going to continue following events overseas and in the U.S. about the state of libraries and add more pins as news develops. I am also going to try to find a way to place questions or comments that get people thinking about these events. I can see a museum using Pinterest this way to encourage dialogue about their exhibits. Or,  a library can choose an interesting image each day that can get people talking about a specific topic. This would have the added advantage of encouraging people to visit the library's web site and think about the role of the library in the community. To make it a participatory experience, encourage people to explore the information and pictures you introduce. Suggest a topic and encourage patrons to go seek more images for their own Pinterest pages to share with you.

In short, I have been on Pinterest for three days and already see limitless potential here for museums, libraries, and archives. Please give it a whirl. If you are already using it, please let us know how. What advantages do you see for sharing cultural knowledge through Pinterest?