Tweet-Up’s and #Musesocial.
So this is a very confused looking Theda Bara as Cleopatra. She is confused as is many others who might come across this post. What exactly is a ‘Tweet Up’ and ‘#Musesocial?’
Well think about the name;’Tweet-Up’ it sounds like meet up right? And ‘Tweet’ would be from ‘Twitter.’ So basically it is a meet up with fellow minded people on Twitter. In this case Museum & Heritage professionals.
These ‘tweet-up’s happen all over the world in Museum & Heritage sites all over the world. They can involve museum and heritage workers from one are converging on one museum to look at a museum’s collection or to collaborate for a future project.
A ‘tweet-up’ can also take place if a lot of museum and heritage professionals are attending a conference in one city. Many of the professionals may want to meet their fellow twitter followers, whom they communicate with on a daily basis. This can be the foundation of many exciting projects.
A ‘tweet-up’ recently happened at the American History Museum based at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. I was able to follow the tweets as the particpants progressed on their tour. It gave an insight into how fun and yet informing a ‘tweet-up’ can be.
On a side note- The Smithsonian is awesome. It’s museum geek heaven. This is the institution’s main building. The place is so huge I couldn’t show all of the buildings in one post.
The ‘tweet-up’ was set up by a group called ‘#Musesocial.’ Basically, this group are a bunch of like minded people meeting up on a social occasion to discuss and explore (including visits to) museums and heritage sites. I’m part of the group and was able to take part in their #musesocial Q&A last week on Twitter following the aforementioned ‘tweet-up.’
It was my first #musesocial chat, and will certainly not be my last. I was able to communicate my thoughts on social media to museum professionals across the world. What came back to more and more often through this chat is that social media must be used by museums and heritage. That social media is integral to keep people coming back. It was also a great opportunity to see how museum professionals from other countries think as well as a networking opportunity.
The #musesocial was also taking place during a #drinkingaboutmuseums session, that now takes place world wide. The idea behind #drinkingbehindmuseums is to meet fellow colleagues in the museums & heritage sector in an informal setting.
At these events everything and anything heritage and museums can be discussed over a glass of wine or a pint of Guinness. I will be attending one of these (and the 1st of its kind ) in Belfast in the coming weeks. Meeting like minded museum professionals and talking museums, I will drink to that!
More thoughts and a review by someone (Mar Dixon) who was actually present at the Tweet-Up, #museoscial chat and #drinking about museums can be found here:
http://www.mardixon.com/wordpress/2013/04/tweetup-at-american-history-museum-smithsonian-musesocial/
I’d love to hear what you think of the subject. What do you think of social media & museums/heritage sites? Are ‘tweet-up’s’ a good idea? Comment below or tweet me (how fitting!) @NylonsAndAll.