SEO + Podcasting = Connecting!

Attended a ‘lunch and learn’ session with Dorz Brown, host of Let’s Get Visible podcast and an SEO specialist. I did a bit of research on podcasting when working as a Digital Strategist and it’s a great tool for arts organisations to maximise reach and get content out there, so these takeaways are very applicable across the board.

SEO generally:

• Having a podcast can be a good way to maximise reach, and is fun too
• Need to understand how to build an organic presence online via SEO before diving into podcasting
• SEO connects across website/blog, links (eg other online directories), social media, content, email marketing, images, etc
• Your website needs updating – don’t just leave it
• ‘SEO is a marathon, not a sprint’
• SEO is “… about human connection and building relationships with online users”, it’s also a lot of commonsense!
• Put yourself in the mindset of the searcher/user and what is their intent? What would I be typing into Google??
• Everything you need to say needs to be in the Google results (your ‘metadata’), do a ‘free’ Google search to start with to see how users are searching and what questions they are asking
• As a rule of thumb, for a Google search, titles should be 60 characters and the description 160 characters
• Think about creating a FAQ section on your website to get those who are searching by asking questions
• For website have a separate Home page (what you do) and About page (who you are)
• SEO will never be replaced by AI or bots, as can’t replace the human element

AI integration and SEO:

• AI enables more advanced algorithms
• “Machine learning enables search engines to learn from user behaviour and continually refine algorithms to produce more relevant results”
• Allows search engines to collaborate effectively with e-commerce platforms

Common Mistakes:

• Trying to get visibility for everything all at once, pick a focus area using shorter-term goals
• Jumping on latest trends too quickly (eg TikTok!): ‘shiny toy syndrome’
• Saying ‘this is all too hard’, avoid this by keeping your strategy simple

Podcasting for SEO:

• Adds another dimension to your content
• Brings out your own personality
• Every single podcast is an SEO opportunity
• Podcasting with a guest expands your audience (OPA = other people’s audience)
• Know your target audience
• Solve problems
• Position yourself as an expert in your field, better than spending $$ on marketing that audiences may not respond to anyway
• Make content valuable and shareable
• Needs to be planned, have the right equipment and location (wardrobes are good for this…)
• Interesting title, targeted keywords in the description, show notes as SEO assets and a call to action
• Cross-promotion is super important

Set goals:

1. Today – quick wins that make an instant impact
2. Tomorrow – short-term goals that make impact in 3-6 months
3. Future goals

There’s some amazing resources on Dorz’s Let’s Get Visible website, including a Digital Marketing blog and her podcasts so I recommend checking them out if you want to know more about how to make SEO work for your (small) business.

And, if you’re in the Southern Highlands or even just visiting, think about booking a desk at The Office Bowral. They even have a full podcasting studio so you can avoid having to use your wardrobe!

Measuring Social and Economic Impact 2024

First blog post for 2024 and it’s April. How does the time fly!

Recently my email and LinkedIn feeds have been full of impact measurement studies, reports, toolkits and case studies. I wanted to bring them all together here mostly for my own use (!) but also to share with others.

REACHOUT

ReachOut “… embarked on a journey to better understand our social value, enabling us to create more impactful services. This journey has culminated in the launch of our 2022 – 23 Social Impact Report. The report explores ReachOut’s reach, audience engagement and the positive outcomes experienced by those who use our services.”

• Download the 2022-23 Social Impact Report here
• Download the 2022-23 Social Impact Report Overview here
• There’s also a useful framework ReachOut use that can be accessed here

THE SOCIAL IMPACT MEASUREMENT NETWORK AUSTRALIA (SIMNA)

SIMNA is a great organisation to join if you are working on / interested in impact measurement. The Western Sydney Committee held a webinar recently, Let’s talk about Social Impact Measurement, with a heap of great resources, including some practical ways to use AI in impact measurement.

Social impact measurement tools:

• WA Community Impact Planner
• Seedkit

Social Value in the build environment:

• Hayball Social Value Pilot Study (Hayball and ASVB)
• Valuing 50 years of Australia’s icon (Deloitte) – case study of social and economic impact of the Sydney Opera House
• Valuing green infrastructure and public spaces framework (NSW Planning)

Influence of AI on impact measurement, The Charity Spark (UK):

• Using AI effectively in evaluation and impact measurement part 1
• Using AI effectively in evaluation and impact measurement part 2

You can join SIMNA here.

CULTURE COUNTS

Culture Counts partnered with Regional Arts Australia to evaluate and conduct an economic impact analysis of the program and activities it supported. The overall finding was that “The direct economic impact generated by attendees surveyed was over $304.8 million – 60 times the total investment in the Cultural Tourism Accelerator Program.”

The Research Report Regional Arts Australia: Cultural Tourism Accelerator Program 21/22 can be accessed here.

MUSDIGI BLOG

I have previously written about measuring impact, particularly for a project I worked on measuring the impact of festivals and events. Here’s some extra resources from that work:

• Measuring Impacts: Some Background Resources
• How to Measure Social and Cultural Impacts
• Measuring the Impact of Museums and Galleries #TBT

Hope you find these useful.

Challenges – How might we? Part 2 #NDF23

Following from my presentation at the National Digital Forum 2023 conference I noticed many people taking fotos of my challenges slides, so I thought I’d reproduce them here, using the How might we? way of thinking about these.

I also didn’t get to talk about suggestions from audiences I have consulted over the years as to how GLAM could address big issues, but you can find them here.

Challenges: worries and big issues

• Big issues focus around climate, conflict, climate, gender, climate, mental health, climate
  • Gurian (1995): Museums as “safe places for unsafe ideas”
• How might GLAM offer programs around ending racism, reducing climate change, equality and alleviating poverty?
• How might GLAM navigate the tricky issues around current global conflicts?
• How might GLAM reach out to younger audiences who are interested in the world but not necessarily looking to GLAM for answers?
• How are we looking after staff, volunteers, audiences affected by distressing world events?

Challenges: Barriers to participation

• Financial pressures / cost of living #1 pressure for audiences, business and GLAM
• GLAM (museums) perceived as ‘look but don’t touch’:
  • Yet also as inspiring places of wonder
• As a sector, how might we use our strength of numbers in advocacy to provide affordable experiences for audiences?
• What might we do about the increased casualised workforce and staffing pressures?
• How might we change perceptions from ‘look, don’t touch’ to GLAM as places of stimulating and challenging learning for all abilities?

Challenges: Digital

• Audiences are tired of screens:
  • Yet they are very interested in immersive experiences
• Audiences don’t understand and are worried about emerging technologies such as AI
• Many (many) GLAM organisations don’t have the time, energy and resources to dedicate to thinking about digital programming:
  • They are too busy sorting out problems such as CRMs, ticketing systems and project management
  • COVID reinforced the pressure digital teams, specifically social media, are under
• How might we provide onsite digital experiences for tired eyes?
• How might we use technology to allay fears about AI taking over the world and our jobs (for example)?
• How might we allocate resources across new priority areas – online vs onsite??
• How are we looking after health and wellbeing of digital (and other) staff?

Challenges: Trust and information

• Adults generally trust museums (GLAM)
• Audiences are distrustful of media and skeptical about information online
• Teenagers and young people use TikTok as information sources, for skills development and for event planning:
  • And, TikTok is banned by many government agencies
• There has been a decline in attention spans:
  • 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2020
  • The average attention span of goldfish is 9 seconds…
• How might we capitalise on the ‘goodwill’ (and some affection) for GLAM?
• How might we use digital platforms more effectively within constraints?
• How might we address the issue of reaching audiences with limited time and attention spans – both in marketing and in programming?

Challenges: Education and learning

• GLAM organisations are seen as places for learning and education
• Hybrid learning (and working) is here to stay:
• Many students love it
• Unstable state of museum education:
  • Unintended consequences of losing educational audiences who are often the mainstay for numbers and revenue
• How can we be seen as learning institutions when we don’t (necessarily) value staff that deliver these programs?
• How might we shift our programming to meet the needs of audiences who prefer online learning, and those who want both?
• How might we accommodate new ways of working while still delivering onsite experiences and opening the doors?

Thanks to those who came to my presentation – much appreciated.

#museumlearning #NDF23 #TBT

It’s Thursday! That means time for a #TBT post. I haven’t done one of these for ages but was inspired after the excellent NDF workshop yesterday, Designing for Playful Engagement, facilitated by Ed Rodley.

It was terrific re-visiting and re-thinking (for me) about learning and educational theory in museums and how this underpins designing experiences for our visitors. Something I examined in-depth in my doctoral thesis.

I recorded my key reflections via a set of Post-it notes (below) and have also referenced some blog posts in this area that are relevant to Ed’s presentation. Just a few as there has been so much written about museum learning. Chapter two and chapter seven of my thesis summarise this literature in detail and can be downloaded from the link below.

And, let’s face it, the theories don’t change very much and, as John Falk once said, visitors’ wiring has also pretty much stayed the same too, just the communication and interpretive mediums are different (for the most part…).

Oh, and you won’t get the Otto reference but suffice to say, by the end of yesterday we were all ‘soaking’ in this conference!

REFERENCES:

• Understanding Museum Learning from the Visitor’s Perspective: My Doctoral Thesis
• #TBT: The role of narrative in museum exhibitions
• Engaging Museum Visitors in Difficult Topics Through Socio-cultural Learning and Narrative
• That “ah-hah” moment: Teachers talk Transformative Learning @MoAD_Canberra #musdigi
• Wonder, learning (and empathy) in museums
• The curiosity-driven brain: the curiosity-driven visitor #tbt
• Meaning Making
• Nuts and Bolts. Developing a Toolkit for Emotion in Museums. Linda Norris, Rainey Tisdale. Exhibition, Spring 2017, pp. 100-108.
• Digital Learning; Digital Games: Core principles in Games-Based Learning

#NDF23 Day Two: #AI

Those that know me well know that I just love playing around with new tech – experimenting, learning, enjoying! AI in particular.

So, this talk really got me excited and I’ve chosen to use a foto gallery of Colby’s slides + some text below.

A case example: Be my AI

Helps connect blind people with volunteers that will help them with everyday tasks. Awesome!

[Potential] Use of AI in cultural institutions:

• Digitisation of collections
  • Fragile objects
  • Metadata
  • First draft of descriptions
  • Build connections between objects
• Experience and wayfinding
• Gamification
• Personalisation and co-creation
• AI generated art (some issues here re copyright protections but are being looked at)

Copilots

Coming to a Microsoft tool you use soon!

Challenge

‘We need to get across this technology, including the risks and opportunities’.

And, I should add this link to the Smithsonian’s AI Values Statement (thanks to Indigo Holcombe-James for the intel).

[There were a lot of very thoughtful questions that we didn’t get to unfortunately… Some below]

#NDF23 Day one – morning reflections

So I’m here! First F2F Interntaional conference since 2019 and it’s been a blast already seeing old friends and meeting new people. Due to the demise of Twitter, and conference Twitter more specifically, I’m trying something new: Making notes using the “Keep” app on my phone, saving that as a Google doc copying and pasting here and summary highlights to LinkedIn. Phew!

Here’s my quick notes from this morning’s (awesome!) sessions.

Hon Simon Kofe, Tuvalu as a digital nation

• Future now program to plan for worst case scenario as climate deteriorates
• Nations are behaving like individuals, not communities
• Solutions to many of our problems can be found within these principles
• Resolving climate crisis needs a change of mindset from individual to the collective
• “Without immediate, global climate action, all of Tuvalu will only exist [online]”
• How can we best use technology to improve the lives of people and preserve Tuvalu culture?

I think these values are applicable across so many contexts

Hon Marama Davidson

• ‘If we look at what we’re doing to the world as harming our mother we’d be a very different world’
• Climate change is at the bottom of everything – poverty, inequality, violence, etc

Jane Alexander, Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA)

• Breaking new ground in mixed reality
• Immersion does not necessarily mean digital
• Thought of their Holo Lens experience as like a rollercoaster (in the logistics)
• Keys – worked with partners that have skills CMA didn’t, inclusive design, UX/UI was important as was prototyping
• Onboarding visitors into the experience was really important
• The Holo lens was chosen to have a ‘we experience’ and encourage conversation

Puawai Cairns, Ruminating on change and speculations for the future

• Things are getting a bit gloomy
• Believe in the power of museums and a hub for stories
• Bring brave is the breath you take before implementing change
• Change is hard
• Succession planning is like getting strong soil with nutrients and elements for growth
• Value and measure your impact
• What works best for Maori (and the vulnerable) has benefits for all
• Creating for audiences as a system like a market garden
• Aim to move away from an exhibition-led programming to a holistic one looking at all channels

Loving the idea of programming as a system, like a market garden

National Digital Forum #NDF23

Next week I’m heading off overseas (first time since COVID!) to attend the National Digital Forum in Wellington, New Zealand.

Why am I going?

• To learn about innovations and ideas in the GLAM digital space
• To present a paper based around many research studies conducted pre, during and post-COVID covering six areas:
  1. Should GLAM address big issues, and how?
  2. Worries
  3. Barriers
  4. Digital
  5. Trust
  6. Learning
• And, of course, to reconnect with colleagues I haven’t seen for ages

How might we?

During my presentation I’m posing challenges for GLAM using an exercise called How might we?

I came across this technique from Kartini Ludwig during my time as a Digital Strategist-in-Residence for Creative Australia (formerly Australia Council for the Arts) when we were looking at innovative ways to conduct online ideation sessions with small arts organisations.

I’ve used this successfully in my DSIR work, as well as in presenting research findings for a membership association (as background for their strategic planning and new directions), and for a digital workshop I conducted with small regional museums and galleries.

So, I’ll be taking a risk in presenting this way, but may as well stretch myself.

I’ll be posting updates during the conference so watch this space (well, both this blog and my LinkedIn page. And, I might even tweet!).

Shoalhaven Museums & Galleries Breakfast Group: Digital Workshop

The beautiful Shoalhaven River

In this workshop with a range of small museums, galleries and heritage organisations in the Shoalhaven region, we looked broadly at digital as a concept and started to think about digital opportunities. A series of exercises were completed with details below. One main outcome was to generate a set of resources shared via Wakelet.

WHAT DOES ‘DIGITAL’ MEAN TO YOU?

Generally:

• Electronic forms of communication
• Engaging with a keyboard: using your ‘digits’
• Anything through a computerised system
• Not a physical entity, rather a representation of it in a pixel form
• Content that is technologically driven
• Through interfacing with a screen, leading to a fundamental change in human thought processes

For operations:

• Recording of information in a digital form for easy access and sharing
• Safety of information
• Contributing to a cohesive organisation
• Accessibility
• Inclusivity
• Ticketing
• Collection

Connecting:

• Connecting beyond the museum: a ‘porous museum’
• Community app pilot (can x see)
• Use of video and other interactives in exhibition spaces
• Audio interviews and oral histories

DIGITAL TOOLS USED

• Website
• Collections management and databases, such as eHive, MOSAiC
• Social media, particularly Facebook pages plus local history groups, and Instagram
• Video content, digitised artworks
• Email, e-newsletters
• Online store
• Google / Trip Advisor

2-3 CHALLENGES FACING THEIR ORGANISATIONS (NOT NECESSARILY DIGITAL)

Resourcing – people:

• Volunteers as a resource for fundraising, research and in operational roles
• Educating staff and volunteers to be comfortable with technology and using it in everyday (e.g., tablets in exhibitions and for guided tours)
• Members / volunteers who are not digitally literate, meaning little opportunity to share admin load
• Attracting new members / volunteers
• Declining and aging volunteers and the skills people bring

Resourcing – money:

• Finances generally are tight
• Finding resources for fundraising
• Lack of support from Council and other funding bodies
• Increased costs, especially electricity

Resourcing – Audiences / visitors:

• Getting numbers through the door
• Making connections with the public
• Lack of community exposure
• Resources for marketing and awareness
• Attracting repeat visits, getting audiences to move beyond their favourite sites

Resourcing – technology:

• Technical problems – having them and resolving them
• Metadata and following standards
• Information on objects – provenance and history
• Maintaining technologies
• Collection management and preservation

Resourcing – buildings:

• Insurance
• Limitations of buildings
• Heritage constraints
• Storage problems

HOW MIGHT WE? EXERCISE

This is a hugely useful way to think about how to harness digital tools to solve organisational problems by asking the question “Our organisation is challenged by … How might we use digital tools / technology to … So that we can …”

From the workshop the following questions emerged which we will look at in a future session.

How might we use digital to:

• Attract and retain volunteers?
• Improve our digital literacy?
• Assess and improve our digital capabilities?
• Increase funding, both diversifying sources and getting more money?
• Increase reach, attract more / new audiences?
• Replace outdated technology / equipment?
• Better manage our collections and storage pressures?

Lots of food for thought and future possibilities!

#DSIR2023: MORE LINKS FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE!

Following from my last post about podcasting resources, here’s the resources I collected across a range of areas from my final stint as a Digital Strategist-in-Residence (with a lot of input from the wonderful team at Chamber Music Adelaide, and acknowledging MuseumNext as many of these have been produced by them).

YOUTUBE

• How should museums use their YouTube channels?
• YouTube strategy for cultural organisations
• Cultural Content – Good YouTube, Bad YouTube
• Cultural Content with Nik Wyness, Tank Museum’s Head of Marketing Engagement
• How museums can adapt their content to new short-video formats

INSTAGRAM

• What we can learn from Pop-Up Museums? Best practice and ideas from Instagram friendly experiences – MuseumNext
• The Met to Sell Merch on Instagram – MuseumNext
• Instagram Tips for Arts Organisations – MuseumNext
• Instagram Adds Smithsonian Museums’ Exhibits With AR – MuseumNext
• Museums should embrace Instagram rather than rejecting it. Here’s why – MuseumNext
• Musée d’Orsay Welcomes Instagram Artist-in-Residence – MuseumNext
• Is Instagram culture a positive influence for museums? – MuseumNext

Noting that Instagram takeovers have been popular in arts organisations as a good way to bring in new audiences and develop relationships with ‘influencers’.

TIKTOK

• How are museums using TikTok? – MuseumNext
• Finding your Museum’s TikTok Niche – MuseumNext
• How to use TikTok to grow your museum’s audience – MuseumNext
• Mary McGillivray, the TikToker Who Is Making Art History Accessible – MuseumNext
• How Arts Organisations Are Leveraging TikTok – MuseumNext
• TikTok hosts its first-ever global LIVE museum marathon – MuseumNext
• Museum becomes unlikely hit on TikTok – MuseumNext
• Printing Press Attracts Millions to Sacramento History Museum’s TikTok Account – MuseumNext
• How Black Country Living Museum Became a TikTok Sensation – MuseumNext

ArtsHub: Six essential videos to help get your art online

• Video 1: How to get your art online
• Video 2: Getting your art noticed online
• Video 3: Making money from your art online
• Video 4: Promoting your art with Social Media
• Video 5: How to write about your art online
• Video 6: How to document and live stream your art online
• Videos in Auslan, Arts Access Australia

FINALLY, this just in from the amazing @adamkozary which you should read before any of the above (!) The art of museum shitposting: “Getting engagement on social media is like getting blood from a stone for a lot of museums … In my time as a consultant I’ve audited a lot of organisational social media accounts and they are by and large pitiful in driving conversions, with the exception of Facebook” and so it goes….

PODCASTING AND THE ARTS #DSIR23

I haven’t blogged much this year about the Australia Council Digital Strategist-in-Residence program for 2023 as time has got away from me but I did work with two amazing organisations: the CORRIDOR project, based near Cowra in Central NSW and Chamber Music Adelaide. I found that both organisations faced similar challenges, which we were able to address in the final strategies.

One area that inspired this blog post was podcasting. As an avid podcast listener myself (mostly TV recaps I’m afraid!) I was keen to see what’s around in the world of podcasting in the arts.

RESEARCH / STATS

Very recent stats via Mumbrella360 (17 July 2023) website: Podcasts provide a captive, active audience for brands – PodPoll survey.

Key points:

• Podcasts are bigger in terms of monthly consumption than printed newspapers, magazines, and audiobooks
• 40 per cent of regular (monthly) podcast listeners have now made it a daily listening habit
• Gen Y and Gen Z are the heaviest consumers of podcasts
• Those eager for new skills, activists, and purchasers are all people tuning into podcasts
• There is an unmet need for content, especially among Gen Z and Millennials
• Most popular genres in podcasting are crime (35%), comedy (34%) and health and wellbeing (32%)
• There’s also hunger for new content in science and environment, food and beverage, fashion and beauty categories

The research was conducted by Podcast producers Deadset Studios and market research agency Insightfully. You can download the full report, PodPoll 2023, on the Deadset Studios website.

The Infinite Dial© 2023 Australia is “a comprehensive study of audio listening behaviours from Edison Research, shows growth in digital audio consumption, including podcasts and online radio, while radio remains strong”. You can download the report from Edison Research’s website.

COOL PODCASTS

• So You Think You Can Belto? created to empower emerging operatic practitioners across Australia and the world with access to the direct knowledge and relayed experiences of professionals. Hosted by Jessica Harper (soprano) & Jeremy Boulton (baritone).
• Arts Centre Melbourne Podcasts
• South Australian Living Artists (SALA) Podcast: aims to engage South Australian visual artists and arts industry professionals in interviews about their arts practice and creative lives, and in discussion about topics relevant to the arts.
• Sydney Writer’s Festival Podcast Library
• Reassign: True Tales from the Grassy Woodlands tells the stories of the ‘grassy woodlands’ based in the Northern Midlands, Tasmania. The project uses a range of digital techniques to deliver surprising stories and outcomes, and is being constantly updated. [Disclaimer – I worked on this project and I think it’s pretty awesome!]

OTHER RESOURCES

• Podcasting and how to get started – Digital Culture Network
• Museum Podcasts: Dusty Documents to Hold-Your-Breath Stories – MuseumNext
• Listen up: how podcasts can create regular museum goers – MuseumNext
• Cultural Content with guest Meg Jones – The Museums n’That podcast star talks us through launching the new series…
• In conversation with: Frederique Van Reij on the Rijksmuseum podcast that aims to ‘make life better through art’ – MuseumNext

Some great examples here. If you know of any others feel free to drop a link in the comments.

The DSIR program is changing from the latter half of 2023, now being called the Digital Specialist-in-Residence which will provide arts organisations with access to a specialist to help develop their digital capacity and to pilot a new digitally led project.

More soon!