I admit that, until a month ago, I resisted joining Facebook or MySpace on the principle that I was too old. But I finally broke down and joined Facebook and was pleasantly surprised. I reconnected with old friends I had lost touch with, and I was able to join the Facebook groups of museums and non-profit organizations. The organizations used their Facebook pages to post about their mission and their events, taking advantage of a way to connect with the younger demographics who use this form of communication. If you haven’t already, build a Facebook group for your organization.

If you still aren’t convinced, The Baltimore Sun lists 6 1/2 reasons to join Facebook.

For those of you who send email announcements or newsletters to your supporters, take a look at who your email is “from”. I mean, when it appears in a recipient’s inbox, who appears in the “from” field? Is it the name of your organization? Your personal name? Something else?

To increase your open rates, the email should come from your organization’s name. This way, recipients can easily recognize it as from an organization they support, and they won’t think it is spam. And if your emails contain lots of fresh and exciting content, your supporters should excitedly open your emails to see what awaits in the newest issue!

In my Museums in the Digital Age class over the past few weeks, we have been discussing the use of blogs by museums. One trend we noted is museums and historic homes blogging about their restoration efforts. One blog I have been following is Montpelier’s restoration. The 1820s home of James Madison has been uncovered beneath the 20th century additions added by the duPont family. The site has been documenting this restoration online since its beginning, first as an email newsletter, and then as a blog. This is a great way to keep patrons involved in the process and excited to see the final product.

I found this great program idea on Plimoth Plantation’s website. In April, they hosted an American Girl fashion show and tea party for young girls and their American Girl dolls. For those of you not in the know, American Girl is a line of 18-inch dolls that are based on historic time periods. They have their own clothes and stories that relate to the time period. It’s quite the marketing concept - I wish I had thought of it! Anyway, Plimoth Plantation hosted a fashion show that exhibited fashions both past and present, and then allowed attendees to experience the museums while they were there. By attracting girls through something they already love, the museum had a primed audience to introduce seventeenth century history to. Read the press release here (will open a PDF file.)

Speaking of American Girl, I checked out their website and they have some great interactive games. I spent more time that I’d like to admit playing with Felicity’s tea game, trying to pour the tea before the water cooled down! It’s in Miss Manderly’s house.

Consultant Linda Norris is looking for examples of ways to engage visitors on historic house tours. Head on over there if you have something to contribute to the discussion. I think she will compile this information into a report at some point - I can’t wait to see it!

Here is an article about the Twain House, which Darrin Dickey remarked on in one of his comments on this site’s “Keep your eyes on your mission” post, and Edith Wharton’s House, both of whom need to raise funds or be forced to close their doors.

Twain, Wharton homes join others in financial peril - from Yahoo! News

Thought I would re-purpose a post I just posted in the AASLH forum, for those who aren’t members.

Here are some ideas on how to market to young professionals and college students:

1. When I worked at the Baltimore Symphony, we had “College Nights” where we offered students $10 tickets and held a “happy hour” for them after the concert. Our regular concert-goers were thrilled to see so many young faces in the crowd, and the happy hour was held after most concert-goers had left the building. Museums could adopt this idea by hosting an after-hours event, or a happy hour after a particular event closes.

2. To appeal to the “Young professionals”, try a wine tasting event. I have done these with other non-profits also. Find a local vineyard that would be willing to co-sponsor, as well as a caterer. If possible, engage a couple of young professional who already have ties to your organization to form a “ticket committee” to sell the event to their friends.

3. Get in touch with some of the younger corporations in your area. A lot of the agencies and tech firms in Baltimore host happy hours for their clients once a month. Offer your museum as a venue for these types of events. It gets these younger folks through your doors and hopefully intrigued by your exhibits.

4. Utilize social networking. For instance, I manage a group of history buffs on meetup.com. Every month we go to a museum or historic site as a group. Find the meetup leaders in your area for your museum genre, but don’t overlook singles groups, networking groups, book clubs, and other who could use your museum as a venue instead of a straight tour.

I found this December post on Darrin Dickey’s Brandingfire blog sad but unfortunately indicative of what is happening to a lot of historic museums: two museums in Baltimore (my hometown) and one near Richmond closed their doors last fall. The reason: they couldn’t afford to stay open due to a decrease in attendance and support.

Darrin points to the growing importance of operating museums as a business as an important way to stem this problem. This concept has been the focus of many of our discussions in my “Museums in the Digital Age” class over the past two weeks. With incredible foresight, museum specialist John Cotton Dana predicted the need for this type of business model as he was writing in the early 20th century. He emphasized the importance of appealing to the museum’s audience, for without an audience, who was the museum serving?

Sometimes museums get so focused on their bottom line that they start to go after the low-hanging fruit - programming grants offered by governments and grant-making institutions. However, many programming grants come with specific requirements, such as serving underprivileged or minority populations. While these requirements do make sense, they aren’t always practical for the small history museum to incorporate. If the museum is in a homogeneous population area, advertising to minorities in different locations could get extremely expensive.

Along the same lines, it is important to consider whether the programming the grant is funding even relates to your museum’s mission. If there isn’t a strong connection, you may just be diverting your resources to sustain a program that isn’t helping your bottom line. In the meantime, your programs that do serve your mission can suffer.

One of the key tenants of CEOs in corporations is to keep their eyes on their goals. They don’t incorporate programs that don’t serve their customers, because the programs won’t make money and they will waste resources. Museums needs to think like CEOs. Keep your eye on your mission and let it guide you.

This is an interesting story that caught my eye…Alexander Hamilton’s 206-year-old home was moved about 2 blocks to a new location in Harlem over the weekend. See the story here. The home, called “Hamilton Grange,” is managed by the National Park Service, whose goals with this move are to fully restore the exterior of the home, allowing visitors to see how the home looked during Hamilton’s residence there from 1804 to 1806. Alexander Hamilton was the first United States Secretary of the Treasury, a Founding Father, economist, and political philosopher, whose life ended in 1806 when he was killed in a dual with Aaron Burr.

Here are some photos of the move from Yahoo.

An article from the Institute of Museum and Library Services points out that students can lose up to 2 1/2 months worth of learning over the summer holiday if they do not read or participate in other educational activities. The article sites several initiatives libraries and museums across the nation are undertaking to help parents engage their kids during the summer months. Reading clubs are popular in libraries, and several have tied their reading program in with a local museum, so kids earn free admission to the museum through the number of books they read. Many museums offer day camps and other learning activities to kids throughout the summer.

History museums have a wide range of opportunities to engage kids. Consider partnering with your local library and starting a day camp program - or even an afternoon program if day camp seems too daunting - to engage kids and build relationships with their parents that will last all year long.