This week we’re looking at how social media is being deployed in museums. The idea with our Social Media Case Studies series is to analyze how social media is actually being used by organizations, which we hope will provide inspiration or assistance to others. We started with Brooklyn Museum yesterday. Despite being impressed by the presence of Brooklyn Museum on many social media platforms, I concluded that the museum is spreading itself too thin. I think it would be better off focusing on deeper engagement on fewer channels. Some of the feedback suggested that I was overly critical. That wasn’t the intention, however I do think constructive criticism motivates us all to find more creative ways to use social media.
Today we’re going to review a service that creatively uses video. Called ArtBabble, it’s an art video service run by the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA). Want to know some best practices for integrating video into your social media plans? Look no further…
With a tagline of “Play Art Loud,” ArtBabble is kind of a portal for video art content. Although it was created by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, many of the America’s top museums and (some from overseas) are listed as partners. ArtBabble was launched in April 2009.
There are three main sections: Series, Channels, Artists.
The Series section features series on a certain theme, such as a series called Making Art from the J. Paul Getty Museum. That one features 7 instructive videos, on topics ranging from Gem Carving to Making a Spanish Polychrome Sculpture. Personally, I’m planning to check out the series entitled Abstract Expressionist New York.
The Channels are topic-focused sections. For example Asian Art features over 100 videos.
Finally, the Artist section lists out individual artists. For example I discovered an excellent video about the late San Francisco artist Margaret Kilgallen.
One of the best features in ArtBabble is that each section (Series, Channel, Artist) has its own RSS feed, so you can subscribe to video content in a very granular way. It also features all of the usual social touches, such as ratings, comments and tag clouds.
ArtBabble is an elegantly designed site with a lot of compelling content in it. Perhaps the biggest lesson here for other organizations is that the video content on ArtBabble comes from dozens of art museums, so it is varied and regularly updated. It’s not always possible to collaborate with others on content, but for a social site it’s always a plus.
Let us know what you think of ArtBabble in the comments, also any other site that you’d like to give a shout-out to for its usage of video.
