8/24/2018 Success Strategies for Engaging Audiences with Museum Website Blogs | MW2014: Museums and the Web

Museums and the Web 2014

MW2014: Museums and the Web 2014

The annual conference of Museums and the Web | April 2-5, 2014 | Baltimore, MD, USA

Success Strategies for Engaging Audiences

with Museum Website Blogs

Scott Bomboy, National Constitution Center, USA, , , , Rebecca Sherman, Bluecadet Interactive, USA

Abstract
Using editorial and marketing techniques from other disciplines, bloggers on museum websites can create engaging
content that attracts readers for all of a museum’s digital properties, including the Web, mobile, and tablet-based
audiences.

Keywords: blog, Web, website, digital, content

1. Overview
The world of blogging has changed much in the past decade, from a showcase for people with opinions to a platform
for content experts to directly reach businesses and consumers. Some blogs reach wide consumer audiences. For
example, the Huffington Post started as a blog, and it reaches an estimated monthly audience of 105 million people
(Alexa, 2014). TMZ, another popular website that has retained a blog format, reaches 25 million people per month,
while the popular technical blogs Mashable, Lifehacker, and Gizmodo each reach more than 15 million people monthly
(Alexa, 2014).

Other blogs are more targeted at audiences that can influence everything from law and politics to how people watch
sports. The legal profession is a prime example of a business sector that uses blogs extensively and effectively to
reach customers, promote concepts, and engage in dialogue. Legal blogs are content-driven and use low-cost blog
publishing systems.

Museums as a business sector have some commonality with the legal profession, since scholars play a significant
role in developing content physically at museums and, to some extent, online. Some museums have also had success
using social media tools, including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and Pinterest, to promote exhibits and add new
dimensions to the visitation experience.

In a special 2011 report, the New York Times profiled how local museums leveraged social media and websites: “A
decade ago, museum Web sites were little more than online advertisements, displaying an institution’s hours,
directions, admission prices and exhibitions. … But evolving technology has created new opportunities, and [social
media managers] are becoming critical players in helping museums exploit them” (Vogel, 2011). Vogel (2011) also
said that “engagement” was a key goal for these more-aggressive digital programs, but “the projects at the Brooklyn
Museum and the Guggenheim are exceptions. Most of what goes on the walls of museums is still carefully organized
by scholars. And the goal for all this technology remains getting people through their doors.”

But what are the roles of blogs in the museum community? Are blogs tools to drive online visitor engagement, or
general attendance at museums? Or do they best serve as a way for museum-based scholars and experts, like their
legal counterparts, to exchange in a dialogue of ideas with their peers and other interested parties?

This paper will not attempt to answer all of those questions, since the answers are dependent on the mission
statements of the nearly eighteen thousand museums in the United States alone. But the paper will focus on three
critical tactics—content strategy, content production, and audience development—specific to blogs, and how these
tactics can expand the digital presence of museum-based digital properties.

2. What is a blog, and do I really need one for my museum?

Blogs have been part of the Internet scene and digital world since the late 1990s. Originally called “weblogs,” they
emerged in their current format in 1999 with the popularity of automated blogging software, particularly Blogger.
Herring et al. (2005) stated, “Blogs represent a means for presenting introspective thinking, a record of daily events, a

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tool for political mobilization, a journalistic project, an open-ended literary experiment, a constant exhibition of images
and videos and, in many cases, a combination of all of the above.”

The popularity of blogging grew steadily in the days before social media, and in 2004 the word “blog” was honored by
Merriam-Webster as the “word of the year.” In later years, the emergence of MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter as
social media services would give digital users easier platforms to use as a way of communicating first-person ideas.
But blogs have remained popular as a long-form way to express thoughts.

WordPress, one of the largest providers of blog publishing systems, estimated in February 2014 that 409 million
people viewed more than 14.4 billion pages each month, just on blogs hosted on the free WordPress.com website.
(WordPress.com, 2014). That included 40 million blog posts during the past month. In March 2012, Nielsen/McKinsey
(2012) estimated that the “blogosphere” stood at 173 million blogs, including users of the Tumblr service, compared
with 35.7 million in October 2006 .

Blogs are here to stay. But do you really need a blog for your museum to successfully execute your mission statement
and business strategy? On one level, as was clear with the example of blogs in the legal world, blogs can fill a very
important niche in the role of communicating ideas to a targeted expert audience.However, data from the Pew
Research Internet Project showed barriers to organizations in the arts sector, in a survey of 1,244 arts organizations
that have received funds from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) between 2006 and 2011 (Pew Research
Center, 2013). Pew Research Center (2013) said only 50 percent of arts organizations maintained blogs on their
websites, as of early 2013. The reality in the Pew study is that some organizations might not have the resources or
funding for technology initiatives. Pew indicated that while 68 percent of the organizations had paid staff members
(either full-time or part-time) maintaining a website, only 36 percent had a staff member whose primary responsibility
was website management. About 90 percent of organizations in the study had social media accounts, which pose a
much lower technical barrier than blogs.

However, blogs offer a richness of content unavailable on social media platforms, and they can promote social media
sites maintained by museums. Blogs also offer a museum with a website a valuable way to reach a wider audience
through search engine optimization and, in particular, a blog’s inclusion in Google search.

A July 2013 study showed that Google, primarily through its search services, accounted for 25 percent of all Internet
traffic (Labovitz, 2013). Most blog publishing systems are automatically included in Google search results, including
search results for Android mobile devices, and many blog publishing platforms include mobile-optimized sites.

Google rewards Google-friendly content sources by placing their content higher in search results pages. Successful
blogging also requires frequent updates to properly reach new audiences—dependent on the staffing limitations of
museums.

This conundrum was summed up in a blog post from the School of Advanced Study at the University of London from
Kathryn Box, marketing officer for the Manchester Museum (Box, 2014):

There is no doubt that blogging is a useful pursuit for academics. There are numerous professional and personal
reasons why it is beneficial. This does indeed mean that in Marketing we are asking quite a lot from our curators, on
top of their already heavy work load. … Over time blogs have become easier and easier to set up, but time is not
wasted making sure it is user-friendly and enticing to the reader. It is important for academics to stay relevant to
their audience and most importantly, are active.

3. Content strategy as a linchpin for success

The decision to move forward with, or to keep maintaining, a blog is a balancing test of several factors: internal
staffing resources to post blogs and support a publishing platform; the need to grow website and social media traffic;
the wish to promote a museum’s brand through a positive presentation of staff to peers and a wider audience; and the
benefits of a low-cost, low-maintenance product that also works well with mobile and tablets devices.

For museums that move forward with a blogging program, the real technical barriers and costs can be low, depending
on how tightly integrated a blog is with the museum’s website and social media products. Staffing issues and the
ability to publish frequently are key factors that need to be addressed up front, because as was stated in the Pew
study, digital property managers wear many hats, and a successful blog will need a time commitment and the work of
several people at a museum.

In a study published for Museums and the Web, Spadaccini and Sebastian (2007) conducted the first survey of
higher-profile museum bloggers (with 60 percent of known museum bloggers participating), and they found that
success came with more frequent publishing: “There are some interesting common features that most of the top-

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ranked museum blogs share. The first is that these sites tend to post more frequently (avg 37.6 per month) than the
average museum blogs (10.17 per month).” But the greatest concerns were over sustainability, and fewer than 20
percent of respondents had funding for their blogs. Spadaccini and Sebastian (2007) used the website Technorati as a
benchmark for ranking influential museum blogs. Since 2009, Technorati has drastically changed its ranking algorithm,
greatly reducing its usability as a tool to research museum blogs.

For this paper, two other research services were consulted to get a sense of which major museum websites use
blogs, and how effective those blogs are in attracting readership. Alexa tracks over 30 million websites worldwide,
using relationships with companies that maintain Web browsers. Compete.com is another Internet research service
that offers detailed information about websites. It lists very detailed information for about 405 websites in its Museums
and Galleries sector, and more data on museum websites is included in a miscellaneous category.

A looked-at combined usage date from January 2014 from the Alexa and Compete services shows how some larger
museum websites leverage blogs to drive visitors to their websites (Table 1). The table shows museum websites with
blog visitation data in Alexa, estimated monthly visitors for those websites from Compete.com, and an approximate
number of visitors who use blogs hosted on those websites.

Included in this list are two websites not in Compete.com’s list of museum websites. The website for Botany Photo of
The Day was the focus of research in Spadaccini and Sebastian (2007), while the National Constitution Center
website was also listed as a Miscellaneous website, and it will be discussed in detail in the conclusion of this paper.

Website Visitors Who Use Blog Monthly Visitors ** Monthly

Monthly (percent)* Visitors to
Blog
Botany Photo of the Day* 6.78 20,907 1,417

Metropolitan Museum of Art 1.35 131,015 1,769

Getty Research Institute 11.93 118,044 14,083

The British Museum 7.35 61,796 4,542

Guggenheim Museum 5.52 34,441 1,901

Walker Art Center 20.01 12,771 2,555

National Trust for Historic 24.15 33,621 8,119

Preservation
National Constitution Center 46.97 136,495 64,112

*Source: Alexa
**Source: Compete.com

Table 1: Museum blogs visitation patterns, January 2014

In comparison, referral traffic to these websites from Google and Facebook shows interesting trends (Table 2).
According to Shareaholic (2013), Google search accounted for about 40 percent of direct referral traffic to websites in
October 2012, with Facebook surging to 12 percent of traffic referrals for the same time period.

Website Traffic from Google Traffic from Facebook (percent)

(percent)
Botany Photo of The Day 32.9 4.0
Metropolitan Museum of Art 33.4 5.5
Getty Research Institute 26.2 4.9
The British Museum 35.0 4.5
Guggenheim Museum 37.6 3.7
National Trust for Historic Preservation 31.9 4.8
Walker Art Center 27.2 5.0
National Constitution Center 33.9 1.3
Table 2: Referral traffic from Google and Facebook to selected museum websites, January 2014 (Source: Alexa)

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Three museum blogs with lower Google referrals rates—the Getty Research Institute, National Trust for Historic
Preservation, and Walker Art Center—had high referral rates for their blogs, making them less dependent on Google
and more likely to develop return visitors using their blogs.

Another factor in considering a content strategy is trust. A widely cited survey from 2001 commissioned by the
American Association of Museums found that 87 percent of those surveyed saw museums as “as one of the most
trustworthy sources of objective information” (Lake Snell Perry & Associates, 2001). In 2006, an Institute for Museum
and Library Services (IMLS) survey of American adults concluded that “museums evoke consistent, extraordinary
public trust among diverse adult users” (Interconnections, 2008).

Museums would seem to be in a unique position to capitalize on the residual trust people hold in them as institutions,
as the general public becomes more receptive to trusting digital content sources. These points underlie the foundation
of an overall content strategy, which has been defined by Internet marketers as “plans for the creation, publication,
and governance of useful, usable content” (Halverson, 2008). An expanded definition of this for museums includes the
consideration of internal stakeholders (who will need to dedicate resources for a blog) and the inclusion of measurable
outcomes to determine if the museum’s goals are being met. In short, creating engaging content is a worthy goal, but
doing it with internal consensus support with a way to measure success is even better.

4. Key factors: Content production and audience development

Using the above examples of successful museum blogs and techniques to leverage search and social media, we will
focus on a blog content strategy that showcases trusted experts using low-cost, low-technology blogging tools. After a
brief overview of these tools and techniques for content production and audience development, we will look at
examples from the author’s blog, which reaches two audiences: a group of content experts in the museum’s core
content field and a much-wider general audience with an interest in the museum’s core content field.

Content production is the “before” process of successful blogging. It involves defining an audience for the blog posts;
the preparation of content that is easily accessible to search engines like Google; ensuring content is easily shared on
social media services like Facebook and Twitter; and ensuring content authors are comfortable with publishing tools,
and can meet a pre-defined publishing schedule.

Audience development is the “after” process of successful blogging. It involves analysis of blog usage statistics, such
as the number of readers, what they read, when they read it, and how long they take to read a blog post; the
development of distribution channels or partnerships; the cultivation of internal “content champions” to promote the
utility of the blog within the museum; and a plan to improve the content and the technology of the blog (including
social media and e-mail) to better refine content and how it reaches targeted audiences.

Museums face a challenge when choosing an audience to target. In Spadaccini and Sebastian (2007), twenty-nine of
fifty-three museums identified museum professionals as their primary audience, while twenty-eight museums named
the general public as their primary audience. (Note: survey had some respondents identify two primary audiences.)

Blogging platforms offer many options to museums, and these higher-profile museum blogs not only benefit from
multiple bloggers, but also from content management systems like Joomla and Drupal, which require significant
technical development and support (and design services). A more typical museum blog installation can be found at
the UK’s National Media Museum, which uses the low-cost (and in some cases, free) WordPress publishing system.
WordPress is available as a blog publishing in two versions: a “self-hosted” version that can be installed at an Internet
Service Provider or on a local server; and a version hosted at Automatic, the parent company of WordPress. A
broader implementation of a museum using WordPress is the blog for the Getty Research Institute, the Getty Iris,
which was cited above.

By one estimate, WordPress in either form is used to produce about 20 percent of the top 10 million websites and 60
percent of websites that use content management systems to publish content (Johnson, 2013). Both versions of
WordPress work well with Google search, and they offer “plug-ins” or content modules that allow a person with basic
computer skills to add social media buttons and links to blog pages and posts. WordPress also supports Google
Analytics, the ever-growing (and free) statistics system that is one key to audience development. WordPress also
allows the person managing the blog to assign different roles to authors, set up publishing schedules, time when blog
posts are published, and allow other people in a museum to review and approve content. The user interface also
resembles e-mail interfaces commonly used at work and home, so there isn’t a high technical barrier for authors who
aren’t tech savvy.

To be sure, other blog platforms are available to museums, such as Blogger, Joomla, Drupal, and Tumblr. But any
product you choose should be easy to use, easy to host, easy to integrate with Google’s search and statistics
services, and easy to tie into social media services.

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In early research about the effectiveness of blogging platforms, researchers at the International Journal of Human-
Computer Studies came to a conclusion later confirmed by the explosive growth in blog software use. Du and Wagner
(2006) said “our analysis indicates that weblog success is associated with the type of blogging tool used. We argue
that technology characteristics affect the presentation and organization of weblog content, as well as the social
interaction between bloggers, and in turn, affect weblog success or popularity improvement.” With this ease-of-use
issue out of the way, a museum can then concentrate on producing good content.

What are the hallmarks of good blog content? As stated earlier in this paper, trustworthiness is important, as well as a
perception of expertise by the reader about a blog post. A regular blogging schedule and timeliness are also
important, since readers who follow your work will want to read it. An understanding of basic headline writing helps
with the ranking of blog headlines in Google search and increases the likelihood of a reader clicking through to read
an entire blog post. The qualities of good journalism and storytelling have value, including an active voice when
appropriate, a point of view (also when appropriate), a concise writing style, and an overall consistent personality that
constitutes a blogger’s “voice.”

The most basic question related to all of these editorial fine points is: Should blog content be written in the first or third
person? The Getty Iris blog (or online magazine, as its publishers prefer) strives for a first-person experience as part
of its content strategy and mission statement. “The goal of The Iris is to share. Through first-person perspectives, in-
depth articles, and videos, we strive to offer news, stories, and discoveries about art, conservation, research, and
philanthropy and to provide an entertaining and substantive behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of the
Getty”(Getty Iris, n.d.).

The National Constitution Center’s blog has a different mission statement: “to disseminate information about the
United States Constitution on a non-partisan basis in order to increase the awareness and understanding of the
Constitution among the American people” (National Constitution Center, n.d.). Its blog, Constitution Daily, is mostly
presented in the third person, when blog posts appear from its staff, and it also publishes first-person commentaries
as part of its mission to facilitate debate about constitutional issues.

The way blog posts are written is also a key element of audience development. As noted above, Google search plays
a significant role in driving traffic to websites and blogs. By using a Google-friendly publishing platform, blog
publishers have a smoother road to reaching targeted and broad audiences. At the heart of Google’s business model
is its search algorithm, the mostly secret formula Google uses to control where content appears on its search result
pages. There are widely known basic precepts about the type of content Google rewards with higher search-result
positions. Content that is “stuffed” with keywords is penalized or discarded; content that is written in a natural way with
some length (at least 500 words) appears higher in Google search results pages. Blog and websites that are updated
often appear higher in Google search.

The use of links within blog posts is another audience development key. There is much debate about how Google
rewards or penalizes content with many links embedded in blog posts. If possible, blog publishers should link to other
recent blog posts.

Referral information is one of the handful of statistics that bloggers should focus on in the Google Analytics suite of
analysis tools. That suite had grown extensively in the past year, but the basic metrics that should be followed haven’t
changed. Key metrics include unique visitors, how often unique visitors use a site monthly, incoming referrals from
search engines and from direct links (such as other blogs), time on site, and where visitors come from physically
(locally and nationally). Page views are a part of the overall equation in determining how long a visitor stays on a
website.

Finally, internal and external partnerships are critical components of any blog audience development strategy. The
willingness and ability of people who might independently control a website and social media platforms inside a
museum could play a role in building blog traffic. By including links from the blog to these properties, all three parts of
a total digital strategy—Web, mobile, and social media—can be coordinated. Likewise, the main website home page
and the museum Facebook and Twitter accounts should link to a blog to build traffic for all three properties.

In the business of Internet marketing, this is known as the virtuous circle. Research from the British-based firm WPP,
the world’s largest advertising company, shows the advantage of understanding of the virtuous circle: the presence of
reinforcing links to a company’s products in search, the Web, and social media (WPP, 2011).

The virtuous circle suggests that brands that listen and adapt in search and social media … can build on their loyalty
efforts. If brands can engage fluently in the social sphere and encourage quality content in category blogs, and in
video and micro-commentaries about their products, then the expansion of brand engagement can occur in the
social sphere.

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WPP (2011) said that consumers use search alone for 50 percent in the product-decision process, while just 1 percent
use social media alone. However, 13 percent of people use blogs in the decision-making process. The value is in
connecting the three properties: “And interplay between these channels have evolved to a point that shows search
and social media are powerful channels individually, but in combination they create a virtuous circle of knowledge and
opportunity.”

5. Case study: Growing a museum-based blog

The National Constitution Center faced an issue similar to the one encountered by the Getty two years ago. Like the
Getty, the National Constitution Center is an institution with a broad mandate, with a museum at the core of its
educational efforts. Both institutions serve a varied audience through exhibitions, scholarship, research, and public
programs.

The Center’s blog faced many of the content and distribution problems discussed above. It was started as a project
that was museum-focused in January 2011. The blog was named Constitution Daily, and it contained a mix of posts
about exhibits, local events, current constitutional issues, guest commentaries, and historical facts. Facility staff
provided the content, and technical support was outsourced to an Internet marketing firm, which hired a second firm to
design a blog hosted at a third company using WordPress. The Internet marketing firm also established a content
strategy that included partnership agreements with the Huffington Post and Yahoo! News. The Internet marketing firm
and a manager in the Center’s program department managed the blog in a partnership agreement.

In April 2012, the Center hired a full-time editor with an extensive Internet content and technical background to replace
the Internet marketing firm. The editor was the one dedicated employee to the blog, with one program staffer providing
part-time editorial support and one outside blogger writing two blog posts a week. During May 2012, the editor
evaluated the use of Center staff as content providers; the lack of referral traffic from distribution partners; the blog’s
hosting structure; and the blog’s success in meeting institutional goals.

After consulting with the Center’s CEO and vice president of external affairs, the editor put a new blog content
strategy into place, reflecting the content development and audience development techniques stated above. The
blog’s primary goals became to spread brand awareness nationally to a general audience, grow readership in
educational and academic circles, and provide promotional support for exhibitions and programs.

The new content model contained several major changes. Internal staffers were used as “consultants” to generate
blog post ideas that were executed by the blog’s staff. The internal staffers were released from required blog-writing
duties, but they had input into the product.

The blog was evaluated for its “search friendliness” with Google, and search engine optimization changes were made.
The blog’s editor also ensured that blog posts were optimized with Google-friendly keywords, and the content was
published on a regular schedule at the same time daily.

The editor also made two partnership decisions: The relationship with the Huffington Post was dropped, due to
concerns about its editorial stance conflicting with the Center’s non-partisan mandate, and a local content partnership
was established with Philly.com, the region’s largest website.

The new content production processed focused on three areas: the creation of timely content about constitutional
issues; writing new blog posts directly related the Center’s educational focus on a historical civic calendar; and
publicizing posts that promoted the opening of new exhibits and the scheduling of public programs. The one paid
regular contributor was retained as a noted constitutional expert. The editor, part-time editor, and several unpaid guest
commentators wrote blog posts. The number of blog posts per month rose from 40 posts in April 2012 to 54 posts in
July 2012 to 60 posts in November 2012. By the end of 2012, blog visitation had increased about 500 percent for the
year.

Currently, Constitution Daily averages 60 blog posts per month, with leading constitutional scholars contributing
content for free. The Center’s investment in quality journalism attracts leading academics, some of whom also appear
in live programs at the Center. Others take part in the Center’s new podcasting program, which features debates on
constitutional issues hosted by the Center’s CEO, legal scholar Jeffrey Rosen.

The podcasts are produced by the blog’s staff using the Podbean podcast service. Two podcasts in early 2014 had
more than fifteen thousand listeners, and the podcasts average between three thousand and seven thousand listens
through Podbean’s distribution channels, which include iTunes.

A key to growing Constitution Daily’s audience was developing a relationship with Yahoo! News to feature general
interest content related to broad constitutional issues, politics, and the Supreme Court, all of which carry the National

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Constitution Center brand. Yahoo! News is the largest news website in the United States, and its content is closely
integrated with the Yahoo! e-mail service. In 2013, Constitution Daily averaged 40,821 referrals each month from
Yahoo News! back to the blog. The catalyst behind this audience-development technique was the addition of three
links to related Constitution Daily blog posts at the end of each post, starting in June 2013. The extra time to add the
links: one minute per blog post.

6. Conclusions
Since 2007, when the first direct research was done on blog use by museums, the way institutions communicate with
audiences online has changed with the growth of social media and the spread of digital content to mobile and tablet
platforms. The fundamentals of reaching existing audiences and attracting new audiences haven’t changed as greatly.
Quality, trusted content, delivered when and where readers expect it, is a hallmark of good, sound marketing,
journalism, and scholarship.

Museums face an interesting challenge because they are thought leaders and a highly trusted brand, as we have see
from industry studies. But museums also haven’t widely embraced blogs or been able to leverage blogs to grow their
websites. Part of this problem is the real issue of budgetary and staffing restraints inside museums. While social
media platforms can be cheaper to maintain and can reach some potential visitors, members, and donors, they don’t
offer the depth of content that can drive more people to a museum’s website, blog, and other social media accounts.

The virtuous circle approach, as defined by the advertising giant WPP (which makes one-third of the world’s
advertising media buys), has great potential for museum digital properties. A content strategy that uses the virtuous
circle approach involves content production and audience development that coordinate the efforts of a museum’s
website, social media, and blog. The blog plays a linchpin role because it is a low-maintenance, low-cost way to get
content into Google search, the biggest source of referral traffic on the Internet.

In the future, blogs could also play a bigger role in getting content on mobile and tablet devices. The Google Android
operating system was on 81 percent of all mobile devices sold in the third quarter of 2014 (IDC, 2013). Popular blog
publishing platforms like WordPress and Google’s Blogger system are optimized for mobile use, and they can be
easily adapted to perform in a “responsive” manner to appear in an easy-to-use format on a tablet or mobile phone.

These factors shouldn’t be discounted by museums that want to get more involved in mobile publishing, yet lack the
time and money to build custom mobile applications.

Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Jeffrey Rosen and Robin Morris from the National Constitution Center for their advice
and support, and Rebecca Sherman from Blue Cadet design studios for introducing him to the Museums and the Web
project, and her design work for the presentation of this paper.

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Cite as:
. "Success Strategies for Engaging Audiences with Museum Website Blogs." MW2014: Museums and the Web 2014.
Published February 24, 2014. Consulted August 24, 2018.
https://mw2014.museumsandtheweb.com/paper/success-strategies-for-engaging-audiences-with-museum-website-
blogs/

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