In this seminar from MoMA PS1’s Rebecca Taylor (now of Fitz & Co.), you will learn about the power and potential for arts organisations to use visual materials on social channels make connections with their audiences. Presented as part of Culture Republic’s digital development programme, AmbITion Scotland, the talk is a practical exploration of four key channels for sharing digital images – Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram and Flickr.

Rebecca’s talk answers three core issues that arise for arts marketers who may be considering using more images or starting to use one of the four services:

1. Scarcity of human resources – do you and your team have the time to use the social media channel well?
2. How to be responsible about copyright restrictions?
3. What about the sanctity of the art object? Will sharing images dilute the visitor experience?

Limited resources require prioritising the most relevant channels for your organisation. This may be the most popular channels, but it may also include the channels where you get the most interaction or attract important demographics. Pre-planning content is core to answering the challenge of limited time resources. Some prompts around which you might plan content: holidays; artists’ birthdays (especially those your organisation has worked with or who’s work is in your collections); behind the scenes snapshots from rehearsals or show installations; go macro and zoom in on interesting details from a piece of work; hook into the zeitgeist and get involved in the conversation if its relevant; share helpful information (transport disruptions or changes in opening hours); draw on your history share stories that trigger remembrance and nostalgia. Finally, Rebecca advises the use of a ‘home base’ a social media management tool (ex: Hoot Suite or similar) that will allow you to post to multiple channels at once and repurpose image content for different audiences on different channels.

On copyright Rebecca advises arts marketers to work with their lawyers and explore whether social sharing of images may fall under fair use. Get some basic advice. If the work is not owned by your institution, explore adding clauses to contracts when negotiating the loan to allow you to use images of the work online. If you are working with living artists, see if they’ll work with you to make something totally new to share online.

When it comes to the sanctity of the art object Rebecca points out that a digital representation will never take the place of the real thing. She gives the example of the Mona Lisa, which draws seven million visitors per year but which is merchandised and reproduced more than any other piece of visual art. People already know what the Mona Lisa looks like when the make the trip to see the work in person but this does not reduce their desire to see it for themselves.

Images & videos are consistently the most engaged with content on social media channels, most shared, most commented on, most liked and most clicked. If you are considering which social sites are right for your organisation to engage on, this seminar will offer insights from practical use of how you might make your content work in new spaces.