Cultural centers recognize the importance of implementing a comprehensive digital strategy

On Saturday, June 8, we went to León (Spain) to monitor the “Third Meeting on Social Networks in Museums and Art Centers” organized by the MUSAC, a contemporary art museum in this city. Before reviewing what some tweeters considered “obvious, but essential”, we would like to highlight one fact: cultural centers are beginning to acknowledge the importance of implementing a comprehensive digital strategy. Today we will focus on how to apply such a strategy. We have a collection of tweets on this matter on our Storify account.

To begin, three large museums displayed their work online. The MACBA, the Thyssen Museum and the Prado are among the pioneers in digital innovation. They have learned from their mistakes and successes and recognize the difficulty of organizing large units, which is why they highlight the importance of good teamwork. For museums that took note,  the important thing now is to identify their own weaknesses and strengths and to get to work.

These are the key elements in a digital roadmap, beyond social networking:

– We should  refer to digital ecosystems instead of digital environments, ie a community of agents that relate to each other; not just a space. Some participants demanded more opportunities for interaction.

– The number of site visits are not the only way to measure the success of a digital strategy.

– The need to no longer make a distinction between offline and online material was the most applauded idea. Undertaking digital projects is just as important as starting  exhibition projects in physical spaces.

– We must learn to reuse, disseminate, disclose, interact, etc.

– We should not make online material complicated. The strategy should be a multi-channel one, involving different uses for each platform and different goals for each one of them.

The technology companies that were present made ​​it clear that there is an ample supply of solutions. To this we add a demanding public who wants to “experience” the museums. The final section was reserved for mobile applications, now on the cusp of innovation in museums. In this area we found very good proposals, but also that cultural spaces were unfamiliar with them. The key is to create clearly defined apps with a life of their own.