Beyond launch: Museum videos and YouTube

A range of museums talk about their YouTube experiences and lessons.

Hirshorn and YouTube:

• No money, no people, no tome therefore needed to be very resourceful
  
• Lesson learned – time to get creative! Use interns, start out small, show there is some demand then resources will follow
  
• Contract restriction as – part of the Federal Government and had some existing contracts but are working around this
  

Exploratorium and YouTube:

• Took some footage of an exhibit on the floor which is one of the most popular
  
• Teasers and trailers for events coming up – not their primary focus
  
• Involved their Explainers– training them, giving them cameras and mikes and sending them out on the floor. This has worked very well and well-polished videos were the resut
  
• Learned need to have person to keep an eye on the channel and the social networking – one of many things they do
  

San Jose Museum of Art and YouTube:

• Viral marketing – used bloggers that picked up the video and started a life of its own
  
• Embed videos wherever you can – throughout your site, not just one area
  

Indianapolis Museum of Art and YouTube:

• Started two years ago with marketing video/trailer, always have one that accompanies an exhibition
  
• Instructional videos have been the most used- they are a series and target a relatively small but very specific audience
  
• Not searching for art museum or the IMA – they are searching differently (e.g. calligraphy, origami)
  
• Finding blogs and linking to them helps, finding other videos on YouTube that deal with similar content
  
• Instructional videos are very easy (and cheap!) to produce
  

MoMA and YouTube:

• Register your name as it may already be taken!
  
• Started with an intern and borrowed camera – you don't need a lot to start with
  
• Comments allow visitors to share experience and expertise in an open environment – although they may not be what you want to hear!
  
• Started with an open policy and allowed everything there (except spam)
  
• Enabling expression and dialogue
  
• It's so easy – but is it?? The technology is getting better
  
• makeinternettv.org is a helpful site when making videos
  
• Numbers of views is not the only metric to use- need to get quality numbers, understand that people don't read online and YouTube in particular
  
• Put links on top of video description rather than below
  
• Also have a good comment policy