Visual imagery is the currency of arts and culture. From the visceral and affecting first moment you lay eyes on a real life El-Salahi, to that sensory slap round the face you get from witnessing an hour-long session from Hofesh Shechter, the eyes really are the window to the soul … and artistic appreciation.
Of course, not everything cultural is visual, but when you think about all those paintings, sculptures, artefacts and performances, what better way for a venue to show it off than to parade it via an image. Why use words to describe a particular piece, when a picture paints a thousand of them? Not to mention what's going on out of frame or behind the scenes in your organisation – audiences love a backstory.
Instagram and Pinterest are two of the most popular tools to choose from when thinking about socially spreading imagery online. Not only do they have their own communities, but large ones at that: Instagram recently revealed it has more than 150 million monthly active users; Pinterest meanwhile was estimated to have 70 million active users in July 2013.
That's a huge potential audience to engage. But how?
We want to host an online discussion to answer just that, and any other question you might have about image-sharing social networks – Snapchat for example, which sees more daily photos exchanged than Facebook.
It's a social media surgery, if you will, for arts and cultural organisations. So join us from noon on Tuesday 26 November to talk image sharing in the arts.
Panel
Hannah Waldram, community manager for Europe, Instagram
Neil Bates, marketing specialist, Europeana Foundation
Neil's job is to find and develop new ways for people to explore, learn about, share and play with their cultural heritage. Working with a range of partners, Neil has used social media to present some of Europe's most important cultural collections in new and different ways. @nbates86
Adrian Murphy and Vicky Pearce, Horniman Museum and Gardens
Adrian is the digital media manager for Horniman Museum and Gardens, where Vicky is digital assistant. They are responsible for managing and overseeing the website, as well as social media activity across a range of networks. @acediscovery and @vicky_pearce
Linda Spurdle, digital development manager, Birmingham Museums
Linda is digital development manager at Birmingham Museums and leads on digital strategy and public-facing digital developments, including online presence, social media activity and mobile. @lspurdle
Maria Gilbert, senior writer and editor, J. Paul Getty Museum
Maria directs the creation and distribution of the Getty Museum's interpretive material about its collection and related programs, on-site and online. She is also responsible for the museum's presence on external platforms such as Pinterest, which interact with an aggregate audience of over 1.5 million. @marialgilbert and @GettyMuseum
Kajsa Hartig, digital navigator, Nordiska Museet
Kajsa is a digital navigator at the new media department of Nordiska Museet in Stockholm, Sweden – she develops projects for on site, online and mobile experiences, action plans for digital development, chairs the museum's social media editors group and is responsible for evaluation of social media presence. @kajsahartig
Catch up with all the comments from our first surgery on Twitter
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