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What the heck does a social media manager actually do?

Blanton Museum of Art Sand Mandala 01.13.2013“I get paid to be on Facebook.”

This is normally how I introduce my job to new people. Admittedly, it’s a statement designed to be provocative. Shock, awe, horror—these are all responses I’ve encountered. Almost everyone uses Facebook these days, from your high school friend who just got engaged, to your weird aunt inviting you to play “Candy Crush Saga.” But how is Facebook used for brands as opposed to individuals?

This is where social media managers (or in my case, Digital Content Strategists) come in. By now you’ve seen the flood of advertising that invades your newsfeed, from local businesses to global brands. These ads are often annoying, invasive, and sometimes creepy—how does Facebook know you were looking to buy a new washing machine? If I do my job right, the posts you see from the Blanton on Facebook won’t be any of those things. Maybe you’ll come across one about an exhibition that’s closing soon, and reminded you to dash in before the last day. Maybe you stumble across a music program that you can catch on your lunch break. When I say I get paid to be on Facebook, what I really mean is I get paid to make the Blanton relevant to you and your interests, in between all the other digital noise that you encounter online.

Blanton Museum of Art Sand Mandala 01.13.2013As the Blanton’s Digital Content Strategist, I am in charge of all the Blanton’s social media profiles, as well as our Blog, website, and other places we exist online. If you see a post online from the Blanton, I wrote it (and probably spent way too long trying to make it fit into 140 characters for Twitter). Currently, the Blanton posts regularly to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, Google+, and Snapchat, in addition to weekly blogs. The bulk of my time is spent brainstorming, writing, finding images for, and posting all the content you see from the Blanton. Each network has its own personality, and I alter the tone of voice the Blanton writes in to fit our different profiles.

Facebook is our “local” network. 70% of our 18,000+ followers on Facebook live in Texas, and of that, 85% live in Austin. This means that I post a lot of events, volunteer opportunities, and programs that are held at the museum, knowing the audience is local. Twitter is a more global audience, so I tend to share news articles and other art-world happenings—that way, someone who lives in England and is interested in art can still interact with the Blanton and find us useful, even if they haven’t visited the museum. Twitter is also a great platform for conversation. On Third Thursdays, I regularly get questions from people asking what kind of pizza is on the menu for our happy hour wine and pizza special. I’ll run down to the café, talk to the chefs, then come back up to my office to reply. I love seeing people tweet about their experiences at the museum. Our recent exhibition, Brain Trash, was well received, and getting comments from visitors online always makes my (and the curators’!) day.

https://twitter.com/dinoraaaaa/status/551922851297497088

A post on the Blanton's instagram for #MusBuilding
A post on the Blanton’s instagram for #MusBuilding

Instagram, an image-based platform, is used to share photos of exhibitions and behind-the-scenes happenings at the museum. Even without a formal photography background, I try my best to compose and edit shots to make them aesthetically pleasing—the Gallery Assistants have gotten used to me spending 30 minutes or more in the museum, trying to capture the perfect photo on my iPhone. This oftentimes involves contorting myself into weird positions, laying on the floor, or standing still for 10 minutes to get just the right video (if you work in social media, you literally cannot have any shame). Once I’m back at my desk, I spend at least an hour going through photos taken on Instagram at the Blanton, commenting on great posts, sharing information, or responding to people’s experiences—for anyone passing my desk, it looks like I’m goofing off on my phone, but I swear I’m working!

By far my favorite platform to post on is the Blanton’s Snapchat, which I’ve written about previously for the Blanton blog. A mobile app where users can send disappearing photos to each other, Snapchat lets me be playful and “caption” works of art in the museum in a 21st century voice. Sometimes the best way to break up a monotonous work day is to wander around the galleries and try to image what Karen from Mean Girls would say if she was a painting from the 1600s.

superbowlOf course, just like any job, there are a lot of boring parts. I routinely look at and update spreadsheets with analytics—for example, how many people visited the museum website in a month, the most popular pages, how many times an exhibition hashtag was used—which guides my posting strategy. If a Facebook post I thought was going to be well-received wasn’t (or vice-versa!), I try to figure out why things didn’t go as planned. Social media is extremely ephemeral, so being able to change your strategy and revise what isn’t working is an important part of the job. It’s also important to be able to respond to real-time events. During last year’s Super Bowl, the Red Hot Chili Peppers played at halftime. Coincidentally, we just happened to have an ancient Andean bowl with chili peppers on display for our exhibition Between Mountains and Sea. Watching the halftime show, I made the connection and fired off a tweet—to this day I consider it one of my shining moments.

So if you’re at the Blanton wandering through the galleries and have your phone handy, share your experience in a tweet or Instagram and tag @blantonmuseum. If I’m at my desk, you should get a favorite or a like from the museum right away—and now you’ll know who clicked the button.

Alie Cline is the Digital Content Strategist at the Blanton and holds BAs in Art History and English from the University of Texas at Austin. You can find her online as the voice behind all the Blanton’s social media profiles, or on Twitter at @aliecline.

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