Social Media at the Salem Witch Museum

Social media has become in integral part of any museum's public image.  Social media provides institutions with a forum to relay information about collections, events, and scholarship to its' audiences in a platform they are already on.  There are numerous social media platforms; and therefore, just as many ways museums can use those platforms to engage and interact with audiences.  

Many museums engage with many
social media platforms to reach users 

For example, the Brooklyn Museum in New York uses Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Flickr to connect with audiences but in a way that promotes and showcases community engagement.  On the other hand, the Getty Museum in California uses Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Tumblr, and Pinterest to highlight the collection and encourage art scholarship. 

However, these are examples of two large and well-funded institutions.  Smaller institutions, like the Salem Witch Museum in Massachusetts, have to make tough decisions about which social media platforms to invest resources in and will make the greatest impact to its audiences. 

Shows like "Bewitched" encouraged
interest in witches and Salem's Witch Trials

The Salem Witch Museum opened in 1972, inspired by the growing interest in Salem's witch trials due to the popularity of Arthur Miller's The Crucible and television shows like "Bewitched."  The museum documents changing interpretations of the word "witch," the truth behind the stereotype, witchcraft practice today and the phenomenon of witch hunting.  

In many ways, the Salem Witch Museum is nontraditional and lacks a lot of the online documentation many expect from a cultural heritage institution.  Looking through the website, I could not locate a mission statement let alone a social media policy nor could I even find a link to a collection catalog (or at least one made available for public viewing).  However, the site indicated that the Salem Witch Museum has very strong ties to the community, which was reinforced in the social media platforms I investigated.  

Blog: Notes & Notions

Blogs are a great way to publish content that stands alone but is still relevant to the museum or are temporal- promotions for upcoming events or changes in operating hours.  The Salem Witch Museum's blog, "Notes and Notions," offers a great resource for museum and local information as well as historical insight on witchcraft and the Salem Witch Trials.  

Example of blog post on "Notes and Notions,"
many posts investigate historical aspects of
Salem and the witch trials

Blog posts fall into the following categories: ancestry/descendants, behind the scenes, book reviews, education and outreach, historic essex county, historic salem, local products, salem witch trials, the accused, the afflicted, visiting salem, and witch hunts through history.  Some of the blog posts promote local events (i.e. sponsoring community events like the Salem Film Festival, the Mass Poetry Festival and the Salem Literary Fest) and offer a behind the sciences look into the museum.  However, most of the blog posts have an educational and historical component, offering a deeper look into different aspects that relate to witchcraft and the Salem Witch Trials.  For example, one blog post looked deeper into the definition of "Spectral Evidence" and how it was used in the trials.  Another provided a biography of "Sarah Hood Bassett (1657-1721)," an accused woman in the trials, for a descendant looking for more information.  

Websites can be time consuming and tricky to update, so smaller institutions rely on blogs to explore various topics of interest and publish information that would be of interest to its audience.  Also, the casual nature of blog posts makes them more approachable than publishing on the website.  Topics can be quirky and off-beat, and posts can be written in everyday vernacular.  Posts should be published often to maximize the impact of the medium and keep people interested.  Unfortunately, posts on "Notes & Notions" have become sporadic at best, the last written on July 31st.  

Facebook

Of all the platforms I examined, Facebook was updated the most often and really showcased the museum's place within the Salem community.  In relation to the museum itself, some of the posts shared photographs of visitors and staff or promoted museum events.  However, surprisingly little of the content related to historical investigation or the museum's collection, and most of the content was not original.  Some posts were links to relevant articles in the media ("Ultimate Halloween Bucket List," "Inside Hocus Pocus") and others advertised community events (Haunted Bizarre Bazaar, Halloween Witch Ride).  

Many posts on Facebook engage the community
 even if it doesn't directly relate to the museum

In fact, a large number of posts related to events in Salem and seem to place the Salem Witch Museum as a prominent figure within the city.  More than anything, the museum has embraced the "community" aspect of Facebook, bringing together a group of people that love Halloween, Salem, and the museum.  And posts on Facebook reflect the diversity of the museum's followers, and try to engage people even if it isn't explicitly connected to the museum.  This is a smart tactic because it opens up the type of content the museum can post, keeping people interested and wanting to visit Salem.  The Salem Witch Museum becomes part of the "Salem experience," and if people can go to the Salem Witch Museum and attend a local event, they are more than likely to make the trip to Salem.   

Facebook is a great platform for the Salem Witch Museum to work on because it is a place people already engage with and doesn't require constant original content to keep relevant.  In some ways, sharing content is better because followers get the basic information or at least become aware of the information and can go to the original source for more.  Also, Facebook is useful for sharing great videos and fun photographs, which can be trickier to do on other platforms. The museum's profile essentially becomes a hub for people to get community information in a space they already visit and stay connected.  

Twitter

The Salem Witch Museum is fairly active on Twitter for a smaller institution, and posts tweets every two to three days.  Once again, a large portion of content is unoriginal.  Some retweets are from recent visitors to the museum, which is a great way to acknowledge patron support.  Some are retweets from official profiles like the Salem State Arts, the Hawthorne Hotel in Salem, and the Salem Archives, which don't always relate to the museum but events in Salem. 

The Salem Witch Museum is more than an institution
 but has deeper connections within the community

Even more than on Facebook, the museum's Twitter account gives the sense that the Salem Witch Museum is heavily connected to the community not only as a public figure but as dependent on the community's success to thrive as an institution.  The Salem Witch Museum encourages people to patron local businesses and attend local events to ensure the survival of the Salem community.  Also, an interesting thing I found when going through the museum's Twitter feed was a tweet on October 3rd that referenced the museum as a "Salem attraction."  It caught my attention because most museums stress their institutional and educational value, not how entertaining they are.  It gives great insight into how the museum sees itself within the community: as part of the fun.  The Twitter feed shows that the Salem Witch Museum enjoys being part of the community and what it has to offer, which makes people want to visit and enjoy the experience. 

Twitter is a very popular social media platform and is great for getting quick little blurbs of information to people and directly on their phones.  Good Twitter accounts tweet at least everyday, if not a couple of times a day, without being repetitive or boring.  Not all institutions can accomplish this because they may not have enough to say or the man power to manage every social media account.  For the Salem Witch Museum, it's a little bit of both, but the museum does a good job of keeping tweets it does post relevant to followers.  

Conclusion

Not all museums stand alone as defenders of our cultural heritage.  Some institutions. like the Salem Witch Museum, reflect and are part of a community identity.  In this case, promoting the Salem community through social media is just as important and promoting the museum itself.  This is an institution that has established an identity: dedicated to evolving perceptions of the word "witch" and as part of a quirky community that values having a good time.  The Salem Witch Museum's use of social media reinforces that identity while engaging it's audience.  The blog is used to provide more historical information on witchcraft and the Salem Witch Trials, while Facebook and Twitter show that the museum is more than an institution but part of the community and invites everyone to participate.