Calling all Twitter users who work in heritage conservation, humanities research, or digital art history: find us at @GettyHub.

This morning the account formerly known as @TheGetty became the new @GettyHub, where we’ll focus on news and resources of interest to the conservation and scholarly communities: new technology tools, collections and exhibitions research, grant and training opportunities, scholarly events, digital and print publications, and updates on staff work behind the scenes.

Our aim is to provide a single social media destination that helps meet your needs as arts and heritage professionals, bringing together trustworthy, interdisciplinary resources from across the Getty to support your research, practice, and teaching. (If you’re interested in the complete story, see the project plan.)

The Twitter complements our existing Facebook presences for art historians and conservation professionals, and represents the Getty’s growing efforts to support scholars and professionals through our blog and social media outreach.

A User-Focused Approach to Digital

The new Twitter account reflects a more user-focused approach to social media at the Getty. Over the last year—with the assistance of Forrester Research, which worked with us to conduct an in-depth social media audit—we’ve clarified and prioritized our target audiences for social media and made user needs the starting point for content development.

Over the past year teams across the Getty have supported this move to user-centered social media by creating digital personas, developing social media archetypes, and conducting research on scholars’ use of social and digital tools. A big thank you to all the generous colleagues in the field who have participated in this work and offered their invaluable insights.

As at most institutions, the Getty’s social media accounts have long reflected our organizational structure. But many users have told us that they’re confused about “which Getty” to follow. The new Twitter will test an engagement model based around audiences and their interests and include resources from the entire Getty organization—the Conservation Institute, Research Institute, Foundation, Museum, and Publications.

As part of this Twitter rethink we’ve also scrutinized several of our other social media platforms to find points of user confusion and content overlap. So in addition to the new Twitter account, we’re also making a few other changes today:

  • One Tumblr instead of two. The Getty Publications Tumblr is coming over to the Getty Tumblr: book nerds and art nerds unite.
  • No more Flickr. We’ve devoted more resources to visual storytelling on Instagram and this blog over the last few years—find us there instead.
  • One fewer Facebook page. We’ve merged the Getty Trust Facebook page into the Getty Museum Facebook. At the Museum page you can find exhibition and collection highlights, live videos, and conversations about art and art history.
  • One fewer Instagram account. Follow the @GettyMuseum to explore, art, exhibitions, and events across the campus, and follow the @GettyVilla to keep up to date all things antiquities.

Next Steps: More Listening to You

This Twitter is a pilot project; an experimental, small-scale effort to test assumptions, learn, and inform future efforts. We look forward to improving as we experiment and, most of all, to listening to your feedback, the professionals who study, interpret, conserve, and teach art and heritage.

If you work or pursue advanced study in research or conservation, use Twitter as part of your work, and have a question, suggestion, or gripe, please leave a comment here, DM us, or email us directly. And if you would be willing to give us an hour of your time in person or via Skype for a user-research interview, please drop us a note. We’d love to hear from you.

Print Friendly