Museums offer great opportunities to network and show off the fantastic collection you hold. Holding events in your museum lets you meet new teachers/educators as well as other people in your community interested in what you have to offer.
The Wells Fargo History Museum in Philadelphia holds about three events a month. These events vary from brief luncheons to large-scale evening events. At all of these events, people are networking, chatting about your collection and are guaranteed to leave talking about their experience in your museum. What better marketing tool could you use than what you already have at your fingertips?
Museum events tend to bring together not only people already interested in the sciences, arts or history but also people who never realized they could enjoy all that a museum offers.
Events do not have to be costly, time-consuming projects. Just order a few cookie trays and a few bottles of water. Let people enjoy your museum and network with people who share the same interests. Positive word-of-mouth is one of the best tools we can use to increase visitation and get people talking about our museum.
Next time you think to yourself, “How do I market my museum without exceeding my budget?”, order some milk and cookies and host a laid-back networking event in your museum!
What cost-effective ideas do you have to drive visitation and improve networking in your museum?
Candice Helgeson is the Museum Manager at the Wells Fargo History Museum in Philadelphia, PA, and serves on the AASLH Corporate History Affinity Group Committee.
