In this really short episode, Amy walks you through a Do-it-Yourself communications audit for your museum. Doing a communications audit will give you that birds eye view of all of the places you use your brand messaging for your museum.

Resources Mentioned:

Blog Post: https://www.lovemymuseum.com/blog/audit-your-messaging

Book a Call: https://bit.ly/20wAK

Free Resources:

Museum Metrics Tracker Template: https://bit.ly/amysmuseummetrics

Planning Calendar for Museums: https://bit.ly/2024museumcal

People First Framework Guide for Museums: https://bit.ly/4PSguide_lovemymuseum

Check out the website at: www.lovemymuseum.com

On this really short episode, I'm going to walk you through a DIY

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communications audit for your museum.

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Doing a communications audit will

give you that birds eye view of

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all of the places you use your

brand messaging for your museum.

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Let's get started.

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Welcome to the Love my Museum podcast.

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I'm your host, Amy Kehs

and I love museums.

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I also happen to be a brand

strategist and communications expert.

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Today, we're going to audit your

museum's external communications.

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This is going to be a really short

episode, because I want you to be

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able to refer back to this episode

whenever you need to do this.

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The first thing that I do for

all of my consulting clients

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is a communications audit.

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Depending on the client, this may include

both internal and external communications.

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Today, we're only looking

at external communications.

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A communications audit is something

that you can do on your own though.

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And today I'm going to walk you

through part of what I do so

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that you can do it yourself.

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To see if your brand messaging is.

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Clear consistent, confident

and staying on track.

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Before we begin.

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Let's talk about what we are auditing.

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We are looking at your external

communications, all of the

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ways that you talk to anyone

outside your museum's walls.

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Now there are several audiences

that this might include.

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Examples might be your past visitors.

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Potential visitors.

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The media.

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Donors.

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Community leaders and

other government officials.

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And for each audience, you should

identify how you communicate with them.

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What you communicate?

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How often.

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And who's responsible.

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For example.

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Maybe you have a newsletter that

goes out to your donors once a

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quarter and Sally is responsible.

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Even just making that decision and putting

that in writing is going to help you out.

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Maybe you have a media list that you

send a calendar of events to each month

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and Bob is responsible for that now,

ideally, Sally and Bob our meeting so

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that they can coordinate that content.

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And they can repurpose it so that

they aren't replicating efforts.

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You get the idea.

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Now if that just blew your mind and

this isn't something that you are

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already doing, please send me an email

or book a call so that we can talk.

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Okay.

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Now back to your communications audit.

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I'm going to tell you the

basics of what I look at.

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And what I do, the areas that we are

going to look at today and what you

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should start with are your website,social

media platforms, media relations,

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email marketing and long form content.

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Long form content would be like a

blog or YouTube channel or a podcast.

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You'll look across these platforms.

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To see if your brand messaging is

clear, consistent, and confident.

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Let's take a few minutes

and talk about each one.

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So let's start with your website.

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My recommendation is when you're

looking at your website, try to

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pretend that you are a visitor who

has never been to your museum before.

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But you're planning your first

visit and you go to the website.

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From the website.

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Can you easily plan that visit?

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Is there information about hours

admission amenities on site.

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Accommodations.

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Onsite.

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Directions parking special events.

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Do you have information on there

for large groups like school groups?

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Is there a place to sign up for your

email list on your website so you

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can continue that communication.

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What if the visitor can't come in person?

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Do you have information about your

exhibits or research on the website?

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Do you have a calendar of events?

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Spend some time on your website and try

to put yourself into that visitor shoes.

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You also might want to compare your

website to other museums of a similar

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size . What are some things that they do.

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That maybe would enhance your

visitor experience on your website.

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Next let's look at your social media.

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How often are you posting?

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Do you have a clear brand voice?

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Is your brand consistent?

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Are you using.

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The correct fonts and colors in

the graphics on your platforms.

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Do you have content pillars that you use?

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To write your content.

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Do you engage with your followers?

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If they leave you a comment?

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Do you post consistently?

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Posting consistently and engaging

with your followers will lead

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to growth on your accounts.

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Do you borrow audiences by maybe

planning collaboration, posts with

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other organizations in your town?

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I have a client that I

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And when we started, they had

3,400 followers on Instagram.

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By getting them a good content calendar.

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By getting their brand

messaging organized.

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Being consistent and having a

dedicated social media manager.

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Their audience doubled.

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Now let's take those same questions

that we asked about social media and

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let's look at your email marketing.

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Whether it is with your general

audience list or a media list.

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Are you consistent?

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Are you providing value to your audience?

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Do you stay on message and

use your brand messaging?

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Are you asking the people on your list

for feedback and how are you collecting?

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That information and growing your list.

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Last on our list to audit

is long form content.

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Do you have a place where you can dive

a bit deeper into your mission or talk

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about the things in your collection?

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Can your curators share about your

collection on a blog or in a podcast?

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In addition to your own platforms, how

can you borrow audiences and maybe.

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Write a guest blog or be a

guest on a podcast or maybe

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speak in front of a group.

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While you're looking at all of these

places that you use, your words,

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you might come across older content

that you could repurpose, or you

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could use on a different platform.

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Also start thinking of a system.

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To help you repurpose the content

that you're already generating.

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And be sure to prioritize your audiences.

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Externally your donors and the

media should be the first to know

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when it comes to new information.

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So, how did you do, did you find

some of the content that is on

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brand that maybe you can repurpose.

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Did you find some gaps in the

consistency or the clarity?

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of what you're saying?

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Come up with a plan.

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of how to improve your

system over the next 90 days.

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And talk about it at your next.

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staff meeting.

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Remember I made this episode short.

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So if you need to go back and listen

again, you can, you can also find

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this list of questions on my website.

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And the link to that is in the show notes.

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If you still have questions about

doing a communications audit,

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book, a call to talk to me.

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that link will be in

the show notes as well.

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Or you can send me an email.

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You can also jump into the Love my Museum

Facebook group for museum professionals.

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It's a brand new group and we will be

talking about a lot of things in there.

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Like communications audits.

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I really hope this was helpful.

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Please, let me know if you have any

questions and I'll see you next time.