On April 8th I had the pleasure of interviewing Catherine White who is the Assistant Manager of Education and Programming at the International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago. An undergraduate of Connecticut College with an MA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Catherine has worked in various museums in China and the US before landing in her current position. One of her many tasks at the IMSS is maintaining the social media accounts and this was the main focus of our interview.
The IMSS is a small museum so we began by discussing the multitasking that one has to do when there are just a handful of employees. We both laughed about our small museum experience which included so many things – managing the membership, volunteer, internship programs, writing newsletters, and “on top of that facilitating, taking out the trash when necessary and all those kinds of other duties.” She went over the platforms they use for marketing and outreach, such as iContact for newsletters and WordPress for the website. Social media took up the rest of our interview: “We have Facebook, Instagram, Twitter which are the big three. A little bit on LinkedIn but that never really took off.” The #HistMed (history of medicine) hashtag and community is very popular on Pinterest and that is another platform that may be in the works for the IMSS.
We discussed the importance of tagging posts properly so they can be seen by your audience. She shared her social media guide with me which had a multitude of hashtags that she uses on her posts and the themes for each day of the week. For example, on Mondays “people want motivation to get them through the first day of the work week, so commiserating with feeling tired etc. or sharing fun & interesting imagery/facts“ was a recommendation. Some suggested hashtags were #MorbidMonday, #MuseumMonday and #MotivationalMonday. Her guide/social media calendar was thoughtfully compiled so an intern or volunteer could easily perform posting duties.
Catherine went over the importance of knowing who your audience is and responding to their needs. She has found that there is an intersection of people who enjoy science/medical history and people who are into morbid curiosities. So using the appropriate tags on social media (mostly Twitter and Instagram) ensures that these audiences are served.
We discussed the ways a website is used vs. how social media is used. Her observation is that the website is for people who are looking for logistical facts, such as hours and location to plan their visit. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. on the other hand are a great way “to use social media as a medium for education. So that you didn’t necessarily have to come through our doors to get a little piece of medical history.”
One of the challenges we discussed was in regards to negativity and hateful commenters on social media. An example she recounted for me was about an article she posted during Pride month. The post honored a famous medical professional who was also the first “out” lesbian in the US military and there was backlash in the comments about queer people serving in the military. Catherine was clear that while she does agree that people have a right to voice their opinion, she will “hide” hate speech and not engage with these individuals.
As previously mentioned, Catherine shared her social media strategies with me which included the social media calendar and a social media market research/strategy report. The calendar was a thorough guide to what kind of stories to post and what the best days and tags are appropriate for them. Her marketing report outlined goals (such as increasing engagement and traffic), the benefits of advertising on various platforms, and helpful information from a third party website (https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-advertising-strategy/) regarding the cost and benefits of paying for advertising on sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
I thoroughly enjoyed spending time chatting with Catherine. One of the things I mentioned at the close of our interview is that younger millennials such as herself are so well suited to managing social media because they have grown up online and have the personality for it. Her enthusiasm for her projects at the International Museum of Surgical Science made for a very fun and engaging interview.
It’s so interesting to hear another professional at a science-focused museum! It’s true that museum professionals are a tight-knit community. During my internship at the Liberty Science Center, I was tasked with investigating the living requirements for a specific jellyfish species. My advisor reached out to her friend at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, who happened to be one of my prior professors! I’ve found that, especially through these interview assignments, this community is so willing to help out. From Catherine’s experience, it seems like social media is a great tool to not only connect with users, but also fellow museums!
Hi Jenna,
First, I just wanted to say yay, because she is an Asian Studies major and she spent time in Beijing — which I can relate to! I also totally understood her comments about the difficulties staying in China because of the visa situation. I was lucky to have a full-time position, so my company paid for my visa, but it was hard for my news assistant. The interview was quite interesting. I appreciated the part of the conversation where both of you were talking about how “typical” museum jobs involve wearing many different hats! She also was the first person I’ve heard so far who mentioned Pinterest — that’s interesting, especially in light of the #hismed followers. I appreciated how she used social media to provide information about medical science, even if it did not relate directly to something in the collection. I also appreciated how she noted that with her museum’s digital strategy, “what works for us doesn’t work for everyone.”
Yes!!! Surgical science is a love of mine for both it’s educational and morbid implications. I love that Catherine spoke about how popular the museum was on sites like Pinterest – I feel like she was speaking to me directly.
I follow a London Surgical Museum on Twitter that posts Trivia questions regularly about historic surgical equipment and each items respective purpose. I, personally, don’t interact with the posts often because nine times out of ten I don’t know what the items are (I have an interest in medical science but not that dedicated).
I had discussed some social media policies with a previous coworker of mine and she had said that she follows a very strict schedule of posting that varied based on the type of post and the targeted audience. Tagging was one thing that I thought was interesting because I have heard dueling arguments about using it/not using it and how to use it. It was at one point accepted to tag everything, now it is less acceptable to tag everything and only the essentials should be tagged.
It sounds like you really enjoyed your interview and her enthusiasm seems to have made things go quite a bit smoother and made it much more enjoyable!
This was a great interview, you can really feel the enthusiasm and it was very relatable to hear the conversation about small organizations being all hands on deck. From a personal perspective, this interview was really great to listen to as I run the social media of a very small organization without much experience. I’m always trying to learn more about how others perform this role. I also loved the insight on how you reach different types of people with different platforms and they serve different purposes. I’ve never really considered museums utilizing pinterest before. This was all particularly relevant as we have been developing our outreach strategies.
Hey Jenna,
The International Museum of Surgical Science sounds so interesting! I found it surprising that it was a smaller museum but I am glad you could connect with White as you both have experience in smaller museums. I am really glad that White talked about what happens when museums receive negative or hateful comments on their social media accounts. I think that this is not discussed enough so I appreciated that she was comfortable to share her experience. Great interview, I really enjoyed it!
She has a competitive spirit. I especially resonated with her point that you need to have experiences to land highly sought after positions. A typical museum job often requires you to wear many hats and do whatever is necessary. Even taking out the trash. Online exhibits, if nothing else, are giving people access if they can’t get to the brick and mortar . I found it most interesting that people are being offended by gender posts, and that is a very real part of her day to deal with that, managing the haters… hide them if they use hate speech. Digital strategies are specific to your organization and what works for one doesn’t work for others.
Interesting interview! I found her distinction between the web and social media usage curious, as she suggests users found social media more ‘educational’ than the web, which they deferred to for logistical information (hours of operation, etc.). I wonder if that is an indicator that museumwebsites need to incorporate a mechanism for more spontaneous engagement, perhaps with other viewers or curators with whom they could converse?
I enjoyed hearing about Catherine’ museum experience from an institution with a scientific focus on medical history. I liked how candid she is about museum professionals contributing to many roles within the museum as well.