Content of the week #2: Dirty birds

A lot of people are envious of big museums. They actually have staff. Some of them have dedicated video producers. David Attenborough is on speed dial.

But what you don’t see is the institutional inertia and bureaucracy, as well as the politics of Getting Anything Done which might put the institution at the slightest of risk.

So I was pleasantly surprised to see this video on London’s Natural History Museum’s Instagram:

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A post shared by Natural History Museum, London (@natural_history_museum)

The video starts with an imagined Whatsapp conversation between the social media manager and ‘Bossman’, a play on the now-dead trend of ‘social media gone rogue’-type posts. Except in this case it’s the Bossman who has gone rogue, suggesting a last-ditch attempt to get people interested in an exhibition.

The conversation strikes at the core of what almost everyone working in social media has grappled with – how to make an outwardly boring thing interesting. The exhibition itself may actually be fascinating, but it’s on a topic most people would dismiss out of hand. In this case, it’s the NHM’s exhibition Birds: Brilliant and Bizarre.

So how do you cut through the noise?

What follows is a series of fast zooms on various birds, with text like ‘hooters!’, ‘REALLY HUGE tits!’ and ‘some real bustards’.

It works because the Whatsapp conversation is unique enough to hook you in, the dirty birds are funny, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome. It’s also got the classic surprise value of ‘august institution posting something you don’t expect.’

Now, this is a gamble. I’ll take a punt and say most people in the UK will have visited the NHM or at least know of it, and when you’re in that position your audience does kind of become ‘the whole country’, including all of their different attitudes and opinions.

But while a lot of people have different opinions, I think it’s safe to say most people do at least have a sense of humour. And that’s why this approach for ‘difficult’ exhibitions works – it appeals to something universal and emotional.

And while this post is cheeky, it doesn’t go beyond the pale. It’s a little bit ‘Carry On NHM’, a bit of a nudge and a wink. Even if it isn’t your cup of tea I doubt many people are writing letters to the trustees about it.

Ultimately, this post did it’s job. I wouldn’t have bothered watching this video and learning the NHM had this exhibition on if it wasn’t a) different and b) funny. Based on the comments and its 10k Likes, it seems the audience agree.

What else I’m thinking about

I’ve been doing this freelance thing for about a month now.

I was in two minds about focusing on social media. It’s something that’s low down on organisational priorities, usually understaffed and ends up being subsumed by content strategy and audience development anyway.

But the people and places I’ve worked for so far have all grasped that social media is pretty good at reaching and engaging with a lot of people actually, when you do it well. And what I’ve been working on so far has cemented that three of the main challenges always seem to be:

• Doing the bloody thing. Most social media strategies can identify a challenge and what you need to do to meet it. But if you don’t have the staff to do the work then there’s no point (see my article on the 3 skills we need).
• Having permission. People doing social media are often still junior, and it takes a lot of confidence to push through your ideas. Giving that permission requires a strategy telling you why it’s worth taking those risks, and procedures to keep check on the too wild ideas.
• Focus. A lot of what we think we should be posting about performs terribly. We need the data, vision and confidence to focus on what social media rewards: community interaction, reactivity and personality.

What I’m…

🎮 Playing: I’ve got stuck into Stellaris again, a grand strategy game set in space where you can conquer the stars, create a space UN or consume everyone because you are a devouring bug mass consciousness. Despite how terrible I am at it I keep getting drawn back in because you can make Halo ringworlds.

📺 Watching: We just finished Netflix’s The Perfect Couple, a kind of less-good White Lotus. We correctly identified the killer fairly early on by applying the murder mystery rule: which character has had a bit – but not a lot – of screentime and doesn’t have an obvious motive. (Spoiler: it’s not the maid)