Socially Networked Membership

Shelley Bernstein and Will Cary are doing something they say no museum has ever done before.

They’ve launched a special membership program for the Brooklyn Museum called 1stfans, and describe it as a socially networked membership.

Traditionally, museum memberships involve one-way communication between the institution and the donor. With the introduction of 1stfans, Bernstein and Cary intend to foster free-flowing conversations and relationships between members themselves as well as museum staff and artists.

Check out their blog posts and videos explaining exactly what they have in mind for their members.

1stfans is aimed at the museum's Target First Saturday-goers who are net-savvy, and want more. The low cost -- $20 – is perfect for the younger art enthusiast, and if you’re already a member, receiving 1stfan benefits for an additional $20 doesn’t seem onerous.

1stfans have the opportunity to socialize with each other plus artists and curators in exclusive events on First Saturdays. Their kick-off, scheduled for January 3, sounds amazing. Swoon and her studio will set up a live printing event. Members are invited to bring their own paper and walk away with an original print by Swoon.

According to research by Ximena Varela and Elizabeth McClearn, young people want and need discounts to participate in the arts, but feel treated like second-class citizens. What a way to make younger members feel like VIPs!

1stfans has a number of social media channels. The Brooklyn Museum will communicate with members through facebook, flickr, and an enewsletter. They’ll be invited to an exclusive twitter feed enabling them to hear directly from artists. There’s an open call for artists to work with the twitter feed.

Says Bernstein:

Given that the crowd at Target First Saturday tends to be connected via the web, we started to discuss ways to utilize the social web to get to know and communicate with this new group. Rather than relying on the standard e-mail newsletter (which is more of a standard push relationship), why not reach out and go directly to these new members in places where they happen to be and deliver updates tailored to their own preferences. Just as important as delivering content is the idea that this is a social exchange, where we can better get to know the 1stfans at the same time.

I love the idea of meeting people where they already are. And I love how this program will mesh art, artists, and curators with the social aspect of arts participation that is so important but so often ignored. You’ll get a print from freaking Swoon and watch it happen! With your friends!

(And by the way, check out this fantastic post from Museum 2.0, where I originally saw the Brooklyn Museum story, on creating meaningful memberships.)

I don’t even live in NY and I joined because I’m so curious about how this is going to play out. Oh, did I mention that when I joined, the site used Google Checkout, so it took about 2 seconds?

Brilliant.

More on museum marketing and such:

• Hipsters Take Over Museum

• Rijksmuseum has Widget, Kicks Butt

• Art on Demand

Photo of cosplayer at Target First Saturday by Brooklyn Museum on flickr. Some rights reserved.

Comments

[Shelley]

I love that you love Google Checkout! It was a first for us and we really wanted to try it figuring that it would make checkout really simple. Yay! Thanks for posting!

[Maryann Devine]

Oh, my pleasure, Shelley, it sounds like an amazing program, and I'm very interested to see what you come up with!

[An Xiao]

I'm a big fan of 1stfans as well!

[Maryann Devine]

That's great, An! I'm curious to learn what you think of the program as it moves forward.