I became a Facebook convert rather late when I joined the board of the Ontario Archaeological Society. We have a Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/2241248392/ ), as at the time the plan was that it would be used more for member communication and discussion. However, the page now goes well beyond that and serves the functions of public outreach and communication with our members. To this end we put up links to news articles relevant to Ontario and beyond, information for public and member based field opportunities, Chapter events, and public events. We also use it to post pictures about our activities, relevant documents such as letters of protest and as a place to link information and education about archaeology in Ontario.
Clearly we could do a lot of this on our website, however the immediacy of Facebook has been extremely useful, and I particularly like being able to use it to initiate discussion. We also have a yahoo group, and LinkedIn group that tend to be used by members only and are not particularly useful for outreach.
However, one of the challenges for our organization has been a changing demographic that includes older members who are not as comfortable with internet based communication, so we still provide a paper newsletter. I have also found that nothing replaces being physically present at heritage and community events and that handing out hard copy promotional material is still very important. After doing an event, I always note an increase in our Facebook group membership!
I notice no one has mentioned Twitter yet, this to can be an incredibly useful tool to provide immediate and responsive outreach, albeit one that can take a bit more dedication.
Meagan Brooks
-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Robert Hunter
Sent: June-18-13 4:55 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Facebook archaeology, an example from Savannah, Georgia
Facebook is an incredible resource..especially with the ability to post and disseminate photos. Our Ceramics in America FB has over 3300 followers and I try to post new information daily. It is so easy to broadcast "live" any new research or discovery. I reach anywhere between 17,000 and 42,000 people a week. I have a hard time understanding why those with extensive collections are not making use of the tool.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ceramics-in-America/240354719316500?ref=ts&fref=ts
-----Original Message-----
From: Rita Elliott <[log in to unmask]>
To: HISTARCH <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tue, Jun 18, 2013 1:19 pm
Subject: Facebook archaeology, an example from Savannah, Georgia
Facebook versus face time…Do archaeologists need Facebook? Is it a public outreach necessity in the 21st century? We can weigh in on using Facebook (FB) on one particular project, the Abercorn Archaeology site in the Savannah, Georgia area. (See “Abercorn archaeology” on FB.) This project was funded by the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) and conducted by New South Associates (NSA) of Stone Mountain, Georgia. The project has a major public outreach focus including: public tours (four 90-minute tours daily), a full-time public archaeologist, interpretive signage, a web site, a Facebook page, a children’s book, and an educators’ curriculum. Fieldwork is complete, but we continue to update the Facebook page with additional information from the fieldwork, laboratory analysis, and other behind-the-scenes efforts.
Cursory analysis suggests that the FB page is an important tool for this project. Many of the 1,098 visitors who took guided tours learned about the opportunity through the FB page. By including photographs (by permission) of visitors to the site in FB albums we increased their feelings of involvement and generated a larger audience when these posting were shared by visitors with family and friends. Many of our most numerous post “hits” (1,500 and 1,700 unique visitors) were generated to a greater degree when the posts went viral (shared or picked up by others) as opposed to hits by people who already friended us on FB. We also try to vary the posts by covering archaeologists working, “before and after” excavation sequences of features with interpretation, occasional artifact shots, general preservation and archaeology issues, and non-fieldwork such as research, curation, etc. The FB page has also provided a useful forum for gently showing the “how and why” of ar chaeology from a documentation versus looting perspective and as insights in our answers to questions from FB messaging and post comments. The main challenges … keeping viewer’s attention in between “exciting field discoveries”
and FB posts, and following the completion of fieldwork. What about you? Have you had good, bad, or indifferent experiences with using FB as a public outreach tool? Have you tried ways to expand the reach of FB and/or use it in a unique way?
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