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?