Black History Month Museum Marketing Musings
Monday, February 14, 2011 at 8:00AM February is Black History Month, and a good time to draw attention to the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, the world's largest museum of its kind. Indeed, this is traditionally our busiest month of the year, and one of heightened attention to our mission, programming and overall awareness.
With that focus, and the direction of our new Director of Education, Malika Pryor, the museum is featuring some stellar event programming over the next few weeks, including poetry performances by 5-time Night at the Apollo champion jessica Care moore and world-renowned poets Dr. Haki Madhubuti and Sonia Sanchez, a blues tribute concert with Detroit's own Thornetta Davis and Memphis' Queen of Beale Street Ms. Ruby Wilson, and what will surely be a spectacular African drumming and dance celebration with the Washington, D.C.-based performing arts company Farafina Kan. We've also rolled out a custom Facebook app thanks to our good friends at Taza Interactive, and been steadily optimizing our online presence and building momentum with regular rich-media content creation and curation.
Being tasked with marketing for a major cultural institution is a fascinating endeavor. One the one hand, not a day goes by that I don't receive unsolicited advice about what, where and how we should be marketed (or to be specific, advertised - usually questioning why we're not spending money we don't have on advertising, whether on someone's favorite television or radio stations, or why we should be by the relentless sales reps themselves). On the other, during times of naturally heightened awareness about black history (MLK Day, Black History Month, Kwanzaa), the attention and media coverage come easily, and so does the praise about what a great job the communications department is doing! Of course, we stay abreast of the latest research and best practices as they relate to marketing overall, but a lot of what we do is based upon common sense and the tried-and-true: making sure our communications are of high quality, regular rhythm and relentless consistency. And so we keep the machine running: the comprehensive annual reports, the quarterly membership newsletters, the monthly eZines, the weekly email updates, the daily social media posts, and the continuous flow of press releases, blog articles, community calendar and website event updates. Though we'd like to take special credit for those times of heightened interest, all we can really accept kudos for is keeping the engine churning so that when the public or media look our way, they find everything they need with ease.
The proof is in the earned media: during the past few weeks alone we've been on television, radio and print media dozens of times, not only because of the steady stream of information we put out, but also by being available when the media calls. Inevitably, the unsolicited advice and criticism will return during our slower times when arts, culture and history aren't as prevalent in the media's mind. But for now, we'll take the praise!
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