Including...weird medieval guys, Instagram trying to be more like TikTok and Culture24's upcoming workshops.
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Digital Snapshot, bringing you all the latest digital news, ideas, tips and guidance for the arts, culture, museums and heritage world.
I mention a Twitter account called Weird Medieval Guys below, which has over 400k followers by posting weird guys from medieval manuscripts. It reminds me that we have the right content, we know what the internet likes, but too often organisations are focusing on what is important for them, not what's important for the internet.
(Come back in a fortnight for more half-baked thoughts that gloss over a ton of nuances in how we all work.)
Latest News
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Ofcom has released their annual Online Nation report, looking at what people are doing online and their attitudes and experiences.
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TikTok is the fastest growing news source for UK adults, which is...fun.
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Instagram is trying to be more like TikTok. People don't like it. People hate it. So Instagram did a u-turn.
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The National Gallery has released The Keeper Council on Roblox, an online games platform. I caught up with their Head of Digital Services Lawrence Chiles about their design process, and would highly recommend attending any conferences where he talks about the project.
Useful / bookmarkable
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Culture24 is running in-person workshops across the UK in September, designed for leaders and boards. It's a genuinely insightful, inspiring programme that any leader would benefit from so please send it on to anyone you think would be interested!
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The Rise of Gru was/is a viral sensation, and that was a conscious choice. Obviously not applicable to everything, but this is an interesting write-up of what happened.
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The Tank Museum turned their popular Youtube channel into a money machine with Patreon. Here's how.
Distracting / entertaining / inspiring
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In a world full of dodgy twitter accounts sharing unattributed historic images, Weird Medieval Guys is a shining light of an account making history fun and accessible, while still citing their sources.
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The Met (not the one in Bury) has released an Augmented Reality web app showing the original colours of its Sphinx statue.
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"5 billion people use the internet. Less than 1% understand it. This mega thread will get you up to speed, starting today"
Good Reads
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Not sure this classes as a 'read', but an NFT company recently sponsored a gaming conference in Brazil. One of the speakers, Mark Venturelli, only revealed the true title of his talk after he'd already begun: "Why NFTs are a nightmare." a) that's funny, but b) it's also an interesting analysis.
And that’s all for this edition. If you come across any interesting or noteworthy content or have any of your own projects to share please do send it my way. Don't forget we're here to support you with training, research and consultancy, so please do get in touch. You can find all past editions of the Digital Snapshot here.
You can also post your thoughts on digital and data related topics to us and a wider community through our newly launched Community forum.
You can find me or The Audience Agency on Twitter. See you soon.
Adam Koszary
Head of Digital, The Audience Agency
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The Digital Snapshot newsletter shares the latest, most important news from the social media and digital world - as relevant to the arts, culture and heritage sectors.