I work for a local history museum that has only a rudimentary social media presence, and uses social media as an extension of traditional marketing methods. The staff is also interested in using social media and blogging to 1) engage our audience with behind-the-scenes stories and sneak peeks into artifacts, spaces, and other content that’s not featured in current exhibits and programs and 2) collect stories of the community’s history (the museum’s mission stretches from the community’s founding to the present day). Which strategies foster visitor engagement online in social media? What are the nuts-and-bolts issues of collecting oral histories and other user-generated content online?

So we’re on Twitter, Facebook (some of us are on Google+), We blog, use Tumblr or  post on Pinterest. But as historians, how do we use these tools to tell our story, our vision of the past in a very public realm?

When we do research or write a paper we use a variety of sources to tell a particular history. Each of these sources gives a different perspective supporting or negating each other.

In our work in the non-profit sector, the federal government, as consultants, students and educators, how do we make these tools work for us–how do we use each element to create a personal/organizational brand?  How exactly do we brand ourselves as historians online?

I would propose that we spend this session talking about lessons learned, and figuring out what the best way is to set up a digital brand dealing with history. I recently attended a conversation on personal branding for the DC Social Media club and I thought that it might be worth having a similar conversation at THATCamp about what works, what doesn’t work, and how to avoid obvious pitfalls.