Who ever said museums aren’t cool anymore hasn’t attended any of the ones located in Los Angeles. As some of the most socially relevant museums are located within the city, SMCLA threw one of their two October events at the La Brea Tar Pits & Museum and hosted an all-star panel featuring:

• Panel Moderator - Fiona Ball

• Arielle Sherman - Assistant Manager, Digital Communications at Hammer Museum

• Lucy Redoglia - Social Media Manager, LACMA

• Sarah Waldorf - Digital Media Producer, The Getty

• Rachel Gertz - Communications Coordinator, Natural History Museum

Moderator Fiona Ball wasted no time in getting the panel started, catering to a packed room. Over the course of the night many topics were covered - staying relevant on social, pop-culture, knowing your audience and a plethora more. See the below a small amount of quotes and tweets from the event:

Museum Relevance on Social Media:"We are looking at the past through the lens of now." - Ludy Redoglia"Anything we post is relevant, but it's more about staying interesting on social." - Arielle Sherman"Our strategy on Snapchat is to be relatable, fun and pop culutre orietned and that has been very successful." - Ludy Redoglia

Knowing your audience:"We try to respect how people use each platform already. I always think about scholars and the babies in their newsfeed."

https://twitter.com/ctothelee/status/656674016963330048

https://twitter.com/LoveCaroline1/status/656668151975833600

Using new platforms and convincing staff to use social:"It was partially because Snapchat approached LACMA and said we're launching this thing called Geo-Filters and we want one for LACMA, can we use your logo. The powers that be then decided to create an official account." - Ludy Redoglia

https://twitter.com/freewirry/status/656671050416066560

The main theme of the night was the fact that social media allows accessibility to the arts, thereby increasing interest in museums not only in LA but around the world. Since all platforms have a visual component, any platform is perfect to accomplish artistic and business goals, depending on its main use.For anyone on social, staying relevant to your audience is a main goal but also one of the biggest challenges facing a social media / community manager, director, etc. but even more so for museums.After the panel, there was a short Q&A with members of the audience and a raffle with the prize being a 4 pack of museum passes and a stuffed wolf. The winner was Cathi Milligan (@nelaart). Congrats Cathi!Be sure to attend the next SMCLA event - on Health & Fitness on November 17th. Keep an eye on our Twitter & Facebook accounts for more information.