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Hi 

Here is your latest issue of Social Business Bites. 3 items this week:

• Museums and social media and just what do we mean by "curating"
• Accountancy firms and social networking - how the top firms stack up
• The argument for not automating your social media activity

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Unpacking Our SXSW Panel, "Everyone's a Curator: Do Museums Still Matter?"

Short link: http://bit.ly/1esvdB0

This post by Willa Koerner, Assistant Manager, Digital Engagement, at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, looks searchingly at issues around the convergence of museum curation and technology, specifically social media. It was done as part of her preparation for leading a panel of museum people at the South by South West (SXSW) Interactive event.

She writes:

In preparing for this opportunity to represent a museum's perspective at SXSW Interactive - a predominantly tech-focused, innovation-obsessed conference-it has been interesting to think about how our respective museum jobs walk the line between tech work and museum work. As social media content creators, we speak the fast-flowing language of the Internet; as museum workers, we speak the slowly-articulated language of expert art curators. We are working to carve out a new space, where these disparate-seeming forms of communication can merge, and more people than ever can feel connected with art and culture through technology.  

A couple of gems from the piece:

1. a definition of curating as "fancy choosing" (well, I liked it)
2. a short video of curators opining (some with obvious diffidence) about what curation is

Social networking: How does the Top 50 stack up?

Short link: http://bit.ly/1n5EVP1

The subject headline for this article draws a long bow, insofar as the article extrapolates from the results of a couple of surveys about LinkedIn use, among the top 50 UK accountancy firms, to make a set of statements about social use of social networking generally.

That said, and with the usual allowances for country differences, the article is worth a read, especially by people in the accounting field and those who are marketing B2B services to accounting firms.

The short story on the statistics? 

"... a third of accountants use it regularly, and a further 37% use it occasionally. However, 30% don't use it at all and a similarly large number have no idea what their own firm does on social media (if anything)."

Those figures have some interesting implications for marketing by or to accountancy firms, wouldn't you say?

Three Reasons Why You *Really* Shouldn't Automate Social Media

Short link: http://bit.ly/1n5EVP1

Can some or all of your social media content sharing and engagement be automated? Yes. 

Should you seek to automate as much as possible? No.

Is is smart to automate some of the process, consistent with you and/or your people being actually present on the social web and engaging with others in real time as much as possible. Yes.

Well, that's my answer to the last question.

The author of this article and most of the people commenting would not, it seems agree with me, as they seem to condemn all elements of automation in the social networking process.

Although I don't subscribe to that fundamentalist view, this article presents the no automation argument well and there is value to be gained from the article, without your having to drink the Kool-Aid 

There is a related issue about offshoring your social media activity. I'll save that for another time.

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Till next time

Be well, be social :)

Des

PS: If you are not on the list yet to receive Social Business Bites in your email inbox, and would like to try it, you can register for that at this link (there is an easy unsubscribe link in every update).

PPS: If you have any questions about any of these weekly bites, or - importantly - what you would like to see, or see more of, please email me at deswalsh@webartsco.com and I will do my best to respond usefully.

PPPS: What's that saying about life getting in the way? It will be next week before I announce my new program. And now, having promised that twice, I have nowhere to hide. :)

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Email: deswalsh@webartsco.com

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