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Museum in a
Virtual Space
stories of starting
from zero
Communication >
Ana Verulashvili, Natalia Davlianidze

Every time we start connecting to you, we start from zero!

0 Followers, 0 Likes, 0 Comments.
What we do is building an audience by providing the best experience
for the Georgian National Museums virtual friends.

ach day, social media gains in popularity and combines more functions, engages more people compared to classic media and uses more
flexible and effective methods. These
practices are transforming the functions
of the internet, making it the main source of information exchange. Advanced
technology opens new perspectives,
and challenges 21st century museums
to new experiences. At the Public Relations Department of the Georgian National Museum (GNM) we try to keep pace
with modern trends and now are present
in most popular social media platforms,
which enables us reach wider audiences
and to raise awareness and interest in
our museums in Georgia and abroad.
In 2009 we launched GNMs Facebook
and Twitter pages, and since 2012 we
have a rebranded website. In 2013 we
registered our own channel on Youtube,
Pinterest and Scribd. Upgrading these
pages with information and the latest

news is one of our priorities when positioning museums in social media. We regularly update information, pictures and
video materials both in Georgian and
English to deliver the best information to
our website users.
The Museum website is the main information platform for sharing news and
information for visitors, the history of
our museums and as a means to browse
through some of our unique collections
online.
On GNMs Facebook page we post
news on upcoming events, exhibitions,
educational programs and research
projects. Periodically we offer online
contests. In order to interact with the
Museums virtual friends in a real space
we organize events like the 2014 celebration for 50,000 Facebook friends who
received an invitation to visit our exhibitions for free.
The success of our Facebook page lies
in its diversity, where we combine infor-

mation from all other social media platforms. As a result, GNMs Facebook page
has the largest number of virtual friends
of any other cultural or educational institution in Georgia. By October 2015, the
number had reached to 80,000 and we
continue growing.
As the biggest video sharing platform
in the world, Youtube has greatly contributed to our work, allowing us to offer
museum documentaries and video materials.
Considering the growing popularity of pinning the decision to register
GNM's official page on Pinterest was
made so that we offer a catalog of
ideas" that inspires us for new projects
and inspires our followers and network
users to collect ideas, projects and inspiration.
Through Scribed we created a digital
library of numerous publications, articles
and catalogues created by GNM scientists and researchers. We aim to support
the younger generation, scientists and
those interested in fields related to our
work by connecting them and making
science available to everyone.
Our latest social media project involves Instagram. Some of the worlds most
prominent museums are already present
on Instagram, so launching our page was
only a matter of time. Today, through this
platform, we can show unexpected moments from the life of the museum by

showing our followers behind-the-scene

images and videos of our staffs work, filtered by using various Instagram effects
and presenting it in an artistic way. We
are trying to make our museums better
known, especially by young people, who
are the most active users of Instagram.
To celebrate the launch of our Instagram page, we came up with the concept #museuminfocus. For our presentation project we asked popular young
Georgian photographers and active
Instagram users to collaborate with us.
The task was to take Instagram photos
inspired by museums and exhibit them
on the presentation day. Five young, talented and daring photographers Nata
Abashidze-Romanovskaya, Louisa Chalatashvili, Dina Oganova, Levan Maisuradze and David Tchalidze agreed to start
their professional journey inside our museums. To create the best atmosphere for
our audience we started another collaboration project, with another talented
Georgian DJ Sandro Tediashvili (TedArt) who performed at the GNM the
very first DJ performance in Georgian
museums. By combining classical and
electronic music, he created a beautiful
evening for up to 300 guests present at
the opening event.
The overall creative vibes of the presentation exceeded all our expectations
and once again proved that the best projects involve teamwork.

We express our gratitude to those who

supported us in planning and implementation of the #museuminfocus project.
Special thanks go to the project photographers and the DJ who contributed
their time, energy and creativity to the
museum. We also want to acknowledge
the contribution of Windfor's Communication who supported us technically, and
Wine Tamada for the beautiful evening.
We continue using and following our
special hashtag #museuminfocus and
encourage all our visitors to share best
pictures of their visit. Next year we plan
to publish our first InstaBook which will
describe a year in life of the Georgian National Museum through pictures.
Every time our department starts a
new project, we start it from zero and
continue with the support of the innovative and visionary mindset of the GNM
staff and administration. At the Georgian
National Museum we believe that by
combining modern technology and our
heritage we can build a better future for
the development of culture. Inspired by
this, our team continues creating

museum.ge
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