A museum and me

It’s no secret that social networking is the buzz phrase at the moment with people of all ages joining the global phenomenon. Thanks to the likes of MySpace, Twitter and Facebook, you now know what your friend in California is eating for dinner and that your conservative odd Uncle plays in a KISS tribute band on weekends. Families and friends are reconnecting on a personal level that has long been lost since childhood…yes, I said childhood. Don’t be mistaken into thinking that these sites are just for the dot.com generation, in fact one of the most popular age groups on Facebook is actually the over forties and one of the other big players is Business.

The key here is connection. Social Networking allows you to communicate with people who were once seen to be unreachable; celebrities, Presidents & Prime Ministers, sports stars, brands and of course, perhaps most importantly, your customers. Twitter explains on their website, “it’s a real-time information network powered by people all around the world that lets you share and discover what’s happening now. Ask “what’s happening” and twitter makes the answer spread across the globe to millions, immediately”

The Australia Aviation Museum (AAM) has been located at Bankstown Airport since the 1990’s. It holds some of Australia’s most historic Aviation memorabilia. It’s a not for profit (nfp) organisation, that like so many others, is run entirely off the sweat of its volunteers. I think you can tell a lot about the importance of a museum by its list of patrons as it generally shows the value of its collection and/or message. Three of the biggest names in Australian Aeronautical Aviation are on the AAM’s honor list, Nancy Bird Walton AO, OBE, Dick Smith AO and Dr Paul Scully-Power AM, DSM, NSM.

But despite its impressive collection and supporting patrons, for many years the museum has been experiencing a decline in visitor numbers and aging volunteers. Some fantastic projects have been created, such as the development of a Boeing 747 movie set for hire and becoming one of the first organisations in Australia to offer a ‘work for the dole’ scheme. This has proven to be a value tool in helping to inject some life into the museum. Fundamentally however, the AAM had one serious problem, it needed to address and that was the lack of awareness it had within the Australian public, outside of the aviation & historic community.

If there was ever a story to highlight the average Australians interest in anything relating to our history of flight, beyond that of the travel industry of course, or more to the point Qantas, it would have to be my year 7 history assignment on ‘The woman I most admire’.
At this point I should explain that my father, Trevor Dean, is the current curator of the AAM. As the son of a RAAF officer, he has always had a keen interest in aviation. He obtained his pilots license flying both light planes and helicopters and consumes as much literature on the subject as possible. To say he is passionate about aircraft is an understatement. But this is not to say that our hanger shared this interest as I am one of three girls, making Dad one of those lucky men who are surrounded in a household of women. We would, like all good teenage daughters, on occasion appear interested and obviously some things must have sunk in as my sisters and I know that a Douglas DC-3 is bigger than a Cessna and that Biggles is more resourceful than that long hair lout Magiver, which leads back to that memorable day in my first year of high school. Student after student stood up and spoke about their mums, their grandmas and of a woman named Whitney who wisely believed that children are our future. And then, there was me. I stood up and proudly spoke of a courageous woman who had pioneered the skies in a mans world, a woman who often performed the role of pilot, nurse and friend to hundreds across the vast Australian Outback and of a woman who loved what she did and never took no for an answer. She was the woman I wanted to be; independent, stubborn, successful, cheeky and undeniably Australian. She was, of course, Nancy Bird Walton.
But when I looked up at the end of my “academy award winning speech”, I was not greeted by a sea of nodding faces who wished they too had expressed their admiration for this woman, I was meet with row after row of blank faces followed by a questions on what movie my mum liked best.

It’s funny what lessons stay with you as some 20 years later I now run my own business, (me marketing agency) which grew out of my desire to be independently successful. I’m often told I’m cheeky & stubborn and much to my mothers dismay, speak with an obvious Aussie twang. I specialise in social network management and by performing the role of listener, advisor and external department, I am able to craft the right marketing plan for each of my clients. And I passionately love what I do.

Much of what I do now reflects what I learnt that day in history class; you can have the most intelligent, the most exciting, a world’s first product or service (or museum collection)….but unless the audience can personally connect with your message, they’ll ask about your mum.

After years of watching Dad and the volunteers of the AAM “answer to mum”, I offered to take over the museums marketing which began with an introduction into the 21st century lamington sale, a social marketing campaign on Twitter (AustaviationMus) and Facebook.
Fundamentally, it was important to not be like all the other aviation museum twits (the twitter name for one who twitters) and secondly, it was important to have a clear understanding on what we wanted to achieve – increase our awareness of the AAM and selfishly to ensure no child ever has to stand in front of a blank face again – I guess Whitney might have been onto something after all, well she was certainly ON something.

As I said earlier, the key here is connection. Rather than simply tweeting facts and showing photo’s of planes, the AAM now highlights a connection between their collection and current new stories, or fashion, or university O weeks, or to silly facts some smart university student will no doubt turn into a billion dollar business and….it’s working.
When Calvin Klein, better known as CK showed his latest bomber jacket collection at New Yorks fashion week, we mentioned our own CK collection, that being our Charles Kingsford Smiths flying jacket and our female followers increased. When O week began, we wished all aviation students good luck and we connected with each uni, And when Hollywood honoured their greats during Oscar week, we honoured a great man who befriended the stars and flew them in boats and the socialites began to listen.

In only a short few weeks, by talking to an audience that once showed little to no interest in Australian Aviation, the AAM has had a number of small successes in avenues that once seemed too distant to connect with. Thanks to the help of the wonderful volunteers at the AAM, the sky is no longer the limit with ideas flying left, right and centre of how their social network marketing can grow even bigger.

To continue in the footsteps of the women I have always most admired, don’t forget to clean your teeth and Happy Landings twits.