Lately, we’ve seen some great ideas about ways to bring visitors, web traffic and revenue into struggling house museums and other historic properties.

This follows up on our post on Web Strategy for House Museums.
A few things:

1. Flickr for Events: At a family day event at Sarasota’s Ringling Museum in January, I saw a staff photographer taking pictures of visitors. As they asked visitors to pose, they gave each person a small piece of paper with the link to the museum’s Flickr page. It is an excellent way to get folks involved in the museum, and build content and backlinks to your site. Even better, you can leave the pictures up permanently, and have them easily reachable for things like newsletters. Most importantly, it’s a permanent record of your community outreach, and it costs nothing.
2. Tea Party People: On my drive in to work one day this week, that controversial radio host Glenn Beck was reciting these familiar words…then I realized it was Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty” speech. I swear I have not heard his speech recited on radio…ever. And then, I see folks on cable news, making fun of folks at Tea Party rallies around the country, wearing knee breeches and colonial garb. It got me thinking that there is an untapped market for all of these old history museums in this segment. Certainly, home-schoolers are markets for house museums, but this group is even more interesting because the sorts of people who run museums are often scared of Tea Party people. That’s a mistake, because museums get REALLY get interesting when their visitors come from diverse backgrounds. Live dangerously. Dare to host a Tea Party meeting. But host EVERY kind of political meeting.
3. Farmer’s Market: Here in my town of Sarasota, the Phillippi Estate Park holds a weekly farmer’s market. It runs Wednesday afternoons, and seems to be a big success. It brings people to the park, and also generates income for farmers, artists and the like, all to promote Florida farming. House museums are desperate for foot traffic; this sort of thing is perfect because it happens weekly, and does not involve lots of special programs or staff. There are so many house museums in the U.S., and they mostly only have small retail shop operations of dusty merchandise. Note: The Philippi effort uses smart signage and up-to-date graphics to help convince visitors that it’s a top event.
4. New Objects: I am continually surprised at the number of people I know who do not have a clue what to do with objects they want to donate to museums. While I know of a few museums that will take gifts that are related to their mission, I sometimes feel that museums are now a bit overly cautious about what they will acquire. Perhaps in the past they have been saddled with objects unrelated to the mission of the museum. That’s a mistake. Museums need to be aggressive about seeking donations, and always have an open door. For instance, The Valentine Richmond History Center and the Virginia Historical Society not only deal well with donors, but their acquisition policies are not frozen in time. They are always looking for what is next, what is amusing or interesting or illuminating. Objects should not only be for filling in holes with the collection, but should be a way of keeping a pulse on donors, trends and such.
5. Special Church Services: Many house museums allow churches to have Easter services on their lawns. This is a great way to entrench yourselves with the community. Even better, when there are memorable worship services held on your property, you become a part of the narrative of people’s lives forever.
6. Multiple locations: Ever since I have been a kid and spent time at Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities properties and in Colonial Williamsburg, I have been enamored of the “museum” that is larger than one location. Certainly, this sort of idea presents all sorts of difficulties, but it also presents so much promise. Because the larger the geographic scope of an institution, the more potential there is for a wider audience.
7. Angels Unawares: We all know the phrase from Hebrews, namely “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” This is kind of obvious, but it often gets missed. Make sure that your front line staff has an ear to who is visiting your museum, unscheduled. Even someone disheveled might be someone with money, someone who knows money, or someone who has been traveling and didn’t pull it all together. And an open attitude isn’t just for the odd fellow who stumbles in. We know of a certain museum director who had a certain beloved British Prime Minister visit his art museum. And the front line staff didn’t go get him! We also know of a case where a certain sister of a certain Omaha billionaire stumbled into a certain parochial school and ended up being a major donor, because of the way she was treated.
8. Free admission: We’ve seen a number of museums getting rid of their admission. While not all can afford it, having a free admission is an interesting concept. The idea is to build up visitor numbers, and show donors and civic officials that you are fulfilling your IRS mandate to be open to the public. Then, with that increased traffic, leverage sales in the gift shop and more memberships. Williamsburg actually does this, but not by design. The town is free, and access to gift shops and restaurants are for everyone. You pay for the buildings.

The result? PetalsSarah.com, a website that not only promotes her cash-and-carry florist business, but helps to position her as a leading designer of flowers in Richmond, Virginia.

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Richmond is a busy market with sophisticated tastes; the only way to get around the clutter is to have a point of view and a forum.

See more at www.petalssarah.com.