Digital Futures training programme

Image of the Digital Futures 'Interactive Stories' training session

Museum Development Officers run training programmes and provide one-to-one support for museums right across London

In 2018 - 2022, the Digital Futures Programme will excite the London museum sector with the possibilities of digital technologies and digital engagement. Through the training programme, London Museum Development will deliver at least 12 courses each year aimed at developing the digital skills of London's museums. These courses have been designed and tailored for London's museums, based on the feedback from our Training Needs Analysis of the London non-national museum sector (PDF 690kb, opens in new tab). The programme has also been influenced by the findings of the Mendoza Review, Culture is Digital and Digital Culture 2017 reports.

The Digital Futures training programme will take a modular approach, with sessions focused on social media and marketing, digital content creation and digital 'back of house'. Each module will start with a briefing session which will focus on the different skills and literacies needed for museums within each module. You can download a calendar for 2020 - 2021 to see when we will be delivering each module and the types of courses on offer (PDF 354kb, opens in new tab). You can apply for a place on these courses below, or directly through our booking form.

UPDATE: Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, if we need to make any last minute announcements for London Museum Development events, about event changes or cancellations, we will try to do so via email, but you will also be able to find last minute announcements pinned to the top of our Twitter timeline. You can follow us @LondonMusDev.

Digital Futures Training Programme, 2020 - 2021

Social Media: What Can It Do For Your Organisation?
Tuesday 05 May, 12am - 3pm
Museum of London, London Wall

Social media platforms can be used for more than just sharing your events - from creating engaging community projects to expanding the reach of your organisation. Over the course of the afternoon, you will be given an introduction to the various social media platforms and the benefits that they can have for your organisation. You will be given examples of how other organisations are using the platforms. You will learn about how other museums use the platforms in engaging and exciting ways and you will leave the session with a few ideas of how you could improve your social media use. By the end of the session, you will have an understanding of the importance of creating exciting content, the benefits of analysing you organisation’s social media use and why taking a more strategic approach to social media is important. Finally, you will have an overview of how the platforms can and have been used successfully for marketing purposes.

This session is open to anyone, at any level, though it is designed to be of particular benefit to museum managers and leaders looking for an overview of social media and how the platforms can be used by museums and their staff / volunteers. Download a full course outline (PDF 188kb, opens in new tab). Please use our online form to book your place.

Social Media: Strategy
Friday 29 May, 12 - 3pm
Museum of London, London Wall

This course aims to give you pointers on how to construct and/or review a social media strategy, one based around your institution’s goals, personality and content. We will put this into the context of other museums that use social media, and how their content could fit into a wider strategy. We will also discuss how a social media strategy, and your content, can help to guide how you interact with your audience. Download a full course outline (PDF 180kb, opens in new tab). Please use our online form to book your place.

Social Media: Analytics, Introduction to Facebook Insights & Twitter Analytics
Friday 05 June, 1 - 4pm
Museum of London, London Wall

The majority of social media platforms have in-built analytics. But the statistics that they provide can be daunting, and interpreting them can be difficult. In this short session, we’ll focus on how you can use the in-built analytics of Facebook and Twitter to your advantage. We’ll discuss how analysing your audience, and your content, will make your job easier in the long run. You’ll learn how to interpret the data to better your use of social media, and build a more tailored experience for your online audience. By the end of the session, you will hopefully see the correlations between the numbers on the screen and the audience that you’re engaging on a daily basis. This course is aimed at those who have either just or not yet started using social media analytics. Please note that a basic understanding of how both platforms work is essential. Please also note that we will not be covering Google Analytics. Google Analytics will be covered in a session later in the year. Download a full course outline (PDF 180kb, opens in new tab). Please use our online form to book your place.

Assess and improve your digital activities
Friday 12 June
Museum of London, London Wall

Where are your museum's digital strengths and weaknesses? The Digital Culture Compass, commissioned by Arts Council England in partnership with the National Lottery Heritage Fund, has been designed to support arts, culture and heritage organisations to assess their approach to digital technology. London Museum Development (LMD) wants to support a small number of museums to use the Digital Culture Compass, in a session designed to guide participants through using the toolkit. This session will enable participating museums to measure their digital work and plan for future activities. LMD will look at your museum's strategy behind its use of digital and use the toolkit to measure where digital can help your museum to achieve its mission, goals and aims.

Through participating in this session you will gain a better understanding of digital within your museum through a number of different activity areas, such as Marketing and Communications or Strategy and Governance. Using the Tracker, you will be able to generate 12 month targets for improving your digital activities. Using the report generated through the Tracker, LMD will create recommendations for further training, suggest areas for potential projects or interventions, and possible funding streams that may help you to improve your digital work. You will also be offered support from Alec Ward, MDO: Digital and Communications, to help you with the work during and after the session.

Ideally, LMD would like two members of staff to attend the day from each museum. One senior manager / leader and a member of the team who has some form of responsibility for digital within their museum. It would be helpful to bring your organisation's mission / aims / goals with you on the day. If you would like to discuss your participation in this session, please contact Alec Ward: [email protected] / 020 7001 9861. Download a full course outline (PDF 183kb, opens in new tab). Please use our online form to book your place.