Naomi Deller, a volunteer at Beccles and District Museum explains her strategy:
“The myth around social media leads us all to believe that it’s only for teenagers, but this winter we found that it was actually full of eager new volunteers! Facebook is The Godfather of social media, but despite its legendary status, the kids have little interest. The teenagers you picture glued to their phones are actually absorbed in Snapchat and TikTok! The people populating our Facebook news feed and local community groups are far more likely to be retired neighbours, the history buff down the road, or the family you queue behind at the checkout. Facebook hinges on building connections between users, their friends, and the interests they engage with. The ease with which users can share posts creates a digital word-of-mouth process, allowing messages to spread further and further afield without much effort!”
“As at the end of every summer season, a number of our volunteers decided that they would not be returning to Beccles and District Museum for the 2024 season. This left us with an urgent hole to fill in our stewarding team. The museum had tried the traditional routes to finding new volunteers in previous years, which had yielded relatively limited results. The museum’s Facebook page had been lying dormant for a few months, so we posted a couple of times to remind our followers that we were there, and then turned to volunteer recruitment!”
“We put out two posts calling for new stewards, sharing both to local community groups to expand their reach to relevant demographics. Many of our current volunteers and long-term museum supporters duly shared our posts to their friends as well. One of these Facebook posts reached 5,326 (mostly local) people alone. These two posts translated into 20 new museum stewards joining our team for the start of the 2024 season, which far surpassed our original target. In one month, our Facebook posts landed on nearly 10,000 screens for free with only 207 followers. This is incredibly exciting for a small, volunteer-run museum like us!”
“We focussed on clear messaging with our posts and paired the text with brightly coloured infographics or bright, sunny photos. We made sure that however far our posts were shared, prospective volunteers would have their attention grabbed and knew exactly what we ask of our stewards and the support we provide. We’re continuing to use our Facebook page to expand access to our collection, excite people about a visit to the museum, and to keep pulling in more volunteers! If Facebook isn’t an avenue that you have seriously explored for volunteer recruitment, give it a go!”
Find out more about Beccles and District Museum on Facebook and on their website.
