Help Wanted – Social Media Survey
- 12th February 2021
We are seeking your help to enable us to understand our social media audience and what you like to see and what you would like to see in the future. We have a survey which takes around 5 minutes to complete, which we would really appreciate if you could fill it in to help us.
We joined social media 10 years ago. Our Blog was started by Worcestershire Record Office to communicate how we were preparing for our move to The Hive, and what we were doing on the weeks we were closed to the public whilst we were hard at work getting everything ready.
A Worcester Record Office Twitter account was started too, and a Worcestershire Archaeology Facebook page by Worcestershire Historic Environment & Archaeology Service. When we joined together in 2012 the accounts were merged to bring you news from across the service. An Instagram account was also created, although it has not been used much, which is something which are changing. A YouTube channel also exists, and lockdown has seen an increase on what we’ve added.
On Facebook and Twitter we have over 3,000 followers and we love the interactions which we have, reading your anecdotes from the photos and stories we share, and on occasionally getting help from the combined knowledge of everyone reading them. We love you joining in.
We’ve had lots of great feedback over the years, and several posts have stood out. Some posts we know will do well, but others can be surprising how often they are liked and shared.
This photo, posted on Facebook, of the frozen Severn at Bewdley was put up after a frosty walk to work. Within a week it had been seen over 45,000 times, been shared over 800 times and had over 100 comments! In response to lots of questions about the photos, and stories of an inscription on the bridge and frost fairs, we wrote a blog.
As soon as we saw this story about a cannon being set off in Kidderminster, which we’d come across whilst searching for something else, we knew we wanted to share it and that you would love it. It was liked and reshared on Twitter numerous times. Many questions come to mind – why did a hairdresser in Kidderminster have a cannon in his bedroom? Why did he set it off? How did he think it would not end up like this? How did he escape injury? We did wonder if it was true, but there was definitely a Charles Dadford, hairdresser, living in Kidderminster according to the census.
Our archaeological finds are always popular. News of a Roman sword we found was our most popular blog post that year. Archaeological finds don’t have to look impressive to be important, or to pass on important information, but who wouldn’t get excited by a Roman sword!
Several blogs are repeatedly viewed, even years after they were written. Whenever there are local floods (sadly a common occurrence) these articles on previous floods are suddenly accessed again, probably from people putting in Worcester Floods into their search engine of choice.
As we look to the future we are keen to find out what you would like to see more of from our social media presence, when in the day suits you best and what platforms you prefer.
Our survey is here and should just take less than 5 minutes to complete.
The information given will be treated as completely confidential and will be retained solely by us for our analysis on a secure platform and will not passed to any third party. No identifying information will be obtained.
Thank you
Recently I have been talking with others about street name changes over the years – Frog Lane to Severn St. etc. and why some building number get renumbered – when and why. An article about these things with information on where to find more detailed information could be interesting.