Digital audiences research project completed

I’ve just completed the facilitation of the IDEA programme (Insight from Digitally Engaged Audiences) for SHARE Museums East. The aim of the project was to help museums:

• understand who their digital audiences are

• understand what their digital audiences value and want

• identify any differences between their digital and in-person audiences

• and therefore feed into plans for future digital engagement and marketing.

Eight museums in the East of England took part based in Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Suffolk.

An online survey was created on www.smartsurvey.co.uk for digital audiences to self-complete, open for 2-3 months depending on the museums’ preferences. Each museum had the same core 16 questions, with the option of adding additional questions tailored to their museum.

The questions related to digital audiences’:

• Demographics

• Behaviours and preferences

• In-person engagement.

 The museums promoted the survey through their websites, e-newsletters and social media channels.

Each museum received a report with their own data. I also wrote a report on the cohort’s data as a whole, compared to relevant benchmarking and contextual data and drawing conclusions about the findings, reflections on the research challenges, tips for undertaking online surveys of digital audiences and alternatives to online surveys.