Optimising youth engagement efforts on social media for the Singapore Art Museum

Singapore Art Museum (SAM) intends to reach out to youths in Singapore to broaden their range of target audiences. Existing social media engagement attempts of SAM are deemed unappealing to youths aged 18 to 25 and have resulted in poor engagement levels. On SAM's social media sites, such as Instagram and Facebook, this age group had the lowest involvement. In order to appeal to this young and emerging group of youths and refresh the memory they have of SAM, SAM is looking to devise a social media engagement plan to excite youths in Singapore.

Due to low levels of social media involvement among young people, our team analysed SAM's social media channels and content to identify missed opportunities and make suggestions on communication channels and content to better appeal to the youths.

SAM is very fortunate to have worked with LASALLE students on the Arts Project module as an industry partner, on not one, but two demanding projects based on real challenges faced by the museum. Tackling the briefs of strengthening youth engagement on behalf of the museum, as well the development of a viable merchandise line for SAM, the student groups employed focus group discussions and large-scale survey methods to help SAM refine our challenge statements and develop novel solutions. We must also commend the course instructors and mentors for giving guidance and feedback to the students to steer them towards meaningful outcomes. I would highly recommend other institutions to work with LASALLE as an industry partner for future projects.

1. Marketing Director: Benedict Yu

• Liaising with external (SAM, Dr. Natalia) & internal parties (Shai, the team)
• Gathering and analyse SAM’s social media datas + research in gamified platforms
• Reaching out to Artist/Audience for Survey and Focus Group Discussion
• Managing Project Content layout for Educational Profile

Background: Business Developer of ARTOGO Taiwan for virtual museum experience and multidisciplinary visual art practitioner

2. Creative Director: Karen Yu

• Identifies key visuals that align with SAM’s identity and mission
• Producing art layouts and concepts and provided them to the Content Strategist and Social Media Manager for discussion and approval 
• Ideating and executing content mockups  
• Gathering data and research

Background: Expertise in the field of Fine Arts and skills in conceptualising and executing visual layouts.

3. Project Manager: Yeoh Su Min

• Work with Marketing Director to translate & relay information to the team
• Ensure project moves according to timeline
• Facilitate group discussions and brainstorm on campaign direction and strategies 
• Analyse and strategize quantitative and qualitative data 

Background: Project management in the Advertising industry

4. Content Strategist: Pearlyn Teo

• Analyse what’s working or not working with the current brand’s content
• Ideate, develop and visualisation of content
• Review proposed ideas, strategies and big idea to ensure it stays relevant to SAM’s values

Background: Experience in creating content for social media marketing as well as overseeing outreach events.

5. Social Media Manager: Jordan Tham

• Plan the social media calendar according to the different phases of the campaign
• Analyse social media trends in the arts and cultural sector and engagement data
• Liaise with content strategist to plan strategic content that will ensure the highest possibility of engagement

Background: Experience in advertising agencies and is skilled in social media management for digital campaigns

Our project's vision was to deliver a strong proposal that would increase SAM’s youth engagement based on our research and insights gathered. To achieve the project's vision, the team set research goals to ensure the collection of sufficient data to inform this project. 

The project objectives have been divided into quantitative and qualitative goals by the team. The team achieved its qualitative goals by conducting 5 focus groups to better understand - first, the content trends among youths, and second, the channels on which youths spend the most time communicating. Our quantitative goals were achieved by garnering 400 respondents for our online survey to investigate their social media habits in relation to the arts and cultural profiles.

Research Phase

The team researched on digital museology, youth audience behaviour, case studies on museums during Covid-19 and the arts and cultural landscape in Singapore. A range of communication channels and functions such as – Occupy White Walls, Telegram, Steam, TikTok and Instagram, were also explored.

Execution Phase

An online survey and five focus group discussions were carried out. Over a span of 7 weeks, the team collected 400 online survey responses, with 95% confidence level, to help inform this campaign. 

Five focus group discussions were carried out, one with five visual artists in Singapore and four with five youths aged 18-25 years old. 

Focus group topics with artists included:

• Social media presence
• Social media content 
• Social media usage 

Focus group topics with youth audiences included: 

• Audience engagement with museums
• Social media usage
• Perceptions of SAM
• Ways SAM can appeal to youths 
• Case studies to test direction and ideas 

After conducting qualitative and quantitative research, the team analysed and determined key findings to inform SAM’s youth-targeted social media campaign.

Strategy Phase

The team came up with the campaign’s Big Idea of “Drawing Connections”, which was informed by research. Aimed at putting out raw, genuine content that is relatable and personal to youths, the team selected Instagram, YouTube and TikTok due to their popularity and both audio and visual features. 

The big idea of “Drawing Connections” can be categorised into three phases: Create Connections, Grow Connections and Deepen Connections. 

The project aimed to let youths gain awareness of SAM’s social media campaign, then maintain the interest of new youth followers and finally get youths to become advocates for SAM by sharing and visiting SAM. 

The finalised strategies include: 

1. Paintings by a stranger
2. A-S(AM)-MR
3. Life at SAM
4. Behind the Art
5. Strangers, or not…

Online Survey

The objective is to understand the content, channels and social media consumption of the target audience through a sample size of 380 surveyees, which will come from the team’s contacts, students from art schools, and members of the public approached at random.

Key Findings:

1. Instagram is the most popular social media platform amongst youths. 
2. Human connection is an important factor in the decision making process.
3. Youths enjoy informative content that is easy to understand and bite-sized.

Focus Group 1: Artists

The objective is to dig deeper into understanding how artists utilise content and social media to engage with audiences through content. The team approached four artists – Hafiiz Karim, Howie Kim, Toby Tan, and Aundraj Jude, with the intention of finding out how they leverage social media to reach out to their audiences.

Insights:

• To be consistent in content creation and postings
• Do not follow trends that alter the direction of their usual art content. 
• Tone to be relatable, casual and fun, and show a personable side.

Focus Group 2: Youths

The objective is to reach out to surveyees to dig deeper and understand how youths think and their perceptions of SAM. The focus groups with youths touched on several sections, namely – engagement styles with museums, their current perceptions of SAM, as well as testing of the team’s initial ideas. 

Insights:

1. Youths perceive social media as a deciding factor.
2. Youths enjoy the content they can relate to the most.
   • Casual vlogs & behind-the-scenes content.
   • Content cannot be too shallow and should have a deeper meaning.
   • Content should convey a “feel-good factor” and should have a link to artworks or artists.
   • Thought-provoking content and invoking curiosity will help in a more positive reaction. 

We conducted an online survey with a total of 400 youths aged 18-25 years old over a span of 7 weeks. 

Social media usage

• Youths used Instagram the most, followed by YouTube and Tiktok and would like to interact with museums on these three platforms 
• Social media is used to exchange and receive information from friends and family because their opinions are viewed as credible
• They love receiving user-generated content
• Social media is viewed as a platform where users can build emotional connections with like-minded people

Social media content

• Audiences are more receptive to content that teaches them how to approach art
• Enjoy bite-sized information about artworks
• Interested in using art to talk about social issues
• Enjoy learning about history and fun facts about artworks and artists

Social media appeal

Tiktok

• Image and video based
• Informal content
• Trending sounds and music

YouTube

• In-depth content
• Subtitles and closed-captions
• Vlog-style videos

Instagram

• Instagram stories
• Connection with friends and family
• Explore page

After the online survey, we invited respondents to participate in our focus groups. A total of 5 focus groups were conducted – 1 with artists and 4 with general audiences, over a span of 2 days. The main topic was social media usage in relation to museum engagement.

Social media usage

• Engaging posts will motivate youths to attend a museum’s exhibition
• Trends and platforms should align with the museum's image, or risk tarnishing the museum’s image 
• Audiences want active (uni-directional) communication with the museum

Social media content

• Youths enjoy informative content that challenges their preconceived notions of art
• Content that allows them to relate to the museum on a personal level
• Content that is more informal, speaks the same language as the youths
• Content that deviates from the formal facade

Expected KPIs

The aims were to conduct an online survey – with a minimum of 380 respondents, as well as host a minimum of five focus groups – with artists and our target audiences, to ensure we have empirical and non-empirical research to gather quantitative and qualitative data to substantiate our campaign strategies. Ultimately, the team managed to exceed our initial target and gathered a total of 400 responses for the online survey, and successfully completed our focus groups – each with a sample size of 5 participants.

Having received constructive and valuable information from our findings, the goal was to curate a minimum of three strategies in our proposal that would help the team meet our project objectives. 

Expected outcomes

With that in mind, our goal is to spark interest for SAM among youths using content that is highly engaging to this demographic. The content will attempt to tear down the formal facade of SAM by changing the perception of SAM. Working in tandem, they can increase the following and engagement of social media platforms from youths, and ultimately help retain audience loyalty amongst the targeted group.

The project deliverables would be to create a youth-targeted social media engagement strategy that would entice the target audience to engage with SAM. 

Our target audiences enjoy raw, genuine and simple content that is relatable and personal, which leads to the overarching big idea – Drawing Connections. Under this, the proposed strategies will follow three phases – Creating Connections, Growing Connections and Deepening Connections, to ensure that the campaign will help gain awareness, maintain interest and provide opportunities for youths to advocate for SAM over time.

The five proposed strategies – “Paintings By a Stranger”, “A-S(AM)-MR”, “Life at SAM”, “Behind The Arts” and “Strangers, or not…”, will be translated over three social media platforms of YouTube, Instagram and TikTok over several months, and will gradually reach the campaign’s objectives.

Strength:

• SAM has a reputation as an established museum of over 30 years in history.
• SAM has a wide collection of artworks.
• SAM is an advocate for multiple causes, such as, “Inclusivity”, “Acceptance”, and “Diversity”.
• SAM is open to the evolving social media trends and landscape
• SAM’s new location is at Tanjong Pagar Distripark.

Opportunities:

• TikTok is a platform that SAM has not tapped onto, but where the majority of users are the target audiences.
• SAM is able to present a different and more approachable and youthful side on a brand new platform.
• SAM can use its existing collections to create creative content to engage its target audiences.
• To attract audiences that stand for what SAM advocates.
• We can transition online audiences to the on-site space via social media
• Opportunities for on-site engagement
• More art spaces/galleries are situating themselves at Tanjong Pagar Distripark

Weakness:

• The current social media content and image of SAM carry a very formal image
• There is a lack of interaction and engagement on SAM’s current online marketing strategies
• SAM is only on social media platforms with unfavourable algorithms (e.g. Facebook & Instagram) —do not allow its current content to reach out to new audiences
• SAM does not have sufficient data in terms of their previous or current interactions with the targeted group
• Their current venue at Tanjong Pagar Distripark is inaccessible 

Threats:

• Younger audiences may find SAM unapproachable, due to the formality displayed on their current platforms
• The target audiences may have “migrated” to other social media platforms due to the change in the online landscape
• It is difficult to understand these types of content which appeal to the target audiences, especially when the trends are always changing.
• SAM is competing with other local renowned museums, which have a strong digital presence