{"id":2433,"date":"2018-04-10T18:35:11","date_gmt":"2018-04-10T17:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.reading.ac.uk\/the-forum\/?p=2433"},"modified":"2018-04-10T18:35:11","modified_gmt":"2018-04-10T17:35:11","slug":"2433-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2018\/04\/10\/2433-2\/","title":{"rendered":"How an \u2018absolute unit\u2019 of a tweet catapulted one rural life museum into the spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adam Koszary, Museums and Special Collections Services<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The tweet sent from The MERL account that went viral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

look at this absolute unit.<\/p>\n

Our tweet<\/a> from the Museum of Rural English Life account was a simple enough command. It accompanied a black and white photo of an Exmoor Horn aged ram found in the archives of the museum, located on the University of Reading\u2019s London Road campus.<\/p>\n

But this tweet had a satisfying pay-off. One day on, our Twitter followers had increased by more than 50% – 16,000 and counting – and the tweet itself had surpassed 68,000 likes and 20,000 retweets.<\/p>\n

This is not normal for The MERL twitter account, in case you haven\u2019t guessed.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve always had a collection of livestock portraiture at the MERL<\/a> (we often just call them fat cow paintings ourselves.). It doesn\u2019t take a social media genius to recognise they have social media potential \u2013 we posted another just a few days ago too<\/a> – but it took until yesterday for one to break through.<\/p>\n

Understanding how the tweet went viral is not rocket science. It\u2019s a good photo, a cute animal and a relevant use of a meme. Throw in a few lucky retweets from influencers, and we were away.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/georginalaidlaw\/status\/983669476301324289<\/p>\n

The real core of the success, however, came after the tweet. After having gone semi-viral before on two other occasions (once with a dead mouse<\/a>, once with a bit of library sass<\/a>) I knew that for something to become truly viral it didn\u2019t just need retweets, it needed to be talked about.<\/p>\n

So, I talked to people. I encouraged puns<\/a>, I played deadpan<\/a>, I sassed a little bit<\/a> and I got a bit creative<\/a>. I was honestly a little worried about having time to eat my curry that evening, so I tweeted about that in the first person<\/a> \u2013 figuring that the meta would fit the mood<\/a>. I thought being self-aware was \u2018in\u2019 at the moment, and it turned out it is. The result was that the tweets got collected into a \u2018Moment\u2019 by Twitter and broadcast to the world, exposing not just the original tweet but a whole host of responses.<\/p>\n

Tone is notoriously difficult (it\u2019s been very well explored by Russel Dornan<\/a>), and museums often struggle with the tension of trying to engage people while remaining respectable. I believe social media has pushed the envelope of what people consider respectable so far that people almost expect a few memes. The tone and language we used in the wake of our absolute unit tweet simply followed how people already talk on Twitter.<\/p>\n

\n

Everyone retweeting our unit is going to have an absolute meltdown when they go into the countryside and realise there\u2019s an entire countryside full of sheep<\/p>\n

— The Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL) April 10, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n