My ideal museum job is in marketing/communications! Lucky for me that is what I am currently doing at UAMN. My undergrad degree is in Public Relations and Strategic Communications and I have always gravitated to science-based institutions.
There are a few reasons why I really enjoy PR and comms work in the museum world. I really enjoy being part of the Fairbanks community, I enjoy sharing things that happen at the museum with the public through social media, and I also enjoy the revenue earning and marketing portion of the job.
Being part of the tourism industry is a dynamic and thrilling opportunity. Not only does it mean that I am in-tune with Fairbanks tourism, but also with the state of Alaska overall. I recently attended the Interior Tourism Conference hosted by Explore Fairbanks and I was able to gain a lot of insight into the Fairbanks and Alaska economies, what people are looking to do in their leisure time, and also how we can give back to our community through our own work. We even got a little sneak peak of what kind of construction we will be looking at during the summer of 2023! Having just moved here from Washington, DC back in September, I feel that I have been able to involve myself in the Fairbanks community a lot faster because my work allows me to stay in touch with local happenings. I am also very proud to be part of an institution that gives back to the community through various family programs, (among many other things!)
The majority of my day at the museum is creating social media or written content for the public to view. This can be creating posts that highlight work done by the folks downstairs, or writing for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. This is where my job somewhat parallels the education department. The goal of these kinds of projects is to educate people who are not necessarily in the museum. It ensures that our work is shared with more than just the folks who visit the museum in person. It also is a way of breaking down these big, complex topics that are researched at UAMN and making them into smaller, more digestible bits of information. It makes everyday a learning experience for myself which is one of my favorite parts of my job.
The marketing part of the visitor services department is a little bit more serious and measured by quantitative data. For example, number of visitors, total revenue, and revenue from the store. This is where we hope that the work we. do on social media and local news outlets actually results with more people walking in the door. It is a big responsibility, but marketing is a really interesting topic. I am curious what marcom looks like at larger museums where the number of visitors reaches over a million people each year. I would also be curious to learn about marcom at an institution like the Smithsonian, which actually does not charge any entrance fee. There is an abundance of thought that goes into entrance fees, discounts, and tiered pricing that I find fascinating!
My question to the class is, what about your own ideal job at the museum keeps you intrigued? What is the thing that you think would make you look forward to going to work everyday?
Hi Maxine! Being a cultural history manager is something that really interests me. I love learning and sharing different cultures through the center I currently work at. Being able to expand on that and bring in more diversity and representation is one of my main goals! I also love talking to people an sharing stories, so that is a huge bonus!
Thanks!
Your job sounds amazing, and your description is really making me re-think my ideal museum job, lol. My ideal job would be working in the education department, as I love to teach, especially kids. If I could teach kids in a way that makes them dynamically interested, we might have a chance to create more historians, anthropologists, teachers, marketing, etc for the very museums we love. At the very least, I love to find ways to connect with the “cool” kids – the ones that are too cool to love museums. 😉
Thanks for sharing what you love about your job at the museum Maxine. We’ve really benefitted from having you join our team – having reliable and diverse social media posts helps people break through our serious, hard outer shell to get to our chewy center – the interesting and devoted people who do the work to bring out the value of our collections! Museum work is ultimately storytelling and our whole team works to show how these collections tie us all together!
I love that I never know what I’ll be doing from one day to the next – I might be helping a family reconnect with objects made by their grandmother, and then the next day I get to talk to a VIP tour of visiting diplomats, and then the next day I get to spend the whole day cataloging objects and moving collections around in the range to improve their organization and discoverability. It’s the best!