Relaunching the COVID-19 Chronicles: A Social Media Campaign During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Steeves, Allison E.

Student Work

Relaunching the COVID-19 Chronicles: A Social Media Campaign During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Público

In this project, I sought to revive community interest in the COVID-19 Chronicles digital archive in order to understand how cultural institutions, like Worcester Historical Museum (WHM), can meaningfully engage with and effectively collect stories from their audiences during the pandemic. My objectives for this project were threefold: 1.) to promote the contribution of quality items to the COVID-19 Chronicles items, 2.) foster a space for dialogue surrounding the experience of the pandemic in Worcester, and 3.) inspire community contributors to pursue their own projects and initiatives using the items in the archive. To this end, I constructed and managed a social media campaign for the COVID-19 Chronicles brand, crafted digital exhibits, and interviewed social media managers from other historical institutions across the country. Based on the results of my own social media campaign and the themes that emerged across interviews with social media managers of other historical institutions, I observe a growing need for museums to adapt to the digital spaces utilized by current and prospective audiences and consider how social media can be used to define and build meaningful relationships with such audiences. Ultimately, this project is a reflection on how COVID-19 has accelerated a drastic shift to online spaces and what that will mean for professionals in writing and interactive media going forward into a post-pandemic future.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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