Free Museum Content What is the value of your online content?
Free Museum Content What is the value of your online content?
March 25, 2021 by Taylor Studios
Imagine coming across this announcement on social media:
As you scroll down, you see another announcement:
Would you be more interested in responding to the free puppy or the puppy that is for sale? Getting something for nothing can feel too good to be true. We wonder where the catch is and are looking for the flaws. Questions start to formulate such as what is wrong with the free puppy? Why are they giving it away?
The same mentality holds true for the sudden explosion of free online content. Why is everything online free for institutions that had once charged an entrance fee to visit their site? What is the catch?
The unfortunate answer is that many organizations were reacting to their doors being closed. Quarantine mandates stopped many in-person experiences. Regulations varied from state to state and city to city. Without the hope of drawing people to their physical location, they quickly turned to providing online content to maintain a connection with the public. Keeping people safe, but also keeping people engaged became a new problem that many cultural institutions had never faced before.
What is the catch with the free online content?
In the beginning of the quarantine, there was a spike in the online attendance. According to a , the shift was very short-lived, lasting only a few days for the interest was lost again. Despite the dip, organizations continue to add to their online content. The investment in learning how to create, produce, and publish online content required many resources such as money and time. To justify the investments made, some have made a commitment to growing the online content. However, will they see a return on this investment in the future?
The catch for these cultural institutions is that “free” is not a sustainable business model. Doing work for free will never pay the bills. The organizations with an online presence, also have a physical space. Fixed costs are still there even when visitors are at home. Buildings have maintenance and upkeep. Many professionals are worried about investing into the future as they need to find revenue streams that will pay the everyday expenses.
Another unfortunate downside is the expectation that online content should be free. Many people do not want to attend something that is virtual with a price tag. Virtual conferences are struggling to convince their attendees that the content is what drives the cost of the conference, not the location.
How can institutions evolve from giving away a free puppy to offering a pedigree program? What changes can the visitor expect to see in the future?
Kristian Zambrana, the Director of Visitor Services at the , explored their journey in determining the value of services they provide. Kristian mentioned that in the beginning they offered free online content as quickly as they could to keep the mission going and stay connected with the community. There is still a debate on what to charge for and what remains free. They are offering a valuable resource to the community and their number one goal is education. They are a non-profit organization that still has bills to pay from payroll to the electric bill. The educational programming that the center provided was the revenue stream that fed the organization. They had a dilemma, they needed to charge in a time when many people needed a free resource.
They decided to look at it in a scientific way; identify the problem, find a solution, and implement. The online content that was free to the public was opening the doors to future in-person experiences that could charge a fee. If the public could trust in the organization for quality free content, then when the regulations became less rigid, the public would feel confident and comfortable with visiting the science center again. They have opened up the STEM lab for students. Working parents have an alternative space to safely send their children to do remote learning with access to internet, an educator, and tech assistance. For this program they were first to market, so they didn’t really have a good comparison to model after. They saw what other organizations were doing, evaluated the costs, and took the current environment of the world into consideration. At the end of the day, they needed to make sure they could cover the costs of the program and have not received any pushback on the price for the service.
This is a huge accomplishment for any organization and especially in times of a global pandemic. Kristian stated that they were still doing their regular jobs while also thinking about how experiences can be made in a digital or virtual format. They had to think about more than just solving their own problems in the moment. They had to also see how what they had to offer could benefit others.
Jocelyn O’Neill the Environmental Education Coordinator at the will always provide free content. Any video or curriculum posted on the website is free. The government agency only charges for specific in-person programs and it is important that participants value the product that they offer. Therefore, they hope that the free online digital content will help people in learning and exploring until they are able to return safely to regular operations.
Financially, we are all figuring out how the new normal will look. Programs may be free or may have a cost. In either case, a program should always offer value to those signing up and spending time to participate. The main question should be, “How can I sign up?” and not, “What’s the catch?”