So that was a bit of a longer break than I thought it’d be, but I’m back with: content.

In the meantime I’ve been doing a few things - I’ll be starting a fun new gig in October (more on that once the ink’s dry on the contract), I’ve been having fun making content with Art UK and visiting lots of museums for workshops, and I spoke to Alice Loxton for the GEM conference.

Based on her success I expected her to have a Steven Bartlett-esque journey (without the wankery), but it was nice to hear that it’s actually more simple:

• She just started sharing the things she liked most about history and heritage sites. Her kick-off viral posts were about bollards and WW-I stretchers repurposed into railings. The kind of stuff anyone can pick up from Wikipedia or - shock - museums.

• She only carries around a tripod, phone and microphone. She uses Capcut to generate captions and stick videos together. That’s it.

• Museums shouldn’t be afraid of influencers but should also prepare for them. Have something on the website saying how people can or cannot film things. Invite them in too, give them something exclusive.

• As it was the GEM conference, it was interesting to hear from teachers who used her content because Alice had ‘done her homework’. There’s a niche here for content kids are used to seeing on their phones, but backed up by fact-checking and tied to the curriculum.

Content of the last month or so

• A lot of love for these Day In The Life of a peasant videos from English Heritage. It’s a useful format and nicely ties into the Bayeux Tapestry mania, but I find the script a…little stilted, in the sense that I know I’m watching an educational video that’s trying to hit several learning outcomes. But they’re still great.

• This kind of orchestra content (as well as this) makes me think that classical music may actually work for me, but if anything the content is incidental - it’s about the programming. But I wouldn’t know about the programming without the content.

• Just a nice lil trend from Lynn Museum, as a treat.

• And also something I actually got in at the ground floor for once - Leominster Heritage’s (AI-generated?) songs about architectural features. I liked it when it had about 40 Likes, and now it’s 205k. It beautifully ties together ‘things-appearing-to-a-beat’, naff-but-good animations, and something just weird enough to find that wider audience. I don’t know how many of them I can watch in a row though.

• I also keep seeing a ton of this guy guessing things from little snippets, like naming historical figures based on where they were born and died. You could take any expert and replicate the format.

• I’m obsessed with these bin comparison videos. Ripe for comparing similarly superficially boring but actually quite interesting taxonomies.

The bullet point bit

• The Audience Agency closed down after 14 years. First, I feel for the colleagues I knew and everyone else who worked there - all of them passionate about using data for good and incredible at their jobs. Second, a fury at ACE for cutting the legs from under them by transferring their data collection from TAA - an organisation from within and for the sector - and giving it to a big 4 accountancy firm where the contract revenue is a rounding error for their finances. It’s a huge loss for the sector.

• Social media companies were taken to court in the USA and lost, but not as badly as you’d have hoped. There’ll be a few more prompts to tell kids that using social media is bad for them and not much else. This shit needs legislation.

• I noticed you can now link Instagram Reels to other videos so you can make a little playlist. Useful.

Personal stuff I do for me and you can just skip this if you like

🎮📖 what I’m consuming as a consumer

Let’s see. I went to Reading Festival to see Geese, and they were good. I feel like I’ve done other things but it’s all a blur. I existed. I ate, I slept, I tried to get my toddler to put her socks on.

🐕 Keith

Here he is