Hello Peter,
If there is one data source that may help with this, it could be worth looking at the visitor profile, particularly the number of visitors who come from outside of the local authority. At the Royal Pavilion and Museums, we developed our first independent site back in 2001 or so, although, for historic reasons, it was bundled with the library service. (They remain so at present, but will be separating soon.) For the museum pages on that site, only about 22% of our visitors come from Brighton & Hove. On the library pages, which are probably more typical of a Council service, that figure is about 55-60%. In our case, that difference is largely driven by the tourist economy, particularly those considering visits to the Royal Pavilion. But it's striking that even on those parts of our web presence which are not directly related to planned physical visits (eg. online collections), the proportion of local visitors is still around 30%.
That figure may vary, but if the museums you are talking to have a distinctly different geographic audience from the other parts of the Council (perhaps the Council can supply that data from their existing metrics?), that may be something to factor into a business plan. Council websites are built for providing information and services to local residents, so they may not be the best channel for attracting non-local audiences, or communities of interest.
Also, if any of these museums have fundraising activities in their plans, it may be worth building this into a business case. I don't know of any figures for this, but encouraging philanthropy through the corporate identity of a tax raising body is going to be providing some very mixed messages....
Cheers,
Kevin
Kevin Bacon
Digital Development Officer
The Royal Pavilion and Museums, Brighton & Hove
4 - 5 Pavilion Buildings
Brighton BN1 1EE
Tel: 01273 292817
Fax: 01273 292871
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From: Museums Computer Group [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Peter Pavement [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 27 January 2014 10:10
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MCG] Local authority museums: own websites vs pages on the council's site
Dear All
Does anybody know of any studies or other data sources looking at the effectiveness of separate websites for local authority museums compared to just having some pages on the main council website?
I have a few council run museums looking for help to make a case for an independent website as part of their digital media activities. Some facts and figures to back them up would help.(Presupposing that the facts and figures point in that direction of course!)
Best regards
Peter
Peter Pavement
Director
Surface Impression Ltd
01273 958600
[log in to unmask]
www.surfaceimpression.com
@peterpavement
@surfimpress
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