Follow a Museum, the inaugural day-long global campaign to increase museum followers and activity on Twitter, has been hailed a huge success after becoming one of the most popular topics on the trendy social networking site.
Figures showed thousands of mentions of the scheme had been made as it became the hottest topic in the UK, US and Canada during various parts of Monday (February 1).
"The initial signs are that it was a success," said organiser Jim Richardson, who created the campaign from his Museum Marketing website.
"The hashtag [search term for Follow a Museum] was used at least 6,000 times, not counting about 50 which I wrote myself, and the website received in excess of 10,000 unique visitors."
The Natural History Museum gained hundreds of new online fans. © Natural History Museum, Torben Eskerod
Richardson had urged his audience to "Tweet faster" as it swiftly became the most popular term of the day, receiving more Tweets than disgraced England captain John Terry's latest round of extra-marital deception, British tennis star Andy Murray's emotional defeat in the US Open final and latest Apple gadget the iPad.
Museums and galleries across the internet reported rises in popularity, from provincial presences to the Natural History Museum, which won more than 300 new fans.
"We were blown away and hope we'll deserve them," reflected the NHM’s Alex Lawson, promising public response would become "central" to their Twitter page.
"Our next step today is asking people on Twitter to tell us what they want from us."
The Casa Chihuahua Museum was one of Mexico's success stories. © Wikimedia user Lyricmac
Ned Loach, of London's Freud Museum, said the day had been "a morale boost" for the Museum, which only had five followers after opening its Twitter account last week.
"We weren't sure if it was going to be worth our time and effort to keep the account going, but because of the initiative we now have more than 50," he added.
"We are a very small museum, so I never expected to receive this many followers in one day. It was a brilliant idea."
The Science Museum of Minnesota, the Women's Museum in Dallas and the Art Institute of Chicago reported hundreds of new followers, and the Dutch Museum of Natural History won 40 new watchers.
Some sites enticed fans with bribery, including free tickets for the new Chris Ofili show at Tate Britain and membership of the Science Museum.
Portsmouth Historic Dockyard awarded a celebratory pen – downplayed as a "quirky gimmick" by resident Tweeter Melissa Gerbaldi – to the lucky 500th follower of the naval stronghold.
"We were thrilled to see the recommendations we were receiving," she said.
"We were supportive from the beginning, but the idea was managed in such a simple yet effective way."
In Mexico, where most museums were closed for a public holiday, the topic was still one of the most popular national searches, with 31 new followers for the Chihuahua Museum.
The campaign looks certain to be repeated next year, although the Tweets are far from over for 2010.
By the end of Tuesday, museums communicating via the campaign had moved on to seeking out undiscovered fellow local museums and Tweeters' favourite museum memories.
Visit the campaign homepage for more details.
Culture24 has developed a list of all UK Museums on Twitter - find it here.
