About Benaki Museum (SM channels)

Good evening everyone,
Today I´m going to analyse the website of The Benaki Museum, one of the most importants about Greek culture in Greece. In this analysis I will explore, above all, the way in which this institution communicates with its clients through social networks.

The Benaki Museum of Greek Culture is housed in one of the most beautiful neoclassical-style buildings in Athens, near the National Garden and the Hellenic Parliament. It was converted into a museum in order to shelter the collections of Antonis Benakis and was donated to the Greek nation by himself and his three sisters. Following its most recent refurbishment (1989–2000), the building houses a unique exhibition on Greek culture arranged diachronically from prehistory to the 20th century. Here is the homepage of the museum´s website.

At the bottom of the homepage of the website there´s some icons which take the user directly to the social media channels of the museum (facebook, twitter, youtube, flickr, instagram and pinterest)

I will talk specially about Instagram which is the one, in my opinion, that have the most important social impact.  

Instagram´s account of the museum seems to be very updated. It has all the photos and videos of the exhibitions and events of the museum documented and organized in the Highlights Stories of Instagram. Also, announcements about new exhibitions, activities, conferences, special days organized by the museum, coffees, colloquiums, etc; they are all posted here. Every day there is an average of 1 post uploaded, and three or four stories shared, always related to updated information every week. Almost all its publications reach 1000 likes, others stay around the 500 likes, I guess because of their content (not photographs of works of art, just announcements, etc)

 Anyway, the likes or comments that may have the posts of an Instagram account are not very significant when analyzing the impact it has on users; since few (and I speak from experience) stop to look at the posts that are uploaded daily; few people do what we would call "going up and down in the house icon". What users really frequent now are the Instastories, where you could really say that you see the day to day of different people, shops, institutions, organizations, etc. In terms of marketing the Instastories provide greater reliability to companies, which can show the insides of their business and their daily work, which conveys a sense of transparency in the user as for the company. As for this last account of the museum is also very up-to-date, and uploads every day information of interest and videos and photos of life in the museum: how the exhibitions are organized, mini interviews with some donors of the exhibited pieces, brief explanations about the works by museum experts, etc. These Instastories have at least 3000 views, far exceeding the likes that may have the posts.

So, if you have time to do it, go through the Instagram account of the museum and you will see a good example of how to manage social networks to advertise your business, institution, personal profile, etc.

How Mythology is transmitted (About IA)

Hi everyone, 
I was looking to some other blogs and websites related to greek mythology, and I would like to talk to you about this one, in order to see its Information Architecture. Yes! This is something all the websites have, and it is very interesting to learn about it with this example, as it is so clear and complete.

First of all, the Information Architecture is the structure in which the different pieces of the website are divided. For understanding the I.A. of a website there is a Navigation Map (not normally available for the users) which shows the way in which the website is divided. These maps are organised into nodes and links: nodes are the different options of information that the site offers, and links the connections between them.

Knowing this technical information I will make a little analysis of this web, whose home page (sorry for the advertisements) its above. 
The first impression I take when I entered in the website is a sense of clarity in the information and seriousness and reliability in the content. This is because the site has a hierarchical structure in its design, as almost all websites do. These deep structure which orders the information first, in a home page (where all the options and entries can be seen) and then in sections, which in turn, have sub-sections; its what gives us that impression of clarity and order. This good vibrations I had to the web page are very subjective, because I personally fit very well with that type of user´s navigating which the hierarchical structure of a site determines; which is searching, and not browsing or navigating (which are also interesting, but no when the objective is to work)

There is another thing I liked a lot about this page. Apart from all the information that is provided the site also offers an extensive bibliography of books, manuscripts, and a vast amount of websites from where they have compiled all the information; and it is here, I suppose, where we can find the external links which encourage users to continue navigating, browsing and discovering in the web.


 

Encyclopedia Mythica

Recently, I have been working with catalogs on the internet. I'm not talking about those magazines your mom used to get with cheeky graphic t-shirt designs; I'm referencing the websites with an influx of information about a certain topic presented in an orderly fashion that makes it easy for the user. As a follower of this blog, you may be interested in knowing more about mythology, (or you're my professor, in which case Hey Wila☺️), so I will point you towards some excellent online information resources.

I have found an online catalog about mythology on https://pantheon.org. On this website you can search through 11,412 articles about every topic in mythology you can think of. The home screen has a good brief display of the content in the database. If you have a specific topic you need information about, you can search for it in the search bar. It also features a list of the different genres of mythology and folklore for you to choose from, as well as how many articles are included in that section.

They update their website everyday. Everyday they feature a different Deity everyday. For example, today's Deity (November 26, 2018) is Rhea, the mother of the Olympian gods. They also name the important events of each day. Today's important events are feast days for St. Leonard of Port Maurice and St. Sylvester Gozzolina.

This web catalog of mythology is a great source of information about whatever topic you might need help with. Its very well organized for you to navigate easily. I hope this helps on your journey to learn more about mythology.

Do you have a favourite museum?

Yes I do. Last week I was working on the catalogue Rethinking Guernica , and that makes me think which catalogue related with museus I like most. Finally I get into the conclusion that is El Museo del Prado. 
It has a mixture of art, History and obviously, pur favourite subject guys, Myhtology.
I encourage all of you to find what wich catalogue do you like more and why. You will start a way full of surprises.

Voices

Nowadays, thanks to new technologies, social networks such as Instagram, FaceBook, Twitter, or Blogger we can be transmit any kind of information to our followers. By using photos, videos or AUDIOS!!!

Yes, those last days we were thinking of working on this new project, it was interesting, funny an amazing. How we discover many ways to work with a tool we use constantly during the day. 

But here is the big question, why? why any website or business will use a tool like these nowadays that we can edit videos or inphographies?

The first reason could be: Comfort.

This is the main advantage of the audios instead of videos or inpfographies is that the user is not obligated to stop everything he is doing for watching the video or the any kind of visual tool. The audio is a kind of "second radio", you can keep doing you things. And in this case (our audio) is an interview, there are not to much to see. It is true we could apport images of the Acropolis, the muse or any other thing, but the esence is in the history, on what they are telling us. 

What do you think? 

Roman Mythology Animated

Although not quite as popular as Greek mythology, Roman mythology is still very important in today's society. This video gives a well detailed and early understandable overview of Roman mythology. The video highlights the difference between Roman and Greek mythology. It compares which gods were adapted from Greek mythology as well as explanations of the similarities and differences between them. The video also explains how the emergence of Roman mythology coincided with and influenced the founding of the Roman Empire.

The videos animation makes it interesting for many audiences. While the animation is entertaining, it isn't distracting from the educational prospect of the video. It highlights the story being told to help the viewer understand the content. The animation is done very well and is consistent throughout the video. It is whimsical, but in a way that keeps the viewer interested.

The author of the video makes a series of educational videos about history. He has been posting animated videos on YouTube for 2 years and has about 245,000 subscribers. The video itself is almost 8 minutes long but packs in almost the complete history of Roman mythology. The video has been viewed 311,000 views and has received 661 comments. It has been liked 6,900 times and disliked 151 times. The author has made many videos over the past 2 years. I would recommend seeing some of his other work. His videos are both educational and entertaining.

Journey Through the Acropolis

Check out Helena´s Journey Through the Acropolis!