Digital Public Archaeology at Must Farm: A Critical Assessment of Social Media Use for Archaeological Engagement

• 1. Introduction
• 2. The Must Farm Project
  • 2.1 Social media selection and content
• 3. Methodology
  • 3.1 Quantitative data
  • 3.2 Qualitative data
• 4. Data Analysis
  • 4.1 Metrics: initial growth and media coverage
  • 4.2 Higher visibility content
  • 4.3 Average Page and Post Metrics
  • 4.4 Negative metrics
  • 4.5 User interactivity and engage
    • 4.5.1 Reach
    • 4.5.2 Engaged users
    • 4.5.3 Likes and reactions
    • 4.5.4 Shares
  • 4.6 Comments
    • 4.6.1 Content questions, general questions, interpretation and conversation
    • 4.6.2 Responsiveness
    • 4.6.3 Excitement, compliments and humour
    • 4.6.4 Negative comments
    • 4.6.5 Digital Outreach thanks and praise
  • 4.7 Audiences
• 5. Discussion
  • 5.1 Applicability and Scalability
  • 5.2 Degrees of Engagement
  • 5.3 Limitations
• 6. Conclusion
• Acknowledgements

Figure 1: The excavation uncovers the 'wood mass' of well-preserved debris and contents from the pile-dwellings. Image: Cambridge Archaeological Unit

Figure 2: The Must Farm Archaeology Facebook page

Figure 3: Examples of a daily progress post and Site Diary link

Figure 4: Facebook Metrics: 6 Oct 2015 to 8 Aug 2016 (Daily New Page Likes, Total Page Likes, Daily Page Reach and Daily Engaged Users)

Figure 5: Negative metrics: 6 Oct 2015 to 8 Aug 2016 (Feedback, Unlikes)

Figure 6: The percentage of Post Clicks that translate to Reactions, Comments and Shares left during the final months of the project: 13 Apr 2016 to 8 Aug 2016

Figure 7: Facebook Metrics: 6 Oct 2015 to 8 Aug 2016 (On-Page Post Likes, On-Page Post Shares and On-Page Post Comments)

Figure 8: One of several comments left on media coverage of the project (Kennedy 2016a) directing readers to the project's website or social media

Figure 9: Coding results of all on-Page Comments received on the daily updates: 6 Oct 2015 to 8 Aug 2016

Figure 10: A selection of users' content and general questions

Figure 11: A selection of user Interpretation Comments

Figure 12: User Interpretations identifying a wooden artefact soon after it was excavated

Figure 13: A selection of Comments displaying Excitement, Compliments and Humour

Figure 14: A selection of user comments responding to Must Farm's digital outreach

Figure 15: Comparison of Facebook's global demographics and those of Must Farm Archaeology (after Facebook 2018c)

Table 1: Glossary of Facebook terminology

Table 2: Outlines of the coding categories into which User Comments were sorted

Table 3: Must Farm's ten most successful posts. Total Reactions, Comments and Shares incorporate off-page metrics including Comments and Likes on shared posts

Table 4: Averages of key metrics. Multiple averages are presented including/excluding particularly high or low periods of traffic

Table 5: Interactions received on 121 Posts from 13 Apr 2016 to 8 Aug 2016. Figures include interactions received on off-Page shares

Table 6: Stats from 119 Posts from 13 Apr 2016 to 8 Aug 2016. A total of 121 Posts were made, although two were Reshares and do not include Share data

Table 7: The stark contrast in Must Farm Archaeology's Facebook metrics between the last active month and the Page a year later

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