Something that could easily be over looked about the IMA’s web presence is the amount of social media the museum is creating on a weekly basis.

So in the process of the redesign, the IMA Stream was invented.  What is the IMA Stream? You might ask.  Well the idea behind the stream was to create a single consolidated “stream” of all the content that is being produced by the museum.  The stream contains up to the minute updates from Flickr, Twitter, the IMA Blog, press releases, YouTube, Del.icio.us, and Artbabble.  This allows visitors to quickly browse thru the latest internet offerings from the museum in one convenient spot.

The system was made possible utilizing a common internet standard known as RSS.  In a nutshell, RSS is a standard for sharing and syndicating content across the internet. Leveraging the power of RSS feeds we are able to programmatically aggregate all of our content from multiple sites into a single feed which is what you see when you visit the IMA website.

plenty more here

I’m in no way comparing our new site with Lolcats. But they mentioned a strategy that we have directly copied with European Design – and will be doing so with a another ‘art video’ site later this month. They shared with the packed Austin, TX audience (munching on cheeseburgers), that with I Has a Hotdog! they very quietly released the site. No major marketing campaigns, no online ads, no webcasts – you get the picture. It launched and they watched. They watched it gain traffic, made changes and waited. We’re doing something similar with European Design.

European Design Since 1985: Shaping the New Century

This exhibition opens March 8, so in the weeks leading up to this opening, you’ll begin to see more marketing strategies associated with the exhibition and this new site. This will include print pieces, billboard, e-mails, etc. This is one of the earliest site launches ever done by the IMA and the site is still incomplete. I don’t see a problem with that.  With our projects, we often wait until the very last moment – or when we feel that it has reached the ‘perfect’ level.  I’m all for taking a more informal approach to what we publish.

We will be adding Designer Profiles on a regular basis between now and the run of the show. We will be adding audio and video content. And we have a couple of tricks up our sleeves for other content ideas. Some IMA staff have posted this site on their Facebook walls, e-mailed friends, or tweeted. You may have found it within IMA’s main site.

Now I’m letting the lolcat out of the bag – blog style. Come see a site that will keep getting better and before the real marketing campaign begins. It’s like a band that’s on the verge of making it, and you can say, “I knew it when…”