Amidst coronavirus-related public closures, a museum employee has become a beloved social media sensation.

'Welcome Sunset' statue outside National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum..jpg
The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City ©John Elk

His name is Tim Tiller and he’s the director of security and operations services at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. While also safeguarding the shutdown museum, Tim is overseeing its daily Twitter, Instagram and Facebook postings.

Since e-introducing himself on 17 March, Tim has been learning the ropes in onsite content creation. In his museum posts, he uses dad jokes, adds #HashtagTheCowboy and signs off with “Thanks, Tim.”

Before this, Tim wasn’t on social media much, saying that he has “spent a little time on Facebook, but that’s it.”

Yet he became the virtual ambassador that the museum needed. “We wanted to find a way to keep our audience engaged,” said chief marketing and communications officer Seth Spillman. “Knowing that security would be left in the building no matter what, we had the idea of showing the museum to world from Tim’s perspective.”

With guidance from the museum’s marketing staff, Tim’s authentically lovable strategy is incredibly engaging. Twitter followers now count over 267,000; Facebook and Instagram presence have also considerably grown.

The extra duty isn’t tough on Tim. He’s having a blast with balancing security measures with social media. “I have some time on my hands in an empty building.”

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