Visitors' social media photos have the power to transform museum practice. This forum will connect broader media theory about the use value of social photography with an exploration of what happens when museums encourage, archive and analyse social media photos related to their programs and collections. Four panellists specialising in digital media and museum education will come together: Jenny Kidd (Cardiff University, UK) will kick off with insights into the use-value of social photography gleaned from research into media and journalism, unpacking how it can be used to empower and diversify. She will go on to explore the kinds of agency, activism and play that can be fostered as a result of radical trust in such contexts. Chad Weinard (museum technologist, North Carolina) will discuss solutions for archiving visitor social media posts and connecting them to collection records. Capturing and charting such social ecosystems can provide fascinating new context to collection objects. Chad will explore how social photos can reveal collections that are alive, active and circulating in new ways. Alli Burness and Jim Fishwick (Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney) will present their research examining a dataset of visitor’s social media photographs and their resulting framework for a visitor-centered social media spectrum of engagement. Meagan Estep (National Gallery of Art, DC) will finish up by discussing what it means to create space for personal connection using a museum’s social media accounts and what it means for a museum social media manager to pay attention to what visitors are engaging with. The panel will then gather to speculate about how their ideas relate and how museums can be open to being influenced by our visitors’ social media photography. Speakers Session Leader : Alli Burness, Experience Designer, ThinkPlace Speaker : Meagan Estep, Social Media Manager, National Gallery of Art Speaker : Jenny Kidd, Director of Teaching and Learning, Cardiff University Speaker : Chad Weinard, Independent Technologist + Strategist, Independent MCN 2016 Presenting Sponsor: Piction New Orleans, LA