Title: Visitors engagement and social media in museums: evidence from Italy

Authors: Alberto Romolini; Silvia Fissi; Elena Gori

Addresses: International Telematic University Uninettuno, Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, 39, 00186, Rome, Italy ' Department of Business and Economics, University of Florence, Via delle Pandette, 9, 50127 Florence, Italy ' Department of Business and Economics, University of Florence, Via delle Pandette, 9, 50127 Florence, Italy

Abstract: Museums are increasingly using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the other social media to communicate their activities and exhibitions, organise projects and debates, build and sustain communities of visitors. Moreover, one of the increasing use of social media is the engagement of actual and potential visitors. However, considering the novelty of the theme, the literature seems to be scarce and this finding suggests the necessity to study more-in-depth the use of social media in museums. Hence, the research aim is to study the use of social media for visitor engagement considering the case of Italian museums. The results show that, despite the increasing use and popularity in social media, the level of engagement in Italian museums is quite absent. Consequently, while Italian museums are very popular and well-known on social media, they are not able to use them for visitor engagement.

Keywords: visitors; engagement; social media; Facebook; Twitter; museums; Italy; frequency; popularity; virality; commitment.

DOI: 10.1504/IJDCET.2020.105906

International Journal of Digital Culture and Electronic Tourism, 2020 Vol.3 No.1, pp.36 - 53

Received: 13 Mar 2019
Accepted: 07 Oct 2019
Published online: 16 Mar 2020 *