Exploring Museums Communication through Social Media: A Comparative Study of the British Museum in London and the National Archaeological Museum in Venice

Abstract

Recently, Social Media have become an integral part of daily life, not only by being employed for personal purposes but also as tools for promotion, dissemination, and audience engagement. Historically, museums have relied on various forms of communication to inform audiences about exhibitions and news. With the emergence of new technologies, this communication has expanded to include websites and social media platforms (Russo and Watkings, 2005; Mandarano, 2009; Arora, 2015; Veliverronena and Lepik, 2015). This study aims to analyze and understand the communication strategies and language utilized by the British Museum and the Venice Archaeological Museum on their respective Instagram channels, assessing their effectiveness in engaging the public. Data for this research was collected through a systematic analysis of the Instagram accounts of the two museums. The study specifically examines the language employed and the relationship between text and images to gain insights into the museums' communication approaches. And, by focusing on the use of trends and humor in their communication strategies, this study seeks to understand how museums adapt their communication to digital platforms and to evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies in engaging diverse audiences. The findings of this study contribute to an understanding of effective social media communication strategies for cultural institutions.