Discussion of findings and conclusion

The purpose of this chapter was to investigate the role of digital technologies and social media in the marketing communications strategies of museums, as well as the type of interaction between visitors and museums on digital platforms. We focused on the understanding of the characteristics that a museum’s digital strategy should involve in order to engage visitors.

Based on our findings, the present study provides some suggestions for the social media management concerning the development and implementation of an effective digital strategy in the museum sector. For museums, digital technology is confirmed to enhance visitors’ engagement (Enhuber, 2015). In accordance with Bautista (2014), specifically, social media have created new opportunities for museums to exploit their cultural assets: digital technologies are used as a tool to support the experiential infrastructure in the museums, but they can also develop a conversation with users before, during, and after the visit thanks to online platforms and e-WOM.

Nowadays, social media have increased their importance of a museum’s digital strategy because of the change in visitors’ experience (Light et al., 2018). Our findings highlight the importance of social networks to build positive interactions with visitors: museums should develop a clear and coherent social media strategy with a recognizable identity. This is fundamental to achieve the goal of approaching the target and make sure the represented institution can be perceived as an active part of society. From this study, it has emerged that, in order to establish a durable relationship with visitors, museums’ communications should deliver a homogeneous tone of voice and originality in their content contents, and develop an integrated conversation with visitors on a variety of platforms. The combination of these elements within a long-term digital strategy will contribute to effective results in terms of visitors’ engagement in the museum sector.

In future research, further investigations on the use of social media in museums could use an experimental approach to evaluate the effects of social media brand awareness and quantify their impact on museums’ performance.

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