The Use of Social Media in the Danish Museum Landscape

nholdgaard — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 22:28:00 +0000

MW2011

Nanna Holdgaard, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Abstract

This paper examines Danish museums' use of social media on their own websites and on external sites like Facebook. The paper takes its point of departure in a study of the Danish online museum presence through an analysis of the museums' websites and presence at social media sites. The results of exploring 123 Danish museum websites and social media presences show that half of the Danish museums use social media - art museums being the most active among the Danish museums. Despite the fact that half of the Danish museums are on Facebook and write blogs, the majority of museums on a general level communicate with a low degree of user interaction, participation and engagement. The paper concludes that Danish museums in general use social media in order to attract more visitors to the physical museums.

Keywords: museum, online presence, social media, Facebook, Denmark

Program Item Reference:

Online Presence and the Act of Not Just Being There. The Use of Social Media by Danish Museums

nholdgaard — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 19:14:00 +0000

MW2011

Published Paper:

The Use of Social Media in the Danish Museum Landscape

Keywords:

social media

Keywords:

Facebook

Keywords:

Museum Websites

Keywords:

Denmark

Keywords:

online presence

Keywords:

survey

Abstract:

Through the last decades, a large amount of different initiatives have been set to explore, innovate and develop the presence of museums online both in an international context and in a Danish setting.

The aim of this paper is to examine how the Danish museums understand and approach online communication with a focus on the use of social media. So far, the empirical based knowledge of how museums' actually act online in terms of social media is very scarce. This study will provide new insights into the field of digital museum communication and point to challenges of the present museum website categories by and ask if we need new categories to describe the museums online presence and communication.

The paper will take its point of departure in an outline of the Danish online museum landscape through an analysis of the museums' online content. This includes the presentation of the results of a content analysis of all the 123 state-owned and state-subsidized museums' websites and a study of the museums' use of social media. The content analysis focuses on the use of images, videos and sound effects or podcasts on the museum websites. The scope is to analyze how the Danish museums present themselves online and to discuss whether or not German media researcher Werner Schweibenz' four museum website categories (brochure, object, learning, and virtual museum) cover the reality of today's online museum communication.

The main part of the paper will, with Facebook as an example, examine the museums' presence on and use of social media platforms, examining different cases of Danish museums' interaction and communication on Facebook. According to Facebook's own statistics, Denmark is one of countries with the highest percentage of users per capita and every second Danish Internet user has a Facebook profile. Hence, the outreach potentials for the Danish museums are presumably high. The initial results of the investigation of the museums' social media use show, that half of all the Danish museums are present on Facebook, typically with a 'like' page, but a marginal number of museums also have a profile or a group. The paper will also use data from interviews with museum professionals and Facebook users and a content analysis of selected museums' Facebook ‘like' pages, profiles, and groups. The final paper will analyze how Facebook as a social network site with its specific design and interface and possibilities of interacting create both great potentials and barriers for when the museums interact and communicate online.

In addition to the above mentioned survey of Danish museums online, this paper will draw on data from my Ph.D. project on Online Museum Communication from a User Perspective and on new and unique data from a national survey of the Danish Museums' Web Users (2010) by The Heritage Agency of Denmark.

Type:

Paper - in formal session

Social Media and Beyond

Authors:

Nanna Holdgaard

museumsandtheweb.com - Denmark

The Use of Social Media in the Danish Museum Landscape

Nanna Holdgaard, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Abstract

Online Presence and the Act of Not Just Being There. The Use of Social Media by Danish Museums