Museums and communication channels: insights from social media choices

Purpose of the paper: The purpose of the work is to analyze the role of social media choices in communication channels of the cultural museums district. The paper focuses on how use their social and analytics’ tools in order to meet the needs of different targets before Covid-19. Methodology: We used a qualitative methodology, and we conducted an empirical investigation of multiple case studies (Yin, 1992): in particular, we chose evidence from the museum district of via Duomo in Naples, analyzing the eight cultural sites that compose it. Main Findings: Main findings show that the museums analyzed did not have a planned communication strategy (e.g. uniform content on all social platforms; publication of posts at wrong times, etc.) showing the lack of a common strategy of the district. Furthermore, the potential of foreign tourists is still little exploited and their presence on these pages is too marginal. Practical implications: Each cultural institution should use an integrated and planned strategy of digital communication. In particular, they should diversify their posts tailored to the main type of audience used by the single social media. Originality/value: This work offers a better understanding of the impact that digitalization and social media tools may have on cultural institutions.