New Frontiers of Online Communication of Small and Medium Museums in Campania Region, Italy

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the marketing relationship between small and medium museums in Campania Region and their current and potential audience. In this regard, the effectiveness of online communication proposed by these museums in relation to consumers is analyzed. A comparison is made with online communication effectiveness of large museums in order to analyse the main differences and to identify the related managerial implications. Method: The research method is based on the study of multiple cases, used in its descriptive mode. Out of 21 museums in Campania having a website administrated by the museums themselves, we selected 10 small and medium ones. Subsequently was conducted a content analysis on the aspects of the communication of Facebook pages and web sites of the 10 selected museums. Finally, 10 museums were compared with 4 large museum consortiums. Findings: The analysis has demonstrated that the communication through the Web 2.0 tools is more suited for establishing dialogic relations with the current and potential museum audiences. It has also shown that from the perspective of advanced interactivity, due to their management creativity and flexibility the communicative content of the museums under study is generally more effective than in case of larger museums having more human resources and capital at their disposal. Research limits: The main limitation of the research is that it does not detect if a performant interactive online communication is able to stimulate demand cultural. It should be noted that this objective was not the purpose of research of this paper. Originality of the study: The paper is an original and innovative work since in the literature there is no similar research conducted by other authors. Furthermore, nobody has analyzed the relationship between Facebook pages and web sites in the field of museums in the Campania region.