TITLE:
New Frontiers of Online Communication of Small and Medium Museums in Campania Region, Italy
AUTHORS:
Giuseppe Vito, Alessandra Sorrentini, Davide Di Palma, Vincenzo Raiola, Maria Tabouras
KEYWORDS:
Campania Region, Museum, Online Communication, Facebook, Management, Marketing
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Industrial and Business Management,
Vol.7 No.9,
September
25,
2017
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.