Museums and social media: the case of the Museum of Natural History of Florence

Over the last 5 years, Social Media (SM) have been emphasized as a means for non-profit organizations to build and strengthen relations with a variety of stakeholders, although empirical studies have found a substantial delay in their adoption compared to profit-driven organizations. Less attention has been devoted to the cultural sector, wherein SM have been widely emphasized as a way to empower visitors. To this purpose, the paper presents a case study of a medium-sized non-profit cultural institution, the Museum of Natural History of Florence (MNH), which has engaged relatively early with SM. First, the role of different social networks within the museum's communication activities is analysed through direct interviews. Moreover, the intensity of the museum's interactions with its stakeholders on SM is measured. Finally, the nature of interactions with stakeholders on SM is identified through a qualitative contents analysis of the museum's profiles on Facebook and Twitter. The empirical analysis allows to compare the theoretical potential of Social Media with their actual implementation in a real-life context, besides shedding light on the organizational challenges that medium-sized cultural institutions such as the MNH have to face when engaging with Social Media.