The impact of social media marketing activities in the museum industry

Abstract

PurposeThe social media expands the scope of museum marketing. Through the social media marketing, visitors get a rich and colorful visual experience, and the museum can quickly and effectively convey various information to visitors. At present, the research on social media in the museum industry mainly focuses on the level of technology use, while the research on the marketing application of social media is relatively scarce, especially from the empirical perspective. This study constructs a conceptual model to identify the impact of SMMAs on visitor experience in the context of the museum industry through the empirical analysis.Design/methodology/approachA survey is conducted with a total of 538 visitors who follow the fan page of the Palace Museum Weibo. The collected data are analyzed via structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results show that SMMAs have significant effects on social presence and social support, which in turn significantly affect flow state. Moreover, the results demonstrate that social presence and social support partially mediates the relationships between SMMAs and flow state.Originality/valueThe contribution of this study is twofold. First, from a theoretical perspective, it offers new insights into the conceptualization of social media marketing. Second, from a pragmatic perspective, the results are helpful to guide museums how to carry out social media marketing activities.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-12-2020-0564

Research note – Sensational museums on TikTok: reaching young virtual tourists with short videos

“…Third, the use of short videos with themes such as history, infotainment, information and promotional elements. These findings are consistent with those of Luo et al (2022), who emphasized the importance of excitement and entertainment value in delivering pleasurable and engaging content for social media engagement among virtual museum visitors. This study's findings provide empirical support for the "contributing" and "consuming" components of Dolan et al's (2016) SMEB model.…”

“…The elements of social presence on social media allow users to become deeply involved, absorbed, engaged and engrossed in interactions by influencing their thoughts and emotions (Zhang et al , 2014). According to Zhang et al ’s (2014) conceptualization of social presence, Luo et al (2022) discovered that social media marketing activities significantly affect social presence, affecting museum visitors’ flow state. This study demonstrates that the flow state enables visitors to fully engage in the activity – in this case, virtual engagement with the museum (Figure 1).…”

Effective Digital Advertising: The Influence of Customised Ads, Self-esteem and Product Attributes

“…In this study, we adopt the customised standardisation method because it is easier to control in an experiment. Customisation facilitates information tailored to individual preferences and tastes (Luo et al, 2022). Consumers generate more positive ad attitudes when receiving customised advertising (Bright & Daugherty, 2012) and identify with products more easily (Kwon et al, 2017).…”

Digitalization Of Marketing as Innovation Tool of Customers’ Evaluation

“…Moreover, virtual museums and online services help attract people and are marketing system tools but cannot replace real museum visits and interactions with historical values. Through social media marketing, visitors have rich and colourful visual experiences, and museums can quickly and effectively convey information to visitors (Luo et al, 2022).…”