Connecting characteristics of social media activities of a heritage organisation to audience engagement

Abstract

Cultural organisations are increasingly leveraging social media in their activities: although often considered primarily as a marketing tool, analysing social media interactions can provide insight into the changing nature of heritage engagement. Taking an Instagram account maintained by Historic Environment Scotland as an example, this study analyses the performance of activities on the platform to explore the characteristics of exceptionally-performing activities. This study showed there is not a strong relationship with the subject or geographic focus of a post or story on Instagram. Rather, posts that performed exceptionally (as indicated by the standard metrics of Instagram performance) could be classified by a set of five types of engagement: 1) participation, 2) storytelling, 3) sharing user-generated content, 4) relating heritage to popular media or culture, and 5) providing information. An additional investigation of the way in which users interacted Stories (a series of sequential content) revealed that content within the first two slides were proportionally viewed much higher than the subsequent slides. These findings further understanding of the nature of heritage engagement in an increasingly digital world with implications for how heritage organisations engage with diverse communities within the public.