COVID-19 and museum social media content

Abstract

Many museums turned to social media to host educational and outreach content as museums across the globe closed their physical doors to the public during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. While early research indicated museum staff increased the amount of social media posts they published and developed new online services (ODI; AAM), there has yet to be a more detailed description of these changes. This study identifies and clarifies these changes by analyzing public content published to the Facebook pages of the 20 museums with the largest number of social media followers. Results indicate these museums increased their number of posts in April and May 2020, but dropped by June 2020. In addition, the types of content published shifted significantly. Posts featuring video content proliferated while photographs and links declined. Moreover, findings suggest the continued use of videos – particularly for capturing live events – may persist after museums fully reopen to the public. As such, implications and suggestions for museum educators looking to incorporate video content into their programming are provided.