To "like" a Museum : A Comparative Casestudy of Three Museums External Communication

The aim and purpose of this essay is to study if three museums are using Facebook strategically to promote two-way communication with their target audiences in their external communication. A qual-itative and comparative research method and has been used and communication managers from each of the three museums have been interviewed. These interviews have been transcribed and coded in order to reveal opinions and views on how that particular museum feels about social media and the use of these tools in their external communication. A number of Facebook statuses have also been collect-ed in order to discover how each of the museums is using social media in order to reach and engage their target groups. Should the results of this essay be summarized it would show that the museums are using the communication channel that they feel suits the needs of reaching a specific audience. These channels can be a variety of newspaper ads, television or radio commercials. This kind of one-way communication does not give the audience any chance of direct feedback or the possibility to voice opinion about the message that has been sent. The social media networking sites such as Facebook have filled this gap; this is also the main argument as to why these museums are using Facebook to reach promote two-way communications with their target audiences. Because of this Facebook has earned a central place in the practice of external communication for these museums. Those responsi-ble for the internal and external communication agree that the tools used to communicate with their audiences, whether it is social media or otherwise, no tool should be considered to be “better” than the other. The tools should instead be used to complement each other, and the need of the organization should dictate the choice of communication tool not the other way around