Identifying Museum Visitors via Social Network Analysis of Instagram

Abstract

As social networking services (SNSs) have become increasingly influential, they are now a vital element in art museums because communication with visitors is crucial. However, conventional methods of visitor studies do not consider the characteristics of SNS. Even when a museum uses an SNS as a marketing tool, it cannot sufficiently analyze the data to understand the visitor. Additionally, linking the SNS analysis content with the actual visitor in the museum requires an application to identify visitor types. Therefore, we extracted communities through a social network analysis of museum followers, analyzed the characteristics for specific groups, and designed a web-based, visitor-type analysis application for art museums based on text similarity measurements. The experimental results demonstrated that followers of each art museum on an SNS form a community with similar characteristics or interests. Furthermore, our developed application provides a new way to analyze the type of visitors in an art museum. Consequently, because it can automatically identify visitor types, it improves the exhibition experience of visitors by linking them with the exhibition contents or guide services and is a new attempt to connect SNS with the museum visitor.

Understanding Tourists’ Social Networking Site (SNS) Intention with Regards to World Heritage Sites: The Role of Motivation and Overall Image

“…As mentioned before, posts on SNSs could aid WHS managers in justifying trends and the density of tourist flow on site [42]. Playing the role of a marketing tool, data analyzed from SNS content can provide information on tourists' demographic background, including their personal characteristics and interests [77].…”

The Communication Challenge in Archaeological Museums in Puglia: Insights into the Contribution of Social Media and ICTs to Small-Scale Institutions

“…More recently, the virtual component is evaluated also for learning purposes [91][92][93], while SNs are arousing reflections on new social values assigned to museums (as support in crises, conflict, etc. ), being assessed also in this respect [94], sometimes even overcoming the museum field borders [95,96].…”

A Study on the Influencing Factors of Social Media in the Communication of Cultural Heritage Education: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Nine articles were published in 2022, and the topics covered were the role of social media in performing the educational function of cultural heritage (Gao & Lee, 2022;Kamba & Buba, 2022), research on the factors influencing sharing by cultural heritage visitors on social media (Han & Bae, 2022), customization of museum services through social media (Chang, 2022), dissemination of digital cultural heritage through social media (Pu & Kim, 2022), the impact of social media on cultural heritage tourism (Aldhanhani & Zainudin, 2022;Huang et al, 2022) on social media as a medium to provide personalized services to museum visitors, for example, through social media (Kim & Yu, 2018). 2019 also has less literature and research themes focused on the function of social media itself; for example, social media can facilitate the digitization of cultural heritage (Kim et al, 2019).…”

“…Among them, three are in Italy (Benedetti et al, 2021;Varriale et al, 2021;Zollo, 2022). Six are in Korea (Kim et al, 2019;Gao & Lee, 2022;Han & Bae, 2022;Chang, 2022; Pu One theme is in Southeast Asia (Ocón, 2021). One theme is in Turkey (AYDOĞDU, 2020).…”

“…three studies were rooted in the field of cultural heritage tourism, using social media communication three studies are rooted in the field of cultural heritage tourism, examining social media communication as an essential way of promoting cultural heritage tourism or examining social media as a way of sharing cultural heritage tourism afterward (Han & Bae, 2022;Aldhanhani & Zainudin, 2022;Huang, 2022). Five articles are based on museums themselves and attempt to collect user social media data through social media to provide customization of museum tours and the importance of social media promotion for museums (Chang, 2022;Kim & Yu;Myna et al, 2020Zollo, 2022;Ruggiero, 2022) Researchers' studies on social media and cultural heritage are more scattered. It mainly deals with the role of social media in cultural heritage education, the role of social media on cultural heritage, the role of social media in cultural heritage digitization, the role of social media in cultural heritage tourism, and the role of social media on cultural heritage museums.…”