Social media as a part of strategy of museum exhibition (on sample of the British museum)

Among the numerous information products offered by the World Wide Web, social media occupy a special place, being the most frequently visited among Internet users. Given this fact, the world's leading museums actively use social media as one of the important tools for communication with audiences. Through social media, the museum provides information about upcoming events, including exhibits, demonstrations and workshops, uploaded videos of upcoming exhibitions, and interviews with curators and museum experts on specific topics. This contributes to the formation of the museum community, attracting new members to this community, and their involvement in direct discussion of various issues related to the museum’s events. Taking into account comments and suggestions made by subscribers on social media, timely response to them, motivates the audience to actively participate in ongoing events. The relevance of this work concludes in the fact that, using the example of the British Museum, for the first time in Azerbaijan, a study was conducted on the issue of using social networks in organizing and holding museum exhibitions. The objectives of the study were to identify the main trends in the use of social networks by the British Museum. The purpose of the work was to develop recommendations for the effective use of social networks by national museums of Azerbaijan in preparation, organization and holding of exhibitions. In order to develop recommendations for the use of social media in preparation and holding of exhibitions, we have examined the activities of the British Museum on social media for 2022. The study has been conducted in three important directions: a) an activity of the museum’s own pages on social media, reflecting the number and dynamics of publications posted; b) a content of the publications posted by museums in connection with exhibitions, including the form of the post itself, its volume, use of hashtags and time of publication; and c) the number, dynamics, involvement and reaction of followers to this content. Based on an analysis of the extensive factual material collected on the information support of exhibitions held by the museum in 2022, a conclusion is drawn about what place the British Museum attaches to social media when planning and holding exhibitions. The author shows that the effectiveness of using social media is directly related to the formation of a special program, the presence of specialists in the field of Internet technologies and their joint activities with museum workers, and a systematic approach to the implementation of this program. The author proposes the using of this experience or part of it when using social media in the activities of Azerbaijani museums. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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