Keys for the participation and content development in social networks: case-study of The Prado Museum in Facebook.

Abstract

The use of social networks, as part of a communication strategy, is already unquestionable for the most of enterprises and institutions. The challenge for these organizations consists of knowing how to be and how to communicate in the social networks. Facebook and the rest of social networks are born as a space for friends and acquaintances where to share, in an informal way, topics of interest. In this atypical context, the social networks burst into scene to break down a traditionally one-way communication. The museums, which are our object of study, have been placed traditionally in the field of the institutional communication, an area where information has prevailed over the communication, and where to offer information has been ahead of other communicative aims. However, in the last decades, the museums have realized an important effort to add and use the 2.0 communication tools, as part of a new philosophy. In this context, museums are active actors of the social and cultural life. Therefore, this study wants to go in depth in the analysis of communication actions in the social networks. It will focus on the analysis of content and the dialog of participants, and fundamentally on two variables: the content and an equitable participation of several involved agents in equality of conditions for the speakers, which is the basis of a full two-way communication. The methodology chosen for this analysis is the case-study specifically created for this case: it is a content analysis of the Prado Museum Facebook’s wall during a specific period of fifteen days.