Museum anchors and social media: possible nexus and future development

The purpose of this exploratory study is twofold. First, to investigate the extent to which museums consciously perform through accounting tools, i.e. strategic planning their anchoring function and, second, the role played by social media in facilitating this role. To pursue these objectives, five anchor museums (Louvre, MUSE, Museum aan de Stroom, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Musée de Arts-Montréal) were investigated through a content analysis of their strategic plans and Facebook pages. As a first step, the analysis of the museums’ strategic plans has shown that museums consciously act as anchors in local communities. Second, the analysis of the design of the museums’ Facebook page and the results of the thematic analysis of their posts and events have shown that museums’ social media communication is still unilateral and promotional, thus limiting stakeholder engagement for future local development.