Italian museums' online visibility doubled during lockdown

A study by Politecnico di Milano for the Direzione generale Musei of the Ministero per i Beni Culturali analyzed the online performance of 100 state cultural sites in May 2020. During the pandemic, museum activity surged on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, doubling their web visibility and online reputation compared to pre-Covid levels. Twitter saw the highest increase due to MuseumWeek2020 (May 11–17), with 195 daily posts—triple the average. Interactions varied by platform: Facebook interactions per post peaked in March then dropped to 116 in May; Instagram declined to 520 interactions per post; Twitter rose from 26 to 31. Follower counts grew steadily from February, with Instagram leading at 26,683 average followers per account by May. The reopening on May 18 caused a sharp drop in #iorestoacasa hashtag usage, especially on Instagram (−37%). The study confirms that the health emergency accelerated the upward trend in Italian museums' online activity.