@MuseumNerd, that anonymous art personality on Twitter, has blogged an interesting graphic that lists the attendance to New York museums, their Twitter following, and how they measure up.
I’m not sure what the ratio tells us — not much, really — and I don’t think it’s accurate to equate a museum visitor with a Twitter follower, but it is interesting and gives a good snapshot of the city’s museum world and their level of Twitter engagement.
Some notable WTFs and takeaways:
- There’s a Tibetan Museum (@tibetanmuseum) in Staten Island!?!?!
- The Merchant House (@merchantshouse) museum only gets 6,000 visitors (sad) and has 103 Twitter followers (though we just checked today and it was already at 156, that’s a lot of growth in one month).
- The Hispanic Society (@hsamuseum) only gets 25,000 visitors a year? An institution with works by El Greco and Diego Velázquez can’t muster more?
- The Metropolitan Museum is the king with 5.4 million visitors.
- The Bronx Museum and the Brooklyn Museum get the same number of visitors? That can’t be right.
- The Noguchi Museum does quite a respectable number for a small institution in Queens.
- The Theodore Roosevelt home museum has the most difficult Twitter handle to remember: @trbirthplacenps #timeforachange?
Also, you can always follow @museumnerd on Twitter, if you’re not already.
What does the font size signify here?
I think it is to make clear who was ranked highest. The higher the twitter follower/attendance ratio, the larger the type.
interesting. thanks for posting this!
Museums need to realize the power of social media. The Hispanic Society has El Greco and Diego Velázquez? A little pr and their numbers will increase. Same with the Merchant House; if museums worked together to boost each other their visitors benefit. And the biggies, such as the Metropolitan Museum can be the leaders to bring the smaller venues along.