Museums Brand Equity and Social Media: Looking into Current Research Insights and Future Research Propositions

Abstract. Extensive research has repeatedly acknowledged the link between traditional and digital marketing communication tools and branding performance. Particularly, both within For Profit Organizations (henceforth, FPOs) and Non-Profit Organizations (henceforth NPOs), social media as the milestone of the digital era has rebutted the foundations of corporate and personal communication through the emergence of new participatory communication terms, such as ''prod-user'' and “co-creation”. Consequently, a growing research trend has emerged towards e-e marketing tools and social media impact on destination branding, as well. Simultaneously, thanks to its multidimensional benefits both at the communicational, educational, and promotional levels, social media are emerging as an essential feature in the branding of the new museum era. To date, within the NPOs sector, few studies have investigated the effect of social media on brand equity. Moreover, far too little attention has been paid to the link between social media and museums' brand equity. Based on the systematic qualitative critical review methodology, this paper attempts to identify the basic trends and research status by 2018. Drawing on a review of 78 papers that are the result of systematic desk research, this study categorizes and presents, for the first time, the effects of social media use on museums’ brand components. The study offers new and valuable insights into the multidisciplinary research interests of the research and industry community relating to communication and marketing, NPOs, tourism, and museums context. Keywords: Social Media, Museums, Brand Equity, NPOs, Cultural Tourism

Do Social Media Affect Museums’ Brand Equity? An Exploratory Qualitative Study

The beneficial role of traditional marketing communication tools on branding performance is a dominant feature of marketing bibliography Moreover, the advent of social media has definitely resurged this research interest following the revolution both within For Profit and Non Profit Organizations communications (NPOs and FPOs) context. Thus, there is a growing trend towards the impact of both e-marketing and social media tools on destination branding procedures. However, due to its infant nature, very little is known on the association between social media and brand equity. No single study so far has empirically explored the role of social media on museums’ branding. Addressing previous calls within FPOs and NPOs’ sector and having recently reviewed and established theoretically the positive link, (1) first, between the social media and museums (2) second, between social media and NPOs’ brand equity, and (3) third, between social media on museum branding equity. The present study examines through a qualitative method the social media impact on museums brand equity. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, that have been held for a month with communication officers of 30 museums. This work contributes to existing knowledge of multidisciplinary research interests such as museum branding, social media marketing and tourism marketing, both by confirming the beneficial contribution of social media on museums’ brand equity, visitors’ satisfaction and visitors’ engagement, and by providing valuable managerial insights

Lung ultrasound for the early diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia: an international multicenter study

Purpose: To analyze the application of a lung ultrasound (LUS)-based diagnostic approach to patients suspected of COVID-19, combining the LUS likelihood of COVID-19 pneumonia with patient\u2019s symptoms and clinical history. Methods: This is an international multicenter observational study in 20 US and European hospitals. Patients suspected of COVID-19 were tested with reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) swab test and had an LUS examination. We identified three clinical phenotypes based on pre-existing chronic diseases (mixed phenotype), and on the presence (severe phenotype) or absence (mild phenotype) of signs and/or symptoms of respiratory failure at presentation. We defined the LUS likelihood of COVID-19 pneumonia according to four different patterns: high (HighLUS), intermediate (IntLUS), alternative (AltLUS), and low (LowLUS) probability. The combination of patterns and phenotypes with RT-PCR results was described and analyzed. Results: We studied 1462 patients, classified in mild (n = 400), severe (n = 727), and mixed (n = 335) phenotypes. HighLUS and IntLUS showed an overall sensitivity of 90.2% (95% CI 88.23\u201391.97%) in identifying patients with positive RT-PCR, with higher values in the mixed (94.7%) and severe phenotype (97.1%), and even higher in those patients with objective respiratory failure (99.3%). The HighLUS showed a specificity of 88.8% (CI 85.55\u201391.65%) that was higher in the mild phenotype (94.4%; CI 90.0\u201397.0%). At multivariate analysis, the HighLUS was a strong independent predictor of RT-PCR positivity (odds ratio 4.2, confidence interval 2.6\u20136.7, p < 0.0001). Conclusion: Combining LUS patterns of probability with clinical phenotypes at presentation can rapidly identify those patients with or without COVID-19 pneumonia at bedside. This approach could support and expedite patients\u2019 management during a pandemic surge