It is the fifth year in a row that the Museum Documentation Center has analyzed data on museum websites, social media, videos, and other online channels. In total, 132 out of 171 museums from the Register of Public and Private Museums in the Republic of Croatia answered the survey. The data show that Facebook is still the most popular social media platform among museums and their users; museum Instagram sites recorded the most significant increase in views, and positive trends were observed for the virtual exhibitions and online educational content.

There were 6.3 million user activities recorded on museum websites, as reported by 96 museums, over a million more than in 2023 when 94 museums provided data. However, the figure should be taken as approximate because we cannot verify the accuracy of the usage of website traffic metrics, and, sometimes, there is a tendency to round off figures, just like when monitoring physical visits.

The most visited areas of museum websites in 2024 were online collections, with 376,785 views (a 33% decrease from the previous year), followed by virtual/online exhibits, with 134,575 recorded views (almost 60% more than in 2023). Virtual museum tours recorded a 38% decrease, while educational online programs exploded with about 118% more views than in 2023. Only ten museums reported data for live online events, showing a strong growth trend of 162%. In contrast, the readership of museum newsletters decreased by 54%.

Tracking engagement on social media and video platforms is much easier than on websites, which is why almost all participating museums (130) provided data.

Facebook is still the preferred social media platform of museums and their users, with 17,023,891 views in 2024, a 33% increase compared to 2023. Museum Instagram channels, for which 95 museums submitted data, or 20% more than the year before, saw a doubling of views from 1,108,688 in 2023 to 2,912,490 in 2024. The number of museum profiles on X, formerly Twitter, fell from the already modest ten in 2023 to only three in 2024, and data on user activities is negligible.

YouTube is a persistently popular video platform used by the same number of museums as in 2023 (55, or 42% of those surveyed), while TikTok expanded from 8 museums to 12, tripling the number of views (from 172,141 to 754,724). Not a single museum submitted data for Vimeo.

Expectations of visitors in both the physical and online spaces are increasing. Also, a weak commitment to a museum's digital assets can cause a decline in visitors to the museum's physical site, as we had the opportunity to learn from the manual published by the Network of European Museum Organisations, which emphasizes the importance of a holistic approach to audience measurement, encouraging museums to introduce systems that enable the linking of data on physical and online visits. It is difficult to say how far we are from the implementation of such systems. For now, we are monitoring the situation, trying to spot trends in the online visits to Croatian museums, and spreading knowledge gained through experience, either our own or foreign.

(Tea Rihtar Jurić, published originally in News from the Museum World 244, April 29, 2025)