Ranked first worldwide for number of downloads at the beginning of 2020, TikTok is a Chinese app more similar to YouTube than to a classic social network and it is used by over half a billion users, 65% of which are under eighteen years old – although the average age is increasing rapidly due to the curiosity of many. Today, after only two months from opening its TikTok profile, the Uffizi Gallery is the most followed art museum on this new social network, having reached 30 thousand followers.
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The Uffizi Gallery (Florence) created a Tik Tok profile on April 28th, but the museum is not new to the social media world: it has been working for several years on Youtube, Twitter and Instagram platforms (where it has more than 510 thousand followers), and more recently it opened a Facebook profile as well, reaching 58 thousand followers in a short time.
Within the different social channels, Uffizi’s content and communication register are both adapted to the different targets. Thus, on Facebook, videos explaining the meanings of the artworks are the most popular, whereas on Instagram, the focus is on highly visually impacting photos and on captivating anecdotes. And what happens on Tik ToK? By mocking themselves, artworks are involved in a series of short, creative and ironic videos in which they dance and wink, accepting the social media’s most famous "challenges".
Eike Schmidt, Uffizi Gallery’s director, commented: "We want to bring art closer to a new audience, different from the official critics, but we also want to look at the works in a different and light-hearted way. Specifically, in such a difficult moment, it is important to smile every now and then and to develop a bit of self-irony. If it is possible to do so thanks to great art masters, it is even better".
It is too early to predict whether the excellent feedback in terms of online followers and interactions will be accompanied by long-term "offline" results. Surely there is no denying that the Gallery was brave enough to experiment and it seems to have found the right way to speak to such a young audience, addressing even very relevant issues such as Pride Month or Black Presence with a humorous and entertaining approach.
