While the same big names often dominate the top 20 most-followed museums on social media in our annual Visitor Figures report, it is interesting to see which museums have the highest percentage growth, year on year. The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Garden in San Marino, California, saw its audience on Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok grow by over 25% between March 2024 and March 2025—now totalling more than 750,000 followers—making it one of the top five museums for social media growth in the world in the past year. We speak to Deborah Miller, the Huntington’s director of digital and social content strategy about the rise of YouTube, the fall of X and working with the world’s cutest social media influencer.
The Art Newspaper: How many people work on social media at the museum?
Deborah Miller:Two people full-time, me and Arianna Muñoz, but other people on the team often assist.
It is said that video is the most important format for social media growth—do you find this to be the case?
Yes, we’re fully focused on video production—that’s the majority of content we produce. There’s three videos from last year that were the biggest generators of growth. One was about how to create a fake tree out of pool noodles, which we use in our conservatory. It blew people’s minds that they weren’t real! Another popular video was with one of our rose gardeners doing a deadheading tutorial.
These successes were a window into the content directions we should really invest in. And then the third video was a collaboration post with The Tiny Chef Show [an Emmy-winning animated children’s television series]. We put on a tiny afternoon tea for Tiny Chef and took him on a tour—it was such a hit. Plus he’s probably the most adorable influencer we’ve worked with.
Does the museum often work with social media influencers?
Not often, but it is an area that we’re definitely looking to grow. We want to create a really intentional strategy around who we work with, how it showcases the Huntington and what the connection is. I think influencers and content creators can bring in different perspectives and audiences.
The Huntington’s highest following is on Instagram—would you say this is the most important platform for the museum?
Instagram is probably our most dynamic in terms of growth and engagement. In 2024 our Instagram posts had around 95 million impressions and our engagement rate is super strong at around 8% [Statista reports that the average influencer engagement rate on Instagram in 2024 was 1.85%]. But the most exciting platform for growth for the museum in the past year is actually YouTube. It introduced YouTube Shorts in 2021 and I think we began posting our short videos there in late 2023. Shorts are a great bridge to the longer video content we have on YouTube, so we’ve been experimenting on there. Last year we gained 60,000 followers, and we just passed 400,000 subscribers in total.
Our data shows Huntington lost around 5% of its followers on X in the past year, in line with most museums in the world. You also haven’t posted on the platform since 1 February 2025. What is the museum’s plan for this platform? Are you considering diversifying?
We have made a conscious decision to pause communications on X. We have seen a lot of other institutions doing the same, both locally and nationally. We’re monitoring the channel and since 2022, it’s been in decline. We joined Threads and, even though we haven’t invested heavily in it, it already has double the following that we currently have on X. We’re also monitoring Bluesky, but the user base is still low in comparison to other platforms. The social media landscape is volatile so we are always keeping an eye out for changes.
