Citizens' engagement on local governments' Facebook sites. An empirical analysis: The impact of different media and content types in Western Europe

• Published in: Government information quarterly 2015-01, Vol.32 (1), p.52-62
• Main Authors: Bonsón, Enrique, Royo, Sonia, Ratkai, Melinda
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Citizen participation; Citizens; e-Government; e-Participation; Electronic government; Empirical Methods; European Union; Government 2.0; Housing; Information technology; Interest Groups; International comparisons; Local Government; Marketing; Mass Media Effects; Media and content types; Programming (Broadcast); Public Administration; Public administration styles; Public sector; Social networks; Sports; Voluntary reporting; we-Government; Western Europe
• ISSN: 0740-624X; 1872-9517
• DOI: 10.1016/j.giq.2014.11.001

There is a very limited empirical research examining the impact of media and content types on stakeholders' engagement on social media platforms, and basically none within the public sector. The purpose of this study is to measure the impact of media and content types on stakeholders' engagement on Western European local governments' Facebook pages. The sample includes 15-member countries of the EU via 75 local governments belonging to four different public administration styles, analyzing 50 posts from each municipality. The posts were coded into 16 content types (e.g. environment, housing) and 5 media types (e.g. video, text), respectively. Metrics of popularity, commitment, virality and engagement were also computed for each post. Results show that the most used media types are links and photos. Cultural activities, sports and marketing related topics are the most widely posted by Western European local governments, but these contents do not seem to be the most relevant for citizens. Local governments' preferences to different media and content types seem to depend on the institutional context. Significant differences on engagement levels by citizens have also been found among media and content types and in different institutional contexts. This study provides practitioners and academics with some initial research findings about the effect of different communicational strategies on citizen engagement, which are very important factors in order to improve the effectiveness of e-participation offerings. •Different media and content types have a significant impact on citizens' engagement.•Communicational differences across public administration styles exist.•Local governments allowing wall posts obtain higher engagement levels.•A bigger audience does not necessarily result in larger engagement levels.•Posts have to be focused around topics of interest to local citizens.•SM are helping to empower citizens and expand democracy.