Facebook Practices in Western European Municipalities An Empirical Analysis of Activity and Citizens’ Engagement

The objective of this article is to provide an initial assessment of Facebook use by Western European municipalities considering two aspects: citizens’ engagement and municipalities’ activity. Data on 75 local governments in 15 countries were collected and tested for both government use and citizens...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAdministration & society Vol. 49; no. 3; pp. 320 - 347
Main Authors Bonsón, Enrique, Royo, Sonia, Ratkai, Melinda
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.03.2017
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Audiences
Citizens
Data collection
Frustration
Local government
Mass media
Municipalities
Political participation
Research methodology
Social media
Social networks
public sector
citizens’ engagement
municipalities’ Facebook channel activity
Western European municipalities
social media
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Summary:The objective of this article is to provide an initial assessment of Facebook use by Western European municipalities considering two aspects: citizens’ engagement and municipalities’ activity. Data on 75 local governments in 15 countries were collected and tested for both government use and citizens’ engagement. Findings show that the use of Facebook by Western European local governments has become commonplace. The audiences of the official Facebook pages are rather high, but citizen engagement in general is low. Activity levels by municipalities and engagement levels by citizens in general terms are not statistically related to municipality characteristics, Facebook page metrics, or the technological readiness of the population. It seems that channel activity is more a decision on the part of local governments than a consequence of citizen demand. This article proposes a methodology that can be used in future research to measure citizen engagement on social media (SM) platforms. Furthermore, this research highlights the importance that local governments attach to clearly establishing the main purpose of their SM accounts to avoid frustration on the part of citizens that can lead to distrust and reduce the chances that citizens will invest their resources, time, and knowledge in participation.
ISSN:0095-3997
1552-3039
DOI:10.1177/0095399714544945