The social media are becoming a major channel of online interactive participation, and local governments are seizing this opportunity to enhance citizen engagement in political and social affairs. This article analyses the various forms of social media used – that is, Twitter or Facebook – by citizens in their relations with Spanish local government, to determine which of these achieves the strongest degree of commitment. We also analyse the influence of various factors on this level of commitment. The results obtained show that Facebook is preferred to Twitter as a means of participating in local government issues. Other factors that are relevant to citizen engagement are the level of online transparency, mood, the level of activity in social media and the interactivity offered by the local government website. The findings of this study contribute significantly to understanding how citizen engagement is influenced by the type of social media adopted.

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine European citizen engagement for enhancing emergency management and, more specifically, in the context of the terrorist attacks which occurred in Paris, France on November 15, 2015. To do so, two main research questions are raised. First, are there differences in the levels of citizen engagement between the country affected, France, and other European countries? Second, what factors foster a high level of citizen engagement in France? Design/methodology/approach -First, a comparative content analysis of the Facebook pages of local governments in France and other capital cities of the European Union (EU) was carried. Second, a multivariate regression analysis was performed.Findings -Although the level of online citizen engagement was greater in France than in the other EU cities analyzed, similarities were detected in the messages sent, responses and moment of participation. Moreover, there are certain types of online social behavior that encourage interactive conversations among citizens as well as between citizens and their local governments. Practical implications -This research enables local governments to understand the similarities and differences between citizens and local governments from the affected country and those from outside it when using social media to engage in emergency management. It also provides further insight for managers of local governments in the country affected with regards to the need to be aware of the influence of online collective behavior that emerges from the information they publish. As a result, the attainment of a high level of citizens' participation in their social media can differ. Originality/value -This paper advances in the scarce knowledge of high levels of online engagement (conversational interactions) in emergency situations.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to analyse whether it is the Spanish urban environments that can be considered smart cities that are making the greatest efforts to ensure that citizens have better access to city information and, thus, participate to a greater degree in its governance. Design/methodology/approach – This analysis of the use made of social networks, as an integral part of democratisation, is divided into two phases: first, a descriptive study was made of the cities’ use of their social networks; we then examined, by multiple linear regression analysis, whether the urban areas classed as smart cities are those that make more or less use or application of social networks. Findings – Although, in general terms, the “smartest” smart cities are those which obtain the best overall results in terms of social networks, further improvements are needed, especially in the field of activity and interaction with citizens via these networks. Originality/value – The impact made by social media is one of the emerging research themes in the domain of smart cities, e-government and their information policies. Nevertheless, few studies have examined whether the smart cities are also those whose governments have achieved a greater degree of citizen participation through social networks. Therefore, this study contributes to our understanding of the importance of social media in the local government context, by establishing a relationship between democratic participation, through Facebook and Twitter, and the development of smart cities.

This study, based on situational crisis communication theory and set in the context of the Syrian refugee crisis, seeks first to conduct a comparative analysis of the management of online citizen engagement by local governments and non‐governmental organisations (NGOs). Second, it aims to examine the relationship between certain factors pertaining to the types of responses submitted by citizens via the social media of the aforementioned actors. The sample is composed of several Spanish local governments and NGOs belonging to Red de Municipios de Acogida de Refugiados (Local Government Network for Refugee Allocation). The main findings are that NGOs' online engagement with citizens is more than that of local governments. Notably, NGOs are much more active on their Facebook pages than are local governments. The two actors converge, though, in terms of disseminating instructive information and paying less attention to ‘basic crisis response options’. Moreover, the factors ‘content type’, ‘reputation’, and ‘woman’ affect the type of response messages sent by citizens.

This chapter has two main aims. First, to investigate the Facebook practices used in the U.S. banking sector with the aim of enhancing customer engagement; second, to perform a comparative analysis of the use of Facebook in this respect, among different U.S. banks. In this comparative analysis, we apply the Federal Reserve charter classification (Nationally chartered member bank, State-chartered member bank and State-chartered nonmember bank). The findings of this study contribute significantly to our understanding of the influence of social media in enhancing customer engagement. Banks, and their community managers in particular, can make use of the conclusions drawn in this study to develop future strategies to foster citizen engagement via Facebook.

Purpose Increasingly, universities are adopting social media as a strategy to improve their competitive advantage. However, little is known of whether or not stakeholders are actually engaging with universities in such online environments. The purpose of this paper is, first, to analyze the level of stakeholders’ engagement via social media, particularly Facebook, in European and US universities. Second, to examine the influencing factors that boost online interactions, in particular, “location,” “transparency,” “size,” “academic performance” and “activity.” Design/methodology/approach An engagement index and a multivariate regression analysis were carried out. Regarding the sample, European and US universities belonging to the “Top 100” of the Academic Ranking of World Universities were analyzed. Findings Despite the large online community that US universities possess, European universities attain the higher level of online engagement from its stakeholders. In particular, the greatest level of engagement is achieved by European universities of greater size, in terms of students, with lower academic performance and a lower level of online activity. Social implications This study contributes to existing literature by identifying the actual social impact of social media to build successful relationships with the stakeholders of higher education entities. Originality/value This paper can contribute to the current scarcity of literature concerning social media to improve new models of accountability in higher education entities with different managerial models.

The main aim of this study is to analyze the extent to which local governments in the EU apply dialogic strategies in their Facebook profi les in order to establish and enhance relations with society, and then to examine the impact of certain factors on the implementation of these dialogic strategies. A descriptive analysis is made of the implementation of the dialogic communication theory in relation to the use of Facebook, and this is followed by an explanatory analysis of factors leading local governments to apply dialogic principles. These analyses show that the situation is open to improvement, because local governments are mostly unaware of the benefi ts offered by the use of dialogic principles when establishing online relationships with stakeholders, and greater awareness would enable them to enhance such relationships.