Communication, Social Networks and Sustainable Development Goals: A Reflection From the Perspective of Social Marketing and Happiness Management in the General Elections in Spain

Abstract

The challenges imposed by the global development agenda imply reflecting on the role and contribution of political parties to development processes in the online environment. Social networks have been characterised as a part of the strategies of political campaigns, as it allows political leaders to establish bidirectional communication with citizens. In this context, the present study aims to empirically explore the leading Spanish political formations' publications from a social marketing perspective. In this way, it will be possible to verify how issues related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are addressed. On the one hand, this requires elaborating the communication profiles of the main political parties presented to the Spanish General Elections from 2015 to 2019. On the other hand, to analyse whether social themes better discriminate or distinguish one political party from another. For this purpose, a methodology based on text mining, content analysis from a quantitative and qualitative approach, and simple correspondence analysis has been used. Finally, it should be noted that the results of this research show that there are differences between political parties according to the social issues published, with a divergence between the social issues that provoke a better reaction from the public and those most published on Facebook.

The implementation of sustainable development goals through communication tools

“…The fact that active and effective communication and the selection of appropriate information tools can be a way of managing sustainable development processes was confirmed by the results of our research, which showed that more than half of the respondents are sometimes influenced and encouraged to act in a sustainable manner by the information they receive about sustainable development and its implementation, and that almost a quarter of the respondents have a strong influence on their behaviour towards sustainable development principles. These findings are supported by research by other authors (Lee, 2016;Galiano-Coronil et al, 2021) showing the important role of communication in the implementation of a consumer-oriented framework that includes sustainability issues, promoting sustainable thinking and sustainable consumption. Nadanyiova et al (2020) also acknowledge that green marketing, as part of socially responsible communication, can positively influence the attitudes of individual target groups towards responsible consumption and can add value to goods, products and services that are related to environmental aspects and social responsibility towards the environment, while Primožič et al (2022) point out the importance of a communication strategy related to climate change, global warming, sustainability etc.…”

“…It also shows how companies' sustainability marketing communications vary across different social media. Galiano-Coronil et al (2021) argue that social networks have been described as part of political campaign strategies because they allow political leaders to establish a two-way connection with citizens. This study aims to empirically investigate leading Spanish political publications from a social marketing perspective.…”

Mapping intrapreneurship through the dimensions of happiness at work and internal communication

“…It may lead to a more social, inclusive, prosperous and egalitarian ecosystem. In this way, it makes the culture of organisations around the pillars of happiness management, social marketing and the Sustainable Development Goals shine (Galván-Coronil et al. , 2021).…”

Twitter como herramienta de comunicación institucional: la Casa Real Británica y la Casa Real Española en el contexto postpandémico

“…De hecho, desde la primera campaña electoral de Obama, en el año 2008, Twitterha sido profusamente estudiado, fundamentalmente desde el punto de vista de la comunicación política y electoral (Mangerotti, Ribeiro y González-Aldea, 2022;Rodríguez Vázquez y Jorquera, 2021;Valenzuela, Correa y Gil de Zuniga, 2018;Bracciale y Martella, 2017;Campos-Domínguez, 2017;Enli, 2017;Guerrero-Solé y Mas-Manchón, 2017;López-Meri, Marcos-García y Casero-Ripollés, 2017;Waisbord y Amado, 2017;Bucheli, 2014;Kreiss, 2016;López-García, 2016;Jürgens y Jungherr, 2015;García y Zugasti, 2014;Dang-Xuan et al, 2013;Criado, Martínez y Silvan, 2013). Y, recientemente, como se ha apuntado en párrafos precedentes, la lamentable emergencia sanitaria generada por la COVID19, viene impulsando también un relevante corpus científico en torno al estudio de esta red social respecto a la desinformación y a la consecuente infodemia que caracterizó los primeros meses de su gestión (Rosenberg, Syed y Rezaie, 2020;Mavragani, 2020;Higgins et al, 2020;Cousins et al, 2020;Hernández-García y Giménez-Júlvez, 2020;Park, Park y Chong, 2020;Solomon et al, 2020;Galiano-Coronil, Jiménez-Marín, y Tobar-Pesantez, 2021).…”