Factors influencing tweet purposes and citizen engagement with municipal Twitter accounts

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to determine the demographic, resource and internal competition factors that influence both the level of citizen engagement provided by municipal Twitter accounts as well as the primary purposes for which those accounts are used.Design/methodology/approachThis research uses a mixed-methods approach. Twitter data were content analyzed and categorized according to their specific purposes (information dissemination, community building or calls to action). Twitter engagement was measured as an index variable constructed from prior research, and multiple regression was used to determine the factors which best predict both account engagement and tweet purposes.FindingsThe results show that two factors (a multiplatform approach and fiscal health) along with the interaction of those factors predict the level of Twitter-based citizen engagement. Median citizen age was found to significantly predict the percentage of municipal tweets with purposes of information dissemination and community building.Originality/valueThis study adds to the literature on public sector social media use by examining the purposes and practices of local government Twitter use, providing a context for examining how Twitter is employed by local governments for citizen engagement.

An Evaluation Study in Social Media Research: Key Aspects to Enhancing the Promotion of Efficient Organizations on Twitter

“…Moreover, many other researchers have emphasized the effect that post time plays on increasing engagement with tweets. For example, in government entities concerning the participants' age [13], they found that timing of tweets significant as engagement increases on weekdays compared to weekends [14]. Additionally, an hour of the day and day of the week of tweet posts strongly affects engagement [30].…”

“…Several studies have considered elements of promoting social media accounts for government entities, such as ministries and municipalities, among others. Stone and Can [13] discussed the factors that influence the purpose of municipalities' tweets in the United States of America and how far citizens are engaged with them. The researchers found that interaction with a multiplatform approach and fiscal health can predict the level of engagement with tweets and concluded that median age plays a significant role in predicting the number of tweets that aim for disseminating information and community building.…”

“…Building on the previous research results and recommendations for future research, Boujena et al [22] suggest conducting further studies on engagement in different geographical locations and cultural milieus, while Gligor and Bozkurt [29] maintain that further research should attempt probing means to develop social media agility in cultures other than the United States of America. Further studies on factors that affect performance on social media are recommended by several scholars such as Han et al [26] and Orellana-Rodriguez et al [34], who recommend measuring the impact of predictors on engagement, while Stone and Can [13] endorse exploring the drives and influencing factors for using social media platforms to generate more interaction and engagement. This is further supported by Guijarro et al [17], who suggest further research on analyzing the factors leading to a higher impact of tweets such as content appropriateness, tweet quality, and the tweeting time.…”

Information under lockdown: A content analysis of government communication strategies on Facebook during the COVID-19 outbreak

“…This perception has an impact on the organization's message and content strategies, with the goal of producing dialogue or conveying information and messages instantly [ 33 ]. The organization's strategy in social media does not only determine what messages or content will be conveyed but also the way messages will be conveyed and the verbal and communicative style in which they are disseminated, whether they contain official, negative, positive, or personal messages [ 34 , 35 ].…”

Keterlibatan Warga Terhadap Akun Twitter Pemerintah Provinsi Jawa Tengah, Jawa Timur, Jawa Barat : Analisa Data Mining

“…Pemanfaatan media sosial pada sektor publik memiliki banyak manfaat salah satunya efisiensi biaya yang rendah, membuat pemerintah lebih dapat diakses dan lebih transparan, izin secara real-time penyebaran informasi dan memfasilitasi partisipasi public agar lebih kolaboratif dalam pemerintahan, meningkatkan akuntabilitas, dan kemampuan untuk menerapkan upaya kolektif menuju penyempurnaan dalam konstruksi kebijakan (Jeffrey A. Stone, 2020;Moon, 2002). Sebagai mikroblog media sosial yang dominan, Twitter menyediakan pola yang sederhana dengan berbiaya yang terjangkau untuk melibatkan warga dalam sector publik.…”