Enhancing citizen participation through social media engagement: The case of Czech municipal Facebook

Abstract

The popularity of social media is expanding, and so is the interaction between towns and residents. Municipalities in the Czech Republic rely heavily on Facebook as a direct communication medium with citizens. The main goal of this research is to assess the drivers of municipal social media engagement with citizens. To do so, we looked at 183 official Facebook sites of Czech municipalities with extended powers. We applied the first generational statistical techniques, specifically the correlation and regression analyses in delving into the nexus between the citizenry engagement on local government issues via facebook toward onward local government development. Our results indicated that indeed most local governments have a Facebook page with little activity and large municipalities dominated most social media activity. The study found out that Facebook activity, interactivity and mood are the factors driving citizen engagement on municipality social media pages.