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The Use of Facebook to Promote Engagement with Local Governments in Spain

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Social Media and Local Governments

Part of the book series: Public Administration and Information Technology ((PAIT,volume 15))

Abstract

Social media have changed how governments communicate with society, encouraging participation and the interaction of citizens in public affairs. The main aim of this study is to analyse the online practices of Spanish local governments, through Facebook, to examine the factors that influence these practices and to determine citizens’ mood in this respect. The results obtained show that the popularity and virality of municipal Facebook pages are greater than their followers’ degree of commitment. Users take a positive view of the pages, and the type of information most commonly shared on Facebook by Spanish local governments is of a social nature. Factors that influence local government’s Facebook practices include the level of internet use among the population, the level of municipal debt, the number of inhabitants and the economic capacity of the population.

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Acknowledgement

This research was carried out with financial support from the Regional Government of Andalusia (Spain), Department of Innovation, Science and Enterprise (Research Projects P10-SEJ-06628 and P11-SEJ-7700) and FPU/2013 grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCINN).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics and Business, University of Almería, Carretera de Sacromonte s/n, 04120, Almería, Spain

    Arturo Haro De Rosario, Alejandro Sáez Martín & María Del Carmen Caba Pérez

Authors
  1. Arturo Haro De Rosario
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  2. Alejandro Sáez Martín
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  3. María Del Carmen Caba Pérez
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to María Del Carmen Caba Pérez .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences Department of Public Administration, Uludağ University, Nilufer, Turkey

    Mehmet Zahid Sobaci

Appendix

Appendix

Table 12.10 Popularity, engagement, virality, citizens’ mood and voluntary disclosure
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De Rosario, A.H., Martín, A.S., Pérez, M.D.C.C. (2016). The Use of Facebook to Promote Engagement with Local Governments in Spain. In: Sobaci, M. (eds) Social Media and Local Governments. Public Administration and Information Technology, vol 15. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17722-9_12

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