Antecedents and consequences of public administration’s social media website attractiveness

Abstract

With regard to the increasing use of social media channels in public administrations, this study investigates antecedents and consequences of public administration’s social media website attractiveness, focusing on the local government level. We derive a model based on the Uses and Gratifications Theory and apply a structural equation modeling approach by testing our model based on a survey data of 164 citizens in Germany using social media websites in the context of public administration. As a result, we find that Social Motivation, User-Generated Content and Public Administrator-Generated Content have a significant positive influence on Attractiveness. Moreover, Attractiveness positively affects both Intention to Use and Word-of-Mouth (WoM) Intention. Points for practitioners The attractiveness of public institutions’ social media websites such as Facebook depends on three factors: (1) users wish to get connected to other users and (2) the appeal of its content generated by the public institution as well as (3) by other users. Empirical data suggest that the increase in attractiveness of respective social media pages will make users use the social site more often and will also make users recommend the page to others. Against this background, social media page managers of public administration websites will focus on providing an open platform for citizens to exchange information and provide appealing and citizen-oriented content.