Facebook posts by Portuguese municipalities: a preliminary study

Abstract

This study addresses the contents published by local governments in social media and the volume of interactions with citizens they generate. Portugal was used as a case study: the Facebook pages of 84 Portuguese municipalities were analyzed during November 2021, making a total of 6,897 posts that generated 25,761 comments and 432,031 likes. Facebook posts were classified according to a set 18 content types. Most published content types and the content types that generate more interactions were analyzed, among other factors. Main conclusions are that the population explains 54% of the number of page likes; that the number of page likes explains 49% of the number of posts likes; that the number of page likes explains 44% of the number of posts comments; that most published topics relate to culture (31%) and health (11%); that there is no correlation between the most published topics and the ones that get the most likes and comments; and that more political topics stand out in the number of likes and, specially, the number of comments obtained. These conclusions contribute to both confirm and extend the extant knowledge on the subject, namely by showing that political topics generate more interactions than other content types.