Local engagement online: Municipal Facebook pages as hubs of interaction

The article presents the results of a comprehensive study of the scope and character of the activities of the Israeli municipalities on Facebook.(1) The study maps the Facebook presence of Israeli municipalities and checks for correlations between Facebook presence, municipality size, and the geographic and socio-demographic characteristics of the municipalities. We then measure several engagement indices of municipal activities on Facebook (number of fans, average likes, comments, and shares of posts) and check for correlations of these engagement indices with municipality size and geographic and social demographic characteristics of the municipalities. The article concludes with a review of several indices of municipality Facebook page activity, including scope of content uploaded by the page and by fans, content formats (statuses, images, and videos) and their reception. Published by Elsevier Inc.