A Mixed-Method Approach to Evaluating Citizen Engagement on Government Social-Media Pages

Abstract

In their communication on social media, most organizations consider engagement as a core objective. In the public sector, a vast majority of contributions have studied citizen engagement through metrics such as post reactions, comments, and shares. In this article, we prefer another approach in seeking to understand both the perceptions and practices of engagement management and evaluation from the municipalities' point of view. We combine qualitative and quantitative data stemming mostly from communication managers in Nordic countries. Qualitative insights come from interviews conducted with these managers (N = 19) in Spring and Summer of 2024. Quantitative data come from a survey distributed to the communication managers of all Nordic municipalities with over 10,000 inhabitants (N = 525) in early 2025. Our findings show high heterogeneity in monitoring and evaluation of engagement; a focus on the metrics provided by social-media platforms, as well as content; and the importance of the quality of state - citizen exchanges. These findings call for a refined, qualitative approach to engagement on government social-media pages that goes beyond the metrics that are almost always used as a starting point in previous research.