Engaging Citizens on Government Social Media Page: The Role of Content Characteristics

Assessing citizen engagement and exploring its influencing factors has become imperative to help the government in leveraging social media to improve its public service delivery. This study aims to examine the content characteristics posted by the government on social media and their impact on citizen engagement. Content analysis of 1264 Facebook posts from three Malaysian ministries were employed from May until June 2022 and coded into four content types, three media richness levels, and the percentage of comments replied to by the government. Findings revealed that information provision was the highest posted content type, yet symbolic presentation was the most engaging, across all ministries. On the other hand, moderate media richness, such as images, was the most attached in content and yielded the most engagement compared to low and high media richness. Responsiveness level was also low and had no impact on citizen engagement. This study presents a novel finding of the government's communicative practice on social media. The findings contribute significantly to understanding how citizen engagement is influenced by symbolic presentation content type and moderate media richness, while perceived responsiveness calls for immediate improvements. Key points for practitioners: While social media is currently common worldwide, governments in developing countries are still at the informational stage and have not yet fully realised its benefits. This study contributes to the government's social media strategy and helps to maximise content posting using the right content and media richness. The government should adopt a balanced mix of content types, instead of over-focusing on one content type, to cater to diverse audience needs by informing, involving, and emotionally engaging citizens. It also contributes to the government's communication strategy as it provides evidence on the low quality of responsiveness level.