City Councils in the Digital Age: A Study on the Twitter Engagement Performance of City Councils in Türkiye

This study examines the social media performance of city councils, which have become one of the key instruments of local governance and participatory democracy in the digital age. The study analyzes the digital visibility and stakeholder engagement of 51 city councils in Türkiye with official Twitter accounts, based on four dimensions: popularity, engagement, diffusion, and a composite interaction index. In addition, average interaction rates per 1,000 followers were calculated to enable a more comparative evaluation. The findings reveal significant differences in social media performance among city councils. Provincial city councils achieved the highest interaction index, whereas metropolitan city councils generated lower levels of engagement despite having larger numbers of followers. Across all groups, popularity (likes) exceeded engagement through comments and reposts, indicating that users tend to prefer more superficial forms of interaction. Moreover, city councils with fewer followers often achieved higher engagement rates, suggesting that follower count alone is not a sufficient indicator of digital success. Overall, the findings suggest that city councils have considerable potential to use social media as an effective governance tool. However, this potential can be more fully realized through strategic social media management and greater emphasis on stakeholder-oriented content production.