Delivering public services through social media in European local governments. An interpretative framework using semantic algorithms

Abstract

Social media adoption by public administrations is usually related to the promotion of transparency, participation and collaboration. However, less attention has been paid to the utilisation of social media for public service delivery. Hence, this paper explores what strategies of use local governments are employing to create content on social media. To do so, our study re-elaborates a well-known interpretative framework of social media interactions in the public sector, regarding three categories: providing information, citizen interaction and public service delivery. By analysing Twitter data through machine-learning automated natural language processing, we test the framework studying posted content from a leading group of European city councils. Our conclusions confirm the utilisation of social media to provide institutional information or foster interactions with citizens. At the same time, European local governments are also starting to use social media for public service delivery.