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

Criado, J. IgnacioVillodre, Julián2026-02-112026-02-112021Local Government Studies, 47(2), 253-27510.1080/03003930.2020.1729750https://hdl.handle.net/10433/26102This study was supported by the Research Grant RTI2018-095344-A-I00 (SmartGov_Local), Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation; and Research Grant H2019-HUM 5699 (On Trust), Madrid Regional Research Agency. This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in Local government studies. Criado, J. I., & Villodre, J. (2021). Delivering public services through social media in European local governments. An interpretative framework using semantic algorithms. Local Government Studies, 47(2), 253–275. https://doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2020.1729750. It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits noncommercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.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.application/pdfesAttribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/Local governmentPublic service deliveryMachine learningNatural language processingSocial mediaTwitterDelivering public services through social media in European local governments. An interpretative framework using semantic algorithmsjournal articleopen access