Engagement in social networks: a multi-method study in non-profits organizations

This study discusses aspects of online communication that influence in relational interaction between online users and organizations. The objective is to consider the use of communication of organizations in social media as determinants for the engagement of society, through the analysis of the interactions between online users and the publications made on Facebook. For the development of this research, Brazilian Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs) were considered as the unit of analysis. Content analysis and linear regression were used for the data analysis. The ranking of “most liked” NPOs was utilized as selection criteria, as this ranking categorizes organizations according to the number of “likes”. Five NPOs operating in Brazil were selected for analysis of their publications. A total of 1246 posts were analyzed and classified. For the content analysis, the posts were categorized according to the typology of Lovejoy and Saxton ( Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 17 (3), 337–353, 2012 ). The type of post that generates the greater engagement on the analyzed NPOs is that has information content. The type of post that generates the least attention to followers is that has as a central goal to commercialize some product in favor of a cause. The total of posts of each NPO were then regressed in the form of an analysis of variance (ANOVA) with the number of likes, comments and shares of each post aimed at verifying whether any differences in the groupings of posts could be demonstrated and accounted for. This study contributes to the literature in the field by identifying which types of information provided by firms inserted in the digital context generate more engagement. This research extend the scope of engagement beyond the firm and customer (general physical) dyad relationship to other individuals, like online users.