Figure 1
Relative use of different posts, 2009–2017 (per cent)
Comments: N = 85,482: 2009 (379); 2010 (2,961); 2011 (8,836); 2012 (11,057); 2013 (12,664); 2014 (12,558); 2015 (12,895); 2016 (13,986); 2017 (10,146, data collection ended on 15 September 2017). Post type here reflects only the choice made by the individual poster.
Figure 2
Model portraying local governments’ external links on their Facebook pages
Comments: N = 38,076. The threshold for nodes is set to 10, making only co-occurrences between a municipality (source) and category (target) that superseded 10 visible in the network. Through the modularity function (Blondel et al., 2008), three clusters were identified: a societal information cluster (blue; N = 31,632); a marketing and place-branding cluster (yellow; N = 4,644); and a press/publishing-service cluster (orange; N = 1,800). Node sizes indicate the number of links from a municipality (source) and line's thickness connection to a category (target).
Figure 3
Mean interactions per post, 2009–2017
Comments: The figure illustrates changes in mean values. Standard deviation formula on sample population indicates large variations within these values.
Table 1
Mean interaction per post type, 2012–2017
| 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event | ||||||
| Comments | 0.43 (0.88) | 0.48 (1.81) | 0.22 (0.70) | 0.73 (3.37) | 0.58 (1.80) | 0.58 (1.31) |
| Shares | 0.48 (1.26) | 0.53 (1.56) | 0.08 (0.29) | < 0.01 (0.08) | < 0.1 (0.08) | < 0.01 (0.09) |
| Likes | 6.55 (10.50) | 8.70 (20.93) | 10.36 (19.59) | 23.71 (72.47) | 22.99 (53.64) | 19.69 (35.96) |
| Link | ||||||
| Comments | 0.86 (2.94) | 0.83 (2.78) | 1.04 (3.30) | 1.78 (5.19) | 2.24 (6.19) | 2.43 (7.50) |
| Shares | 0.60 (1.56) | 1.10 (3.14) | 2.88 (10.52) | 4.95 (10.64) | 6.52 (19.55) | 6.64 (16.45) |
| Likes | 5.8 (13.41) | 10.32 (24.47) | 18.96 (53.79) | 33.67 (74.08) | 40.64 (75.85) | 48.64 (84.72) |
| Photo | ||||||
| Comments | 4.57 (15.85) | 4.42 (12.33) | 3.22 (7.71) | 5.16 (19.40) | 4.40 (10.69) | 5 (15.87) |
| Shares | 8.09 (114.28) | 7.89 (43.98) | 6.84 (18.24) | 11.67 (71.24) | 11.43 (33.74) | 10.22 (30.41) |
| Likes | 69.89 (675.24) | 75.9 (225.92) | 80.09 (158.70) | 128.44 (456.83) | 128.88 (289.38) | 112.29 (234.26) |
| Status | ||||||
| Comments | 3.33 (9.86) | 3.39 (8.58) | 2.57 (7.35) | 2.39 (6.88) | 2.39 (5.99) | 2.81 (10.89) |
| Shares | 0.97 (4.13) | 3.43 (13.01) | 4.96 (19.17) | 7.40 (43.73) | 7.56 (28.35) | 10.60 (68.42) |
| Likes | 14.90 (55.39) | 21.94 (70.64) | 22.95 (84.91) | 22.97 (58.17) | 22.43 (57.79) | 50.08 (560.17) |
| Video | ||||||
| Comments | 1.57 (5.25) | 1.63 (3.93) | 2.45 (8.72) | 4.70 (15.24) | 6.97 (18.44) | 8.63 (51.53) |
| Shares | 1.61 (3.59) | 5.18 (29.76) | 13.51 (141.92) | 17.60 (111.42) | 31.67 (170.03) | 29 (396.33) |
| Likes | 8.54 (13.12) | 22.28 (40.84) | 50.38 (141.72) | 81.43 (138.64) | 133.19 (327.61) | 120.85 (392.21) |
[i] Comments: Standard deviation (in parentheses) illustrate variation within each post type.