Attack, Interact, and Mobilize: Twitter Communication Strategies of Greek Mayors and their Effects on Users’ Engagement

Amalia Triantafillidou (), Georgios Lappas (), Alexandros Kleftodimos () and Prodromos Yannas ()
Additional contact information
Amalia Triantafillidou: Western Macedonia University of Applied Sciences
Georgios Lappas: Western Macedonia University of Applied Sciences
Alexandros Kleftodimos: Western Macedonia University of Applied Sciences
Prodromos Yannas: Piraeus University of Applied Sciences

Chapter Chapter 4 in Sub-National Democracy and Politics Through Social Media, 2018, pp 65-89 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The aim of the present study is to examine the communication strategies used by Greek mayors in Twitter across different periods of an electoral cycle (pre-campaign, campaign, and post-campaign). Moreover, this study tries to delineate the effects of Twitter strategies on users’ engagement and identify the most effective ones. To that end, a content analysis is performed on 32,810 tweets of Greek mayors for a six-year period. Moreover, quantitative metrics such as the number of favorites and retweets are also obtained for each tweet. Results suggest that Greek mayors mainly use Twitter as a press release bulletin board for dissemination of information about the main events taking place in municipality. Moreover, they also use impression management strategies to promote a distinct personal, political and professional image. Results also show that during different periods of an electoral cycle mayors utilize a different mix of Twitter strategies. Furthermore, aggressive (attacking opponents), interactive (direct communication), and mobilization (requesting feedback) strategies are found to be the most effective in enhancing followers’ attitude expression (favorites) and advocacy behavior (retweets). The present study provides valuable practical implications for social media political marketers as well as politicians.

Keywords: Twitter Strategy; Impression Management Strategies; Exponent Behavior; Tweets; Retweets (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:paitcp:978-3-319-73386-9_4

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783319733869

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-73386-9_4

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Public Administration and Information Technology from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().