Exploring the content factors contributing to boosting user engagement on Press TV’s Facebook page

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Media, Faculty of Management, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

2 Iranian Research Institute for Information Science and Technology (Iran Doc), Tehran, Iran

Abstract

User engagement as one of the main concerns of media organizations has already taken on more significance with social media networks including Facebook updating their visibility algorithms by the level of engagement. This challenges media corporations, especially Iranian media including PressTV, given the nature of the content they create. The present study aimed to identify content factors contributing to boosting user engagement on PressTV’s Facebook page and increasing its organic reach. The researchers analyzed 119 most viewed posts within 12 months (2019-2020) through a thematic analysis. The identified factors were later sent to experts to elicit their opinions about the impact on engaging the audience. Information, identity, novelty, practical use, curiosity, surprise, entertainment, and negative sentiment were the 8 factors boosting user engagement on PressTV’s Facebook page. Unlike similar studies which mainly focus on content format and components, this research highlights content characteristics contributing to user engagement on Facebook.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

Azad Barmaki, T., Mobaraki, M., Shahbazi, Z. (2012). Identifying practical indexes of social development (Using the Delphi Technique).Quarterly Journal of Socio-Cultural Development Studies, 1 (1), 7-30
Baek, K., Holton, A., Harp, D., Yaschur, C., 2011. The links that bind: uncovering novel motivations for linking on Facebook. Comput. Hum. Behav. 27 (6), 2243–2248.
Bazarova, N. N., & Choi, Y. H. (2014). Self-disclosure in social media: Extending the functional approach to disclosure motivations and characteristics on social network sites. Journal of Communication, 64(4), 635-657.
Braun, Virginia, and Victoria Clarke. "Using thematic analysis in psychology." Qualitative research in psychology 3.2 (2006): 77-101.
Bronner, F., & Neijens, P. (2006). Audience experiences of media context and embedded advertising. International Journal of Market Research, 48(1), 81–100
Burke, M., Marlow, C., & Lento, T. (2010, April). Social network activity and social well-being. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 1909-1912).
Chama, A. G. C., Monaro, M., Piccoli, E., Gamberini, L., & Spagnolli, A. (2019, April). Engaging the Audience with Biased News: An Exploratory Study on Prejudice and Engagement. In International Conference on Persuasive Technology (pp. 350-361). Springer, Cham.
Chen, V. Y. (2020). Examining news engagement on Facebook: Effects of news content and social networks on news engagement. Mass Communication and Society, 23(6), 833-857.
Del Mar Gálvez-Rodríguez, M., Alonso-Cañadas, Haro-de-Rosario, A., & Caba-Pérez, C. (2020). Exploring best practices for online engagement via Facebook with local destination management organisations (DMOs) in Europe: A longitudinal analysis. Tourism Management Perspectives, 34, 100636.
Di Gangi, Paul M., and Molly M. Wasko. "Social media engagement theory: Exploring the influence of user engagement on social media usage." Journal of Organizational and End User Computing (JOEUC) 28.2 (2016): 53-7
Gerbaudo, P., Marogna, F., & Alzetta, C. (2019). When “positive posting” attracts voters: User engagement and emotions in the 2017 UK election campaign on Facebook. Social Media+ Society, 5(4), 2056305119881695.
Gamage, T. C., Tajeddini, K., & Tajeddini, O. (2022). Why Chinese travelers use WeChat to make hotel choice decisions: A uses and gratifications theory perspective. Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science, 32(2), 285-312.
Heiss, R., Schmuck, D., & Matthes, J. (2019). What drives interaction in political actors’ Facebook posts? Profile and content predictors of user engagement and political actors’ reactions. Information, Communication & Society, 22(10), 1497-1513.
Jiménez-Zafra Salud María, Sáez-Castillo Antonio José, Conde-Sánchez Antonio and Martín-Valdivia María Teresa, 2021: How do sentiments affect virality on Twitter?R. Soc. open sci.8201756201756 http://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.201756
Jung, S., & Lee, S. (2016, January). Developing a model for continuous user engagement in social media. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Ubiquitous Information Management and Communication (pp. 1-4).
Kim, J., Lee, J., Jo, S., Jung, J., & Kang, J. (2015). Magazine reading experience and advertising engagement: A uses and gratifications perspective. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 92(1), 179-198.
Kim, S. J., & Hancock, J. T. (2015). Optimistic bias and Facebook use: Self–other discrepancies about potential risks and benefits of Facebook use. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 18(4), 214-220.
Lappas, G., Triantafillidou, A., & Kani, A. (2021). Harnessing the power of dialogue: examining the impact of Facebook content on citizens’ engagement. Local Government Studies, 1-20.
   Le, T. D. (2018). Influence of WOM and content type on online engagement in consumption communities: The information flow from discussion forums to Facebook. Online Information Review.
   Liu, Y., Sui, Z., Kang, C., & Gao, Y. (2014). Uncovering patterns of inter-urban trip and spatial interaction from social media check-in data. PloS one, 9(1), e86026.
   Maree, T., & Van Heerden, G. (2020). Beyond the “like”: customer engagement of brand fans on Facebook. European Business Review.O'Brien, H. L. (2011). Exploring user engagement in online news interactions. Proceedings of the American society for information science and technology, 48(1), 1-10.
Moran, G., Muzellec, L., & Johnson, D. (2019). Message content features and social media engagement: evidence from the media industry. Journal of Product & Brand Management.
O'Brien, H. L., Toms, E. G., Kelloway, E. K., & Kelley, E. (2008). Developing and evaluating a reliable measure of user engagement. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 45(1), 1-10.
Park, J., & Cho, K. (2009, September). Declining relational trust between government and public, and potential prospects of social media in the government public relations. In Proceedings of EGPA Conference 2009 The Public Service: Service Delivery in the Information Age.
Porter, Constance Elise, et al. "How to foster and sustain engagement in virtual communities." California management review 53.4 (2011): 80-110.
Rowe, G., & Wright, G. (1999). The Delphi technique as a forecasting tool: issues and analysis. International journal of forecasting, 15(4), 353-375.
Shahbaznezhad, H., Dolan, R., & Rashidirad, M. (2021). The role of social media content format and platform in Users' engagement behavior. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 53, 47-65.
Smock, A. D., Ellison, N. B., Lampe, C., & Wohn, D. Y. (2011). Facebook as a toolkit: A uses and gratification approach to unbundling feature use. Computers in human behavior, 27(6), 2322-2329.
Srivastava, J., Saks, J., Weed, A. J., & Atkins, A. (2018). Engaging audiences on social media: Identifying relationships between message factors and user engagement on the American Cancer Society’s Facebook page. Telematics and Informatics, 35(7), 1832-1844.
Tajpour, M., & Hosseini, E.(2021). Entrepreneurial Intention and the Performance of Digital Startups: The Mediating Role of Social Media, Journal of Content, Community & Communication, 13, 2-15. 
Whiting, A., & Williams, D. (2013). Why people use social media: a uses and gratifications approach. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal.
Yang, M., Ren, Y., & Adomavicius, G. (2019). Understanding user-generated content and customer engagement on Facebook business pages. Information Systems Research, 30(3), 839-855.
Yousuf, M., Haque, M. M., & Islam, M. K. (2019). Online niches of English-language newspapers in Bangladesh: Analyzing news stories and user engagement on Facebook. Newspaper Research Journal, 40(1), 106-126
https://about.fb.com/news/2018/01/news-feed-fyi-bringing-people-closer-together
Interdisciplinary Journal of Management Studies (Formerly known as Iranian Journal of Management Studies)
Volume 17, Issue 2
April 2024
Pages 365-378

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics