A model for assessing the active presence of institutions on social media: application to universities worldwide

Abstract

Today, being actively present on social networks promotes visibility in the digital environment. Active Presence requires choosing the platforms that best suit the communication needs of the audiences, developing a frequent activity (Activity) and disseminating a certain type of publications (Presence). This study defines and evaluates the level of the main dimensions of Active Presence in social networks (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) of 70 universities (Europe, the United States and Latin America). The results show an adequate frequency of publications with mainly own content, although with considerable differences between institutions, regions and platforms. Regarding activity, Facebook is above the daily average and among regions Latin America stands out over the United States and with greater distance over Europe. Regarding the type of presence, universities tend to use their own content on Facebook and LinkedIn, while on Twitter there is a combination of own, hybrid and shared content.