Facebook and Polícia de Segurança Pública: An Exploratory Study of Follower’s Engagement

Abstract

The engagement with social networks promotes a flow of information for users and owners of the social media pages. Even in law enforcement agencies, it’s necessary to evaluate the interaction of social media users. As a first approach to this subject, this study describes the engagement of the followers with the Facebook page of Polícia de Segurança Pública. An exploratory study was done, sustained by an online survey, resulting in 2.311 operational responses from the followers. Our results are displayed according to the different types of engagement: cognitive, behavioural and emotional and the global one. The cognitive and emotional engagement stands out in the analysis. Furthermore, the analysis of the result shows that global engagement is positive. The sample is mainly composed of feminine elements, with a university degree, and that spends more or less on to four hours a day on social media. The findings can be useful for the communication and public relations department of PSP to evaluate the social media strategy that has been followed.