Interpretation of User Engagement on Facebook fan page: Experience of a Higher Education Institution

Nowadays, improving User Engagement in Social media promotes visibility of universities in the community. Through this online presence, research activities and outcomes become valuable assets beyond academic settings. As a result, the relationship with the community strengthens, opening new opportunities for collaboration. Interaction data from Social networks allow to identify the elements of User Engagement. From these elements, it becomes possible to understand and enhance its behavior. A quantitative analysis of User Engagement from a university-community commitment perspective was performed. Results evidence an alternative strategic tool to improve the practices of creation and dissemination of content around engagement. The study was performed on data from a Facebook fan page used for dissemination of scientific content, news, and events. It followed a methodology for analysis of social network data to identify how each element contributes to User Engagement. Variations in engagement for individual posts are explained by a regression model created with the most representative variables extracted from the interaction report of the fan page. Further analysis using data mining techniques shows that self-produced content is the primary factor for User Engagement.