There has been a lot of talk about the “Draghi style”, which as known, contrary to the Premieres who preceded it, does not have its own presence on social media, relying only on the institutional channels of Palazzo Chigi, there has been much talk. After analyzing the communication of the main political leaders on Facebook and Twitter, we tried to understand if the austerity of the communication of our current Prime Minister is also followed by his government ministries.
To do this, the presence on Facebook of all ministries was analyzed from February 13, 2021, the day of Draghi’s inauguration, to April 30, 2022. With YouTube, Facebook, as we know, is the social platform with the largest number of users. About 90% of those who use the Internet in Italy, which according to the latest data available in February 2022 are 44.5 million individuals, equal to 75.5% of the population aged 2 and over.
Social networks are also the online activity to which Italians dedicate most of their time spent online. And together with instant messaging they account for just under half of the total time spent online. Therefore, communicating on Facebook is essentially equivalent to communicating with a very large portion of Italians.
Of the ministries that have their own presence on Facebook, from which, for example, the Department for Information and Publishing is paradoxically absent, we have analyzed the average number of posts per day, in order to measure the intensity of the communication of each. . The engagement rate, or engagement rate if you prefer, to understand how much their communication involves citizens. The number of followers, so as to understand the theoretical scope of their communication. And the number of interactions, in order to deepen what emerges from the analysis of the engagement rate. Since 13 February 2021, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Institutional Communication is the one that produces and publishes the largest number of posts on Facebook. On average 3.64 / day. At the other extreme, the Department for Relations with Parliament, which on average publishes a post every ten days or so.
The Ministry of Tourism, on the other hand, obtains the highest rate of involvement, followed by the Department for Digital Transformation, introduced by the so-called “Conte II”. However, both have a modest publication frequency. About one post every two days, on average, for both.
The post of the Ministry of Tourism that has created the most involvement is a video in which the coach of the national football team, Mancini, a few days before winning the European football championships, on 21 June 2021, invited to spend the holidays in Italy. Post whose video had about 236 thousand views, 87.9% of which thanks to shares, which were 2,481.
The Ministry of Health has the highest number of followers, which is also the one that obtains the highest number of interactions, and therefore the highest level of engagement, even if, as the infographic summarizing the results of our analysis shows, the engagement rate is lower than that of others due to the relatively high number of followers.
The post of the Ministry of Health that generated the highest level of engagement was three months ago, on January 28, 2022. Post in which the Ministry denies the dissemination of false, “phishing” emails, relating to the suspension of green certification (or green pass), which instead, as we know, was partially suspended only from yesterday 1 May. Post that gets about 73 thousand shares, and 1,311 comments, many of which negative, of criticism of the work of the Ministry, to which no one responds. Not exactly a virtuoso example of fanpage management, let’s say.
In short, in conclusion, the institutional communication of the various ministries, even with the profound differences between one and the other that emerge from our analysis, is overall susceptible to wide improvements, both in terms of frequency and scope of the same and in reference the ability to involve citizens and establish a two-way conversation with them in an e-democracy perspective.
