Diversos estudios sobre la comunicación de los CEO en redes sociales han destacado la necesidad de investigar el cumplimiento de la promesa teórica del diálogo. Este estudio analiza las estrategias de interactividad de los directores ejecutivos de América Latina en LinkedIn y su impacto en el engagement. La investigación se enfoca en tres categorías: enfoques de comunicación general, recursos comunicativos y nivel de engagement alcanzado por los directivos en sus publicaciones. Los CEO se seleccionaron del ranking de América Economía 500. Se identificaron 327 CEO en LinkedIn y se analizaron 7461 publicaciones de 244 cuentas activas. Los hallazgos arrojan resultados con tendencias predominantes: la gran mayoría de los CEO adopta un enfoque informativo y alcanza niveles superiores de engagement. Los ejecutivos utilizan principalmente recursos expositivos, como texto y gráficos, y, en menor medida, recursos interactivos como los participativos. Los CEO latinoamericanos en LinkedIn emplean una estrategia de interactividad de tipo monológico, caracterizada por publicaciones informativas y por el uso de recursos expositivos. El engagement mejora cuando se aumenta la diversidad de recursos comunicativos. Este estudio ofrece herramientas para maximizar el impacto de los CEO en la gestión de la reputación en LinkedIn. Se identifican tres perfiles de CEO: difusores, potenciadores e interactivos.

This study explores the content strategies Latin American CEOs deploy on LinkedIn, based on an analysis of content types and strategies and their influence on the level of engagement. A quantitative analysis of 7461 publications from 244 active accounts of the CEOs of companies in the América Economía top 500 ranking was carried out, considering both publication topics (institutional, sustainability, personal) and strategies (focused, hybrid, transversal). The results reveal that Latin American CEOs prioritize institutional and, to a lesser extent, sustainability content, while personal content is scarce. Activity levels are low, while engagement levels are high. Content strategies that expose the personal side of CEOs get the highest engagement rates, while those that include sustainability content register low rates. This research identifies seven profiles of CEO communicators on LinkedIn, based on content strategies: strategists, activists, personal, responsible, inspiring, citizens and integral. It also offers a methodological model to understand the heterogeneity of content strategies, analyse the effectiveness of CEOs’ activity on LinkedIn, and to strengthen ties with their key audiences.

Este estudio investiga las estrategias de publicación de los directores ejecutivos (CEO) de empresas de América Latina en LinkedIn y su impacto en el engagement. Por ello, se examinan los niveles de actividad y los tipos de presencia, así como las tasas de engagement. A partir de un análisis cuantitativo, los resultados revelan que los ejecutivos de esta región tienen una frecuencia de publicación significativamente inferior en LinkedIn en comparación con los promedios recomendados por los expertos. Respecto al tipo de presencia, los CEO son “creadores de contenido” y publican principalmente contenido propio. El análisis del engagement evidencia discrepancias entre las publicaciones propias e híbridas. Debido a la originalidad del contenido propio, este recibe mejores tasas de engagement frente a los posteos híbridos. Los hallazgos revelan que la mayoría de los CEO latinoamericanos adoptan una estrategia de publicación de “embudo pasivo” en LinkedIn, que se caracteriza por una baja actividad y contenido propio. Llama la atención que los CEO con un enfoque más pasivo tienden a obtener tasas de engagement más altas en comparación de aquellos con un enfoque más activo. A partir de aquí se desprende que, si bien el contenido auténtico genera interacción, los CEO deben aprovechar el potencial de las publicaciones compartidas, que se caracterizan por fomentar el diálogo a partir de contenidos con diversas perspectivas, rasgo particular de los actores e instituciones del entorno empresarial. Esta investigación valora el potencial de los CEO comunicadores institucionales y proporciona pautas metodológicas para académicos y profesionales encargados de las estrategias de publicación de organizaciones y directivos de la región.

Las redes sociales son una herramienta decisiva para proporcionar información útil en situaciones de crisis. Desde la pandemia de la COVID-19, las universidades utilizaron sus cuentas oficiales, en las diferentes plataformas sociales, para mantener informados a sus públicos estratégicos. El objetivo principal de este trabajo es examinar el nivel de actividad y de engagement que han generado los contenidos publicados por las universidades, en sus cuentas oficiales de Facebook y Twitter, sobre los temas vinculados con el coronavirus tras la irrupción de la pandemia de la COVID-19 en marzo de 2020. Para ello, se ha desarrollado un análisis de contenido del perfil institucional de n=70 universidades de referencia internacional (en Europa, USA y Latinoamérica), durante el año 2021, para medir el nivel de interacción que han generado dichos mensajes relacionados con la pandemia y compararlos con aquellos que no están relacionados con el virus. Los principales resultados obtenidos permiten concluir que no existen diferencias significativas entre las publicaciones relacionadas con la COVID-19 con aquellas que no tienen relación con el virus, en cuanto a los niveles de actividad y de engagement.

Convertidos en CEO sociales, los directores ejecutivos encontraron un nuevo espacio en las redes sociales para dialogar e interactuar con sus públicos. El objetivo de esta investigación es analizar la presencia y la actividad de los CEO en las principales redes sociales y comparar las diferencias y las similitudes entre ejecutivos de empresas globales y latinoamericanas, según los ránquines Fortune Global 500 y América Economía 500, respectivamente. Se identificaron 537 perfiles en redes sociales de un total de 1.029 directores ejecutivos y se estudiaron 23.549 publicaciones propias y compartidas en LinkedIn, X/Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok y YouTube. En los últimos años, los CEO aumentaron su presencia en redes sociales y la mayoría de ellos tienen perfiles activos, pero con volúmenes bajos de publicación. LinkedIn es la plataforma favorita de los ejecutivos. Los CEO americanos (a nivel global) y brasileños (a nivel latinoamericano) son los líderes en actividad en redes sociales. Los directores ejecutivos ignoran la recomendación de los expertos y tienen una participación “muy baja” en las redes sociales, sobre todo en LinkedIn y X/Twitter. Aunque, en comparación con los niveles de publicación alcanzados en otros estudios y sectores, los CEO mejoran su desempeño. El artículo ofrece a los académicos y profesionales un panorama general e integrador de la presencia y actividad de los CEO en plataformas sociales. Además, propone pautas metodológicas para futuras investigaciones y perfila tres tipos de CEO sociales: activos, moderados y pasivos.

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.

This article examines whether the interactivity strategies used by universities from Latin America, Europe and the United States in their social networks influence the level of engagement of their stakeholders. We applied a content analysis to 90,241 posts on institutional profiles onX/Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn from 70 universities. The results show that Latin American institutions do not follow a significantly different interactivity strategy than European and US institutions. The interaction rates achieved are very low compared to other sectors and those recommended by experts. The interactivity strategy of universities is not sufficient, since the communication approach of publications in all social networks is very informative and the communication resources are mainly expository, although they are increasingly combined with interactive resources. This study proposes a framework to measure and evaluate the interactivity strategy of organizations in social networks by identifying and analyzing the main dimensions.

Social media are critical tools for providing valuable information in crisis situations. Since the COVID-19 Social media are critical tools for providing valuable information during crisis situations. Health crises, in particular, are exceptional circumstances that intensify social uncertainty on a large scale and trigger negative emotions. Previous health crises, such as SARS (2002), H1N1 (2009), Avian Influenza H7N9 (2013), the Ebola virus (2014), and Zika (2016), have demonstrated that social networks are key in public health strategies to accurately disseminate information. For this reason, the WHO has emphasized the importance of digital communication in persuading the population to adopt measures to prevent the escalation of health crises and control epidemic outbreaks. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, universities have utilized their official accounts on various social platforms to keep their strategic audiences informed. In this context, university social networks are configured as essential tools to foster interaction with their priority audiences. Interactive communication acts as a catalyst that enhances the interest of audiences (Gori et al., 2020) in consuming the content published by these institutions and in maintaining stronger connections with them. The dynamic nature of social media allows universities to promptly address public concerns, disseminate accurate information, and counteract misinformation, thereby playing a crucial role in public health communication strategies. The main objective of this study is to examine the level of activity and engagement generated by the content published by universities on their official Facebook and Twitter accounts concerning coronavirus-related topics since the COVID-19 outbreak. To achieve this, a content analysis was conducted on the institutional profiles of n=70 international reference universities (in Europe, USA, and Latin America) during the year 2021 to measure the level of interaction generated by these messages and compare them with non-COVID-19 related posts. This analysis seeks to identify patterns and differences in user engagement, providing insights into the effectiveness of university communication strategies during health crises. The primary results indicate no significant differences between COVID-19 related publications and non-COVID-19 related ones in terms of activity and engagement levels. Specifically, it was found that COVID-19 related content published by universities on their Facebook and Twitter accounts did not generate high levels of activity in any of the three geographical areas analyzed (United States, Europe, and Latin America). This finding suggests that merely addressing pandemic -related topics is insufficient to maintain high levels of audience engagement and that additional factors may influence the effectiveness of these communications. Therefore, it is suggested to reinforce visual content on Twitter and Facebook to enhance the activity levels of the content published by universities. Long paragraphs can disperse users' attention, especially considering that a significant group of users belong to younger generations accustomed to consuming emoticons, GIFs, short videos, and photographs on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Visual content, such as infographics, videos, and engaging images, can attract more attention and foster higher engagement among users, making the communication more effective. Additionally, it is recommended that communication professionals in university institutions receive training and specialization in developing effective communication strategies for social networks during crisis situations. To this end, these professionals should learn to integrate actions, measures, and protocols as outlined in the Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) framework. This framework provides guidelines for effective communication during crises, emphasizing the need for timely, accurate, and transparent information to maintain public trust and mitigate the impact of the crisis. By implementing these strategies, universities can improve their social media engagement and ensure that their messages reach and resonate with their target audiences, ultimately contributing to better public health outcomes during crises.

Social media has become an important tool for universities to implement strategies to promote, position and differentiate their brand identity, to establish and foster the communicative relationship with their stakeholders. This study explores the interactivity strategy developed in digital communication by 70 leading universities from Europe, the United States and Latin America. A specific quantitative methodology was designed to analyze the universities’ social media publications (90,241). The general communicative approach and the communication resources applied were studied through quantitative content analysis. Results show that the universities have an informational approach in their publications on social networks, with little differences among regions and platforms. Expositive and interactive resources are being used in a broad, integrated manner although there are some differences in each region and social network. Thus, the universities opt for a monological interactivity strategy in their digital institutional communication, with little differences between social networks. They are changing toward a model that continues to prioritize dissemination of information, but it is evolving toward more combination of various communication resources that make content more attractive to their publics. This research provides insights into interactivity strategies used by universities on social networks to develop effective digital communication strategies for enhancing engagement with publics.

Chief executive officers have transformed into social CEOs, discovering a new avenue on social media for dialogue and interaction with their audiences. This research makes a significant contribution to the field as it aims to analyze CEOs' presence and activity on social media. It provides a detailed comparison of the differences and similarities between CEOs of global and Latin American companies, based on the Fortune Global 500 and Am & eacute;rica Econom & iacute;a 500 rankings, respectively. We identified 537 social media profiles of 1,029 CEOs and studied 23,549 own and shared publications on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube. CEOs have significantly increased their presence on social media in recent years, with most having active profiles but low publication volumes. LinkedIn emerges as the favored platform for CEOs. American (globally) and Brazilian (at the Latin American level) CEOs lead the pack in social networking activities. Despite some areas for improvement, CEOs have shown progress in their social media engagement compared to the publication levels observed in other studies and sectors. The article offers academics and professionals a comprehensive overview of the presence and activity of CEOs on social platforms. It also presents methodological guidelines for future research and outlines three types of social CEOs: active, moderate, and passive.

Social media have become a key tool in the institutional communication of universities to disseminate content and establish interaction and dialogue with their publics. Content strategy in social networks is a relevant aspect to inform their audiences about their daily activities and position universities in the digital sphere. This article studies the influence of the different types of content posted by universities on their social networks on the level of engagement of their publics. We conducted a content analysis of more than 90,000 posts by 70 universities in three regions (Europe, the United States and Latin America) on their institutional profiles on three social networks (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn). The results show that the level of engagement achieved by the universities’ posts is very low. Universities clearly prioritize institutional content over functional content, and organizational topics are the most published on social networks. Institutional content achieves a higher level of engagement than functional content, and posts on organizational topics have the best level of engagement. Our study might refute the hypothesis that “functional content will generate a higher level of engagement than institutional content on social networks.” Thus, it can be concluded that the combination of content on social networks suggests that universities mainly use social networks to develop an institutional positioning strategy on social media.

El interés científico por la comunicación institucional de las universidades es cada vez más notable. Sin embargo, no se identifican investigaciones bibliométricas publicadas en revistas indexadas en Scopus y WOS, que permitan conocer el desarrollo de la producción científica en el ámbito. Así, este trabajo pretende realizar un primer análisis de la producción científica sobre la comunicación institucional de las universidades durante los últimos 30 años. Mediante una metodología cuantitativa y descriptiva, se estudiaron cuatro aspectos: artículos, revistas, autores y contenido. Los hallazgos muestran un estado de crecimiento acelerado de este ámbito de estudio, a pesar de que aún está en una fase de consolidación.

Institutional communication is becoming a strategic instrument for universities, since it facilitates the relationships with their various publics and allows positioning of the institutional brand, which will contribute to building a distinctive reputation. The types of content disseminated by universities via their social media accounts will contribute decisively to these objectives, since the way in which the different topics are communicated may influence the publics’ perceptions of these higher education institutions. This research analyses the different types of content disseminated by universities (in Europe, the United States and Latin America) via their accounts on social networks (Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn), to assess the main content topics that define the universities’ communicative positioning. A content analysis of the publications by universities on their social networks was carried out, representing an appropriate method to recognize the main themes and topics of their communication strategy. The results reveal two main thematic blocks of content: functional (teaching, research and social commitment topics) and institutional (organizational and contextual topics). Institutional publications are the most relevant block of content, far above the functional posts. In terms of specific topics, the organizational ones are the most common, well above publications on teaching or research, while contextual and social commitment content is used marginally. Most universities, in all regions and on all social networks, follow a dominant strategy of institutional content. So, the higher education institutions are mainly using social networks as a strategic tool for institutional positioning, more than informing about their daily activity.

This paper aims to analyse the institutional communication of universities on social media by conducting a content analysis of the communication strategy of 70 higher education institutions (in the United States, Europe and Latin America). The study focuses on three social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter) and the analysis three dimensions of social media institutional communication: posting, interactivity and content. Findings reveal that while most universities demonstrate a passive centripetal performance to posting, there is a significant divergence in relation to the level of activity. The study highlights that interactivity focus is predominantly characterised by monologues, despite institutions increasingly integrating various communication resources to foster stakeholder interaction. The majority of universities tend to prioritize exclusive or dominant content combination, with organizational content exhibiting a significantly greater presence. By an integrated analysis of these three key dimensions on social media, this paper this paper offers valuable insights for both academics and practitioners. It contributes to the scholars by facilitating further academic research on social media institutional communication and provides professionals with a practical guide for strategically managing communication on social media.

This study offers a comprehensive approach to the evaluation of communication strategy in social networks, which contributes to the academic field by means of a specific analysis methodology, while guiding professionals in their management of digital communication. The key dimensions of universities’ general communication strategy (posting, interactivity and content strategies) on Twitter (now X) are evaluated in a holistic and integrated manner. The level of interaction that universities achieve through their various strategies is also ascertained. To do so, 70 universities (25 from Europe, 20 from the United States, and 25 from Latin America) present in one of the three most prestigious international rankings were selected. A content analysis of 53,446 posts was carried out of their official institutional profiles on Twitter, applying a specific methodology to study the Posting Strategy (through two dimensions: level of Activity and type of Presence), the Interactivity Strategy (with 2 dimensions: level of Resources and level of General approach), and the Content Strategy (with 2 dimensions: Relevance of topics and level of Combination). Our data reveal that the communication strategies of the universities studied are within the recommendations made by experts and achieve fairly good interaction with users, in accordance with studies carried out in other sectors. Some variations are noted between regions, with Latin America being more active than Europe and the United States, also obtaining higher levels of engagement with their users. The combined results show that the integrated strategy with the highest interaction requires a low frequency of posts with an adequate degree of interactivity, but with a high dose of creativity in content creation.

To ensure the widespread dissemination of information and to foster interaction and dialogue with users, higher education institutions need to develop an active profile on the social networks. This paper analyses the influence of universities' posting strategy on their followers' engagement (reaction, virality and conversation) by measuring the level of activity and type of presence on their social networks. A content analysis was conducted to analyse 90,000 posts by 70 universities from Europe, the United States and Latin America on their institutional profiles on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. The universities' posting activity on their social media is moderate (with an overall mean of 7.04 posts per day), but the interaction rate is very low (0.237), far below the recommended levels of engagement. Notably, increased activity by universities on social networks does not lead to greater engagement but points to an inverse relationship between the two. Our findings also indicate that university-created content (UCC) achieves a higher level of engagement ( (x) over bar = 169.41) than university-shared content (USC) ( (x) over bar = 126.18). This study explores the effect of universities' posting strategy dimensions on their follower's interaction.

This paper belongs to the field of communication in the public institution sector. It aims to study the European Union's media reputation in the leading Spanish outlets in the 2000-2018 period. As the institution has continued to acquire competencies and regulate the activity of Member States, the EU's communication with its citizens has represented a source of debate inside and outside the institution. In multiple areas of communication, there is a need to bring this supra-institution closer to citizens through more effective communicative policies. The general aim of this paper is to know the EU's media reputation in Spanish printed press between the years 2000 and 2018. Taking into account the precepts of agenda setting and the principles of media reputation (Capriotti, 2012), a content analysis is carried out to determine the level of media presence and favourability of the institution. This will make it possible to evaluate how the Spanish media present the EU to Spanish citizens, contributing to the formation of public opinion and perception. Due to its long time span, the analysis has been divided into three periods. The first period (Euphoria) goes from 2000 (two years before the implementation of the euro) to the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2007. The second period (Crisis) begins with the global financial crisis of 2008 and ends with the timid beginnings of economic stabilisation in 2014. Finally, the third period (Post-crisis) spans the interval from 2015 to 2018, which sees the eruption and progression of a major social and values crisis in the institution and European society. The general results obtained show that the EU has low visibility in Spanish printed press. In spite of accurate news coverage, in certain periods and years, newsworthy events are not presented to the reader with enough relevance for the news item or institution to gain the notoriety required to be publicly important. In addition, the media favourability in Spain can be considered slightly unfavourable, since the news has an overall negative trend. These results are not consistent with the performance of the institution and the impact it has on the lives of Spanish citizens. A published image that makes it difficult for the institution to create a favourable public sphere and its necessary social legitimacy. According to different authors (Meyer, 1999 and De Vreese, 2003, 2005), the conclusions show that news on the EU fails to interest media outlets, conditioning the EU's visibility and public perception. Regardless of how interested the media may be in the EU, the strategic and communicative role this media plays, when it comes to the level of knowledge that the citizens have about the EU, cannot be ignored. The physical and mental distance of European institutions, as well as their legal, political and structural nature, put media outlets in the position of intermediaries. Thus, the media, as an actor with a voice of its own, is configured as a shaper of opinion, culture, identity and political ideas. In their professional routines, media companies construct determined narratives which bear directly -as the only reality- on citizens' perception (McCombs and Shaw, 1972; Shaw, 1979). With the majority of Spanish citizens lacking direct experience, the EU's communication and interaction with the citizens is left in the hands of the media's financial and ideological profitability. A communicative context which potentially puts the institution's public relevance, credibility and trustworthiness at risk and, thus, a situation which fosters emotional distance between the EU and Spanish citizens.

Esta investigación analiza la situación actual de la investigación sobre la comunicación institucional digital de las universidades. Para ello, se realizó un análisis de la producción científica sobre el tema en los últimos 30 años (1990-2020), indexada en WOS y Scopus, en base a siete aspectos: volumen y evolución de la producción científica, número de universidades y áreas geográficas, instrumentos de comunicación, redes sociales, dimensiones de comunicación y contenido. Los resultados revelan un aumento considerable de artículos sobre la comunicación digital en la última década, principalmente publicados en revistas ibéricas (de España, Portugal e Iberoamérica). Se destaca el gran interés por el análisis de las páginas web y las redes sociales, particularmente la presencia digital y el estudio de la información institucional online de las universidades. Se proponen estudios de tipo inferencial y de profundización que permitan diseccionar en detalle el estado de la cuestión de este campo emergente.

Web 2.0 and the social networks have changed how organizations interact with their publics. They enable organizations to engage in symmetric dialogic communications with individuals. Various organizations are increasingly using different social media to enhance their visibility and relationships with their publics. They allow them to disseminate information, to participate, listen and actively engage in online conversations with different stakeholders. Some social networks have become a key instrument for corporate communication. Therefore, this chapter presents a critical review on the organizations’ dialogic communications with the publics via social networks. It puts forward a conceptual framework that comprises five key dimensions including ‘active presence’, ‘interactive attitude’, ‘interactive resources’, ‘responsiveness’ and ‘conversation’. This contribution examines each dimension and explains their effect on the organizations’ dialogic communication with the publics. Hence, this contribution has resulted in important implications for corporate communication practitioners as well as for academia. Moreover, it opens future research avenues to academia.

Purpose This study aims to analyze whether companies from six Latin American countries are encouraging dialogic communication on Facebook. Design/methodology/approach To do so, the paper studied the level of predisposition for interaction and the type of interaction achieved by companies on Facebook to produce an effective dialogic communication exchange and to generate conversation through different types of communication exchange between organizations and users. This research includes a specific analysis of the active presence, interactive attitude, interactive resources, responsiveness and conversation of 29,078 posts on 135 corporate fanpages of companies from six Latin American countries. Findings The results show that companies have a low interest in managing communication from a dialogic perspective on the social network, not only because a greater predisposition to interaction is needed, but also because the interaction generated is very low. Therefore, the paper identifies the need to review the communication strategy on social networks and to define a strategy aligned to the dialogic nature of the social network. Originality/value This research contributes to broadening the conceptual reflection on the evaluation of the dialogue in the digital context and aims to generate new methodological contributions to the evaluation of dialogic communication in an integrated way.