The number of Italian cities active on social networks is growing, but most still use them above all to inform and communicate, while the propensity to involve, interact and dialogue with one's followers is still low. There are 99 provincial capitals with at least one social channel (there were 94 in 2017), while only 8 those who have not yet activated any tool. The cities most present on social networks (by number of active channels) in 2018 are Reggio Emilia (which ousted Turin, in the lead last year), Bologna e Ferrara (who are confirmed on the podium). Roma, Milano e Torino are the cities with the most fans and followers on Facebook and Twitter, but if we consider the number of followers in relation to the population, the performance of Florence, which on Twitter is followed by 24,6% of the population, Verbania, Crotone e Pesaro, which on Facebook have a following of 41,5%, 36,9% and 34,5% of the population respectively. Napoli, Cesena e Monza on the other hand, they were the most active cities on YouTube in the last year.
They are the results from the survey of FPA, group company digital360, on the presence, use and performance on social networks of 107 provincial capitals. One of the 100 contained indicators in the Report “ICity Rate 2018”, which will be presented on 17 October in Florence at the event ICity Lab (Florence Fair, Palazzo degli Affari, 17-18 October, http://www.icitylab.it), with the ranking of the smartest and most sustainable cities in Italy.
If the presence of municipalities on social media has increased on average, there are cases of poorly updated or even stopped accounts and there is still low interaction with one's own community. "Our data still reveal a certain difficulty on the part of administrations in exploiting the full potential of social media, also due to a cultural distance and a lack of widespread skills - he underlines Gianni Dominici, Director General of FPA -. The number of social media managers within the administrations has increased, but in most cases they are professionals employed by the mayor, while there are still a few other employees trained in communication 2.0. This explains why most of the provincial capitals present on social media are online above all to report their political work. To interact with citizens on social networks, using them as a tool for transparency, debate and democracy, awareness, skills and widespread knowledge of the potential of social networks are needed".
The results of the research
The social media most loved by cities is still Facebook, chosen as a communication channel by 82 provincial capitals (three fewer than in 2017), followed by Twitter with 79 cities present (73 last year), YouTube with 71 (67 in the previous survey) and Instagram with 26 (up from 21 in 2017). On the other hand, the use of Google+ (15) was stable, while the presence of cities on Flickr (from 15 to 13) and on Pinterest (from 5 to 4) decreased. There are also some municipalities that have experimented with new channels, such as WhatsApp (Reggio Emilia, Bologna, Rimini, Syracuse and Ancona) and LinkedIn (Roma Capitale and Pavia). The challenge of instant messaging, however, has not yet been fully accepted: in most cases citizens can receive information or messages from the Municipality in broadcast mode, but not ask for information or interact.
The use of Facebook – The big cities boast the highest number of "likes" on Facebook: in the lead Rome, with 401.338 likes, followed by Milan, with 143.711, and Turin, with 119.130. Rome also moves into second position for the number of likes earned in 2018 (+19.498) behind Bologna (+32.056) and ahead of Naples (+18.750). But if we consider likes in relation to the population, small towns occupy the top positions, with Verbania (41,5% of the population) leading the ranking, followed by Crotone (36,9%) and Pesaro (34,5% of the population). %). The engagement rate also rewards small municipalities, with Viterbo in first position (31,2%), followed by Pordenone (19,7%) and Aosta (10,9%).
Cities on Twitter – Analyzing the presence of municipalities on Twitter, an extremely heterogeneous picture emerges: we go from cities like Bologna, with a total of 65.800 tweets, or Rome with its 37.000, to cities like Fermo which have been blocked by about sixty total posts for over one year. If we look at the last 12 months in particular, there are cities that are really active and others that have a less effective presence. In fact, let's go from Venice, the city that has been most busy in the last year by publishing 6600 tweets in just 12 months, with an average of about 127 posts a week, to cities that have made less than 5 posts a week (as many as 19 cities out of the 79 that have a twitter account).
As far as citizen communities are concerned, the largest are undoubtedly Rome, with 446 followers (15,5% of the population), Milan, with 332 (24,3%), and Turin, with 216 (24,5%). . Rome and Milan are the first and second cities also for the number of followers gained during the year, respectively 60 thousand (+16%) and 35 thousand (+12%), followed by Naples with 14.200 (+14%). But the city that boasts the largest community compared to its population is Florence, which is followed by a number of followers equal to 24,6% of its citizens.
Presence on YouTube – In the last 12 months, Naples, Cesena, Monza, Genoa and Rome are the cities that have used the YouTube channel most intensely. Also on this social network, the gap between the most active cities, such as Naples, which has published a total of over 5 thousand videos, and the most absent ones, such as Padua, Mantua, Gorizia, Brescia and Vercelli, which are still less than five videos published, is very wide. And there are cases of cities with canals open but unused for over a year, such as Latina, Sondrio, Prato, Pistoia, Matera, Gorizia, Forlì, Pisa, Ancona, Rieti and Salerno.
