Prof Atul Pathak’s
co-authored paper titled, ‘Driving citizen engagement through Twitter: The case of COVID-19 vaccination drive in India’ has been published in the Journal of Public Affairs (ABDC "B" category). Mr. Balamurugan Annamalai, Marketing Area, Xavier Institute of Management, XIM University, Bhubaneswar, India; Ms. Shabana Chandrasekaran, Operations Management and Decision Sciences Area, Xavier Institute of Management, XIM University, Bhubaneswar, India, are the co-authors of the paper.
Using data from the official Twitter handle of 'The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare' (MOHFW) of India, the study examines the effect of the content characteristics, including content type and media type, on citizen engagement, measured as tweet likes and retweets. The findings are based on 3742 tweets from MOHFW, recording more than 4.06 million likes and 1.23 million retweets over the initial six months of the largest COVID-19 vaccination drive. Results show that content-sharing guidance for stakeholders gained the maximum engagement, while the latest news about the COVID-19 crisis resulted in the least engagement. Photos gained maximum engagement, while statuses resulted in minor engagement. The results illuminate the textual features of the government's Twitter communication and will help policymakers to manage their social media content strategy diligently.
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