Social media adoption and reach by Ecuadorian local governments: an empirical study

Abstract

In this article, we present an empirical study about adoption and reach of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube by Ecuadorian municipal governments. Data was collected from 55 social media profiles of municipal authorities in three provinces, representing 25% of all Ecuadorian cantons and 54% of the population. Determinants of adoption and reach were investigated by resorting to correlation, regression, and means comparison studies. We conclude that population size is a good predictor of reach in social media, but it is not relevant to explain early adoption. This may be the consequence of social media technology being inexpensive and simple to adopt, thus being accessible to any local authority, while making good use of it has more financial and administrative burdens and, consequently, is associated with bigger local authorities. Also, adoption may have been centrally driven and programmatically motivated, which would also explain the lesser relevance of population size for early adoption.