Trust and posted topic characteristics on governments social media communication success: An empirical study

One of the most critical developments in the landscape of information and communication technology in the public sector is social media applications as a tool for disseminating information and increasing the performance in delivering services. We are confident that trust and posted topics can provide predictions to understand compliance with communication success. Thus, this study objective is to examine the influence of trust and posted topic towards communication success of the Department of Information of Sabah official Facebook page. A total of 350 questionnaires have been distributed, and 254 completed questionnaires have been subsequently collected. Partial Least Squared-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) using SmartPLS 3.3.2 is used to analyse the data. The results showed that trust and posted topics are essential determinants for the Department of Information’s communication success. This study’s insights prove that the government social media via its Department of Information of Sabah plays a crucial role in disseminating relevant information to the public through the social media platform. Future studies should explore other variables such as transparency and participation to examine their influence on communication success. Researchers may also want to adopt a longitudinal approach or compare communication success based on regions (e.g., West and East Malaysia) using multigroup analysis