Beyond “likes”: An assessment of user engagement in Facebook among Philippine academic libraries

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the performance of the academic libraries’ Facebook pages in relation to the type of content they provide and the user engagement they generate. Design/methodology/approach: Facebook pages of ten university libraries in the Philippines were analyzed for their posts and user interaction to look at their effectiveness in driving engagement with their target audience. Findings: This study reveals that engagement is low for majority of libraries. For the most part, frequency of posts is directly proportional to the engagement rate. Photo posts and events-related posts account for the bulk of status posts and gather a higher level of interaction than any other type of postings. Status posts that are non-library related are also receiving a considerable engagement rate. Research limitations/implications: Because of the absence of the Facebook Insights data, only the information publicly available from the Facebook pages of the libraries were utilized for this study. The findings of this research will help libraries to effectively create a plan of action to further build community and increase interaction in their Facebook sites. The results may also provide useful data for best practices and establish benchmark by which other libraries could evaluate their own performance. Originality/value: While majority of the studies conducted analyze the type content posted by libraries in their Facebook pages, this study provides further investigation by looking at the engagement level generated by these posts as a primary gauge for determining the effectiveness of the libraries in creating engagement amongst their audience. © 2018, © Emerald Publishing Limited