Motivational Impact of Facebook Posts on Environmental Communities

As environmental groups utilize social media to increase the participation of citizens in contributing scientific data, the question of what kind of content will motivate user engagement becomes increasingly important. Using a Social Network Analysis framework and following on the heels of motivational studies, we examine the Facebook Fan Pages of three environmental communities: eBird, Aspen Center for Environmental Studies and the Anacostia Watershed Society. We find that whether posts originate with the page owner (Page Posts), with users (User Posts), or whether they are posted by Fan Pages of other sites (Mention Posts), posts on a site fall into 4 main categories based on their message and intent: informational, invitational, motivational and investigational. While thematic content analysis corroborates that posts by owners motivate the most user engagement across the board, the degree to which Page Posts cumulatively fall into the motivational category on a site critically impacts user engagement.