Smart cities and citizen engagement: Evidence from Twitter data analysis on Italian municipalities

Smart cities are increasingly keen to establish a fruitful conversation with their citizens, better capture needs, and create virtual platforms for stimulating co-creation processes between government users, the final objective of increasing quality life well-being. Social media applications provide an opportunity dialogic communication, where, relatively low cost, large amount information reaching wide audience can be published exchanged in real time, fueling opportunities citizens' engagement. This study is based on social listening method, through Twitter data mining, which enabled disentangling different components citizen engagement (popularity, commitment, virality) sample Italian municipalities. In addition, we executed deep analysis types communication artifacts and, content tweets by followers municipalities' accounts, identified main areas interest conversations. Our results online conversations engaged accounts 28 municipalities, chosen among most active densely populated. We show that municipalities tend use account as channel inform population about variety topics, such transport public works, others. The volume activity number (audience) vary from one municipality other. There generally negative relationship density engagement: smaller higher engagement; biggest ones, like Roma, Milan, Turin, Naples, laggards. finally conducted city profiling process, provides representation key segments terms Policymakers could find our work useful tools increase capacity.