Examination of Content Types and Social Media Engagement Indicators on Facebook: Case Analysis of a 5-Star Hotels of Visegrad Group Countries

Delving into the intricate world of social media engagement, this comprehensive study analyses the dynamics of user interaction with posts from 5-star hotels on Facebook across the Visegrad Group countries. It meticulously aims to shed light on the variances among engagement metrics—shares, comments, and reactions—across different types of posted content. Furthermore, it explores the complex interrelations among these metrics to provide a holistic understanding of user engagement patterns. In pursuit of this goal, we scrutinized an extensive dataset comprising 10,820 Facebook posts shared by selected 5-star hotels throughout 2019. The data were meticulously collected from the social network utilizing the accessible API, ensuring a robust and reliable foundation for analysis. The investigation employed advanced statistical tools, namely the Kruskal‒Wallis test and Spearman’s rho test, to thoroughly examine and interpret the complex data. The insights gleaned from this research are invaluable, painting a detailed picture of brand management strategies on social platforms. A significant finding of this study is the variation in user engagement levels in relation to the type of content disseminated. It highlights that visual content—specifically videos and photos—tends to dominate in terms of eliciting user responses, as compared to text statuses and links. This underlines the importance of leveraging visual media to captivate and engage the audience effectively. The study also reveals that engagement metrics are intricately linked, suggesting a synergistic effect rather than isolated impacts. This indicates that an integrated approach, considering these metrics as a cohesive unit, could be more beneficial in strategizing content for social media. Understanding these relationships and the dominant role of visual content can greatly inform and transform the way brands, especially in the hospitality industry, navigate their presence on social networks. These findings serve as a guiding framework for optimizing social media content strategies, aiming to maximize engagement and enhance the effectiveness of online brand management.