Use of twitter and Facebook by top European museums

With social media becoming so pervasive, museums strive to adopt them for their own use. Effective use of social media especially Facebook and Twitter seems to be promising. Social media offer museums the possibility to engage audiences, potential and active visitors with their collections and ideas. Facebook and Twitter are the market leaders of social media. This paper records the top European museums and their Facebook and Twitter accounts. It records the use of the two media, and by applying statistical analysis it investigates whether Twitter use is in accordance to Facebook use. Findings reveal that this is not the case. By using Principal Component Analysis and Cluster Analysis the paper finds that there is, however, a district group of top museums which manage to excel in both media mainly by adopting carefully planned strategies and paying attention to the potential and benefits that social media offer

The use of Facebook and Twitter by DMOs in Europe

Social media promote destination image as they allow users to create and share travel-related information. This study based on Social Network Analytics and influence indicators, investigates the levels of adoption and information diffusion by Destination Management Organizations of European Countries in Facebook, and Twitter. It records the exact number of web 2.0 applications used by European countries DMO, and uses indicators of activity and influence on Facebook and Twitter. The study measures the level of information diffusion in relation to the electronic world of mouth dimension. A ranking of the countries on the basis of influence and activity is attempted

The use of Facebook and Twitter by DMOs in Europe

Social media promote destination image as they allow users to create and share travel-related information. This study based on Social Network Analytics and influence indicators, investigates the levels of adoption and information diffusion by Destination Management Organizations of European Countries in Facebook, and Twitter. It records the exact number of web 2.0 applications used by European countries DMO, and uses indicators of activity and influence on Facebook and Twitter. The study measures the level of information diffusion in relation to the electronic world of mouth dimension. A ranking of the countries on the basis of influence and activity is attempted

Sharing Followers in e-Government Twitter Accounts: The Case of Greece

The recent emergence of e-government and online social media offers opportunities for governments to meet the demands and expectations of citizens, to provide value-added services and overcome barriers of reduced public budgets. Twitter is the most popular microblogging platform that can facilitate interaction and engagement. It is widely used by government agencies, public affairs practitioners, non-government organizations, members of Parliament and politicians. The paper aims to explore the use of Twitter by government agencies in Greece and record Twitter followers’ preferences regarding which accounts they follow. The paper records 27 Greek e-government Twitter accounts and their 107,107 followers. It uses a data mining technique, association rules and two multivariate statistical methods, multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis and proposes the use of a similarity measure, suitable for describing Twitter account proximity. In this way, the paper locates accounts that share followers. Groups of Twitter accounts are located, and their common orientation is described. The analysis not only describes Twitter account similarities and group formation, but to some extent, the followers’ preferences and habits of obtaining information through Twitter, as well

Connectivity Practices and Activity of Greek Political Blogs

This paper uses Social Network Analysis indexes to study Greek political blogs. The indexes describe bloggers’ community recommendations, centrality and bloggers’ attempt to form spheres of influence. Five Social Network Analysis indexes are used: incoming links, normalized betweenness, outgoing links, number of 1-cliques a blog belongs to, and size of blog’s ego-network. By recording 127 Greek political blogs, the paper finds that there are two distinct blog performance properties regarding connectivity: Only a few blogs serve as authority blogs having many incoming links and centrality, while a few others try to expand their influence territory by having many outgoing links and forming larger 1-cliques and ego-networks. Next, the paper associates the proposed indexes with blogs’ and users’ community activity. Authority blogs present high blog activity and users’ community activity, as well. These are recorded by large numbers of posts and comments to the blog posts, respectively. It is shown that blogs, which strive to expand their network by using many outgoing links are more likely to link to the authority blogs. Content analysis reveals that authority blogs provide news and information and promote discussion to a much higher degree compared to the overall Greek political blogosphere

Assessing the Adoption of e-Government Services by Teachers in Greece

Technological developments and governments’ understanding of what citizens need usually determine the design of public online services. For successful implementation of e-Government services, governments have to place the user in the center of future developments, understand what citizens need and measure what increases citizens’ willingness to adopt e-government services. The paper uses the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the extended TAM, the Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory and the important determinants of user acceptance perceived risk and trust, in order to describe teachers’ behavioral intensions to adopt e-Government services. A model containing trust and risk, along with cognitive, social and intrinsic factors is used to study the intentions of e-Government use by Greek primary and secondary education teachers. Two hundred and thirty teachers responded to an online survey. Findings reveal that cognitive and intrinsic factors have significant effects on intentions to use e-Government websites

A model of quality assurance in primary education management. The case of Greece

The paper validates a framework which is based on EFQM and associates quality criteria to results and outputs, reflecting the organization readiness and efficiency. The paper studies the views of school principals of Kindergarten and Elementary Schools in Greece. A nationwide survey provides a representative sample of 231 school principals who were administered an online questionnaire. The questionnaire was constructed by applying the EFQM framework as the basic pattern. Based on previous approaches which use PLS models in the education context, the paper provides findings on how key criteria of EFQM associate to each other when applied to the elementary education context in Greece. Findings provide evidence that EFQM criteria are indeed associated both directly and indirectly. The validation of the proposed model supports that the particular instrument can be used as a tool for continually assess, measure and improve the management procedures of elementary education organizations in order to have improved measures of key results criteria

A Social Networking Analysis Of Travel Blogs

Travel blogs are C2C online diaries publishing personal stories and experiences, providing thoughts, commentaries, suggestions, advice and details of trips. In tourism, one of the most important information sources for travel planning is word of mouth. Travel blogs, a practiced form of word of mouth, play a crucial role in traveler’s purchase decision. The paper aims to provide a methodology to locate central groups of travelers and to locate travelers that link to them. The paper also finds connectivity patterns between these groups of travelers: patterns of central travelers and patterns of travelers linking to them. It uses TravelPod (www.travelpod.com), the most popular travel blog, and studies incoming links between travelers through “favorite travelers ” list, which is equivalent to a blogroll. The paper records 563 travelers. By using Social Networking theory, Multidimensional Scaling, and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis, the paper identifies central travelers ’ groups. Their importance is studied with regards to number of incoming links and travelers ’ and blogs ’ characteristics

Quantitative study of the causal relationships among the EFQM model 2020 criteria in the Greek public sector context

This study aims to apply the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Model 2020 in the Greek Public Sector context and investigate the causal relationships between the model’s criteria. The research uses a structured questionnaire based on the self-assessment tool and the guidelines on the concept and structure of the EFQM Model 2020, translated from English into Greek using forward-backward translation. Two focus groups and a pilot study were conducted to ensure the validity and reliability of the questionnaire. Subsequently, a large-scale quantitative research was conducted using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) to test the research hypotheses on a national sample of 177 managers from public administrative services. The study results indicate that the EFQM Model 2020 is indeed a reliable and valid framework for the study of the public sector and reveal significant relationships between the model’s criteria. The study is one of the first comprehensive investigations of the relationships between the EFQM Model 2020 criteria in Europe and, therefore, provides insights into the understanding of the model. As this research was geographically limited, the findings should be treated and generalised with caution, and further research should be conducted in different contexts