Relationship maintenance strategies on the Facebook pages of current US Senators

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how current US senators utilize their Facebook pages to promote positive relationships with their public in terms of relationship maintenance strategies: positivity, openness, access, assurance, sharing of tasks, and networking. Interactivity of their Facebook pages is also examined. Design/methodology/approach – Content analysis was conducted for 89 Facebook pages of the US senators of the 112th Congress. Levels of six relationship maintenance strategies and interactivity of the Facebook pages were examined. Findings – Among six relationship maintenance strategies, positivity and openness are the most frequently used strategies while access and assurance are the least observed. In total, 70 percent of the senators’ Facebook pages show a low level of interactivity. Research limitations/implications – The study is limited to the samples of the current US senators. Practical implications – This study provides a useful insight for political public relations practitioners that features associated with relationship management strategies can be employed to develop better social network sites for political actors, in order to build or enhance relationships with public. Originality/value – Despite the importance of relationship management among political actors/organizations and public, and potential to establish relationships via social networking sites, only a few studies have tried to explore the relationship maintenance strategies on social network sites in the political arena.