Social media enables public sector organizations to connect with citizens. Next to this, it can help organizations provide more detailed and useful information. But to what extent is social media used by local governments for interaction purposes, and what factors influence this? In this article, we study how Dutch local governments use Twitter for interaction, linking this to political, institutional, and socio-economic determinants. We find that politically fragmented municipalities use Twitter more for interaction, suggesting that political multiplicity forms a stimulus for more online engagement. Moreover, municipalities that have a Twitter account for a longer time make more advanced use of its functions, implying that municipalities with longer experience are better acquainted with a platform's strengths and weaknesses. Finally, municipalities with a higher presence of people in the age group 20–65 as well as municipalities with more higher-educated people use their social media more for interaction. The same counts for municipalities with more ICT workers.

社交媒体使公共部门组织能够与公民建立联系。除此之外，它还可以帮助组织提供更详细和有用的信息。但是，地方政府在何种程度上利用社交媒体进行互动，以及哪些因素影响了这种互动？在本文中，我们研究了荷兰地方政府如何使用Twitter进行互动，并将其与政治，制度和社会经济决定因素联系起来。我们发现，政治分散的市政当局更多地使用Twitter进行互动，这表明政治多元化会刺激人们更多地在线参与。此外，使用Twitter帐户的时间较长的市政当局会更高级地使用其功能，这意味着具有较长经验的市政当局会更好地了解该平台的优缺点。最后，年龄在20-65岁之间的人群较高的城市，以及文化程度较高的城市，更多地使用其社交媒体进行互动。对于拥有更多ICT工作者的城市来说，也是如此。