Evolution of the “Hierarchy of Engagement” Model Over a Decade: Examining Social Media Use to Inform, Activate, and Create Community

Abstract

The use and underuse of social media by organizations have garnered significant attention from scholars. The findings indicate that most public and nonprofit organizations primarily use one-way messaging in their social media communication. In 2012, Lovejoy and Saxton presented a “Hierarchy of Engagement” framework to categorize nonprofits' social media communication into Information, Community, and Action (ICA) messages. Since its publication, more than 100 research articles, reports, etc. have referred to this framework. This study presents a systematic review of 48 published scholarly articles that applied and expanded the ICA typology over 10 years (2012–2021). We find that the messaging strategy has not changed much from how the authors initially framed it. The social media accounts reviewed by this literature average share 51% information, 24% community, and 26% action messages. This study offers practical implications for nonprofit professionals, marketers, digital media managers, and scholars.