Communicating sustainability through social media in the Italian universities context

The research purpose is to analyze how social media can be adopted to communicate sustainability by universities. More precisely it is to investigate whether the online platforms are used to support and in what way the main communication functions with reference to sustainability. The methodology adopted is qualitative, a content analysis regarding the sustainability messages posted by universities from the sample of six Italian universities selected for research from the list of Italian University Network for Sustainable Development. The study confirms the three main functions of universities social media with regard to the sustainability communication. They consist mainly in information, action, and community creation. In particular, the results show that universities mostly use the social platform to for the action and communication function. Whilst, more rarely, universities use the social platform to feed and activate stakeholders, through dialogue, in community building, trying to create strong links between individuals and groups specific sustainability issues of common interest. The limits of the research, refer to characteristic of the sample of the selected universities essentially, and to the implicit subjectivity of method adopted. It highlights the need for universities to develop a more specific relational orientation, consistent with the characteristics of social media, capable of promoting inclusive processes of the various stakeholders aimed to create active involvement in the sustainability strategies and practices of the university. The study provides important insights into the sustainability communication carried out by universities. The study offers an original interpretation of social communication for sustainability in the university sustainability sector.