Polish Nationwide Catholic Opinion-Forming Weeklies on Facebook—A Marketing Perspective

Abstract

The main focus of this paper is on the marketing approach of the use of Facebook by the Polish nationwide Catholic opinion-forming weeklies. The aim of the research is to analyse how the selected media use Facebook (FB) to create a media product, distribute, price and communicate its content (including self-promotional activities). The Facebook profiles of five weeklies were analysed: Gość Niedzielny, Niedziela, Przewodnik Katolicki, Idziemy and Tygodnik Rodzin Katolickich Źródło. Three research methods were chosen: literature review on marketing use of Facebook by traditional media, the case study and the content analysis (quantitative, qualitative and comparative). The most important results show that the use of the social media platform Facebook by the Catholic weeklies in Poland is limited to supplementing the main communication channel, which is the printed weekly and its website. The studied media treat Facebook as a marketing tool, favouring this function over the potential apologetic or evangelising ones, but at the same time none of the magazines fully exploit Facebook’s potential offered by its systemic and functional features.

1. Introduction

This paper is the second part of the cycle devoted to the marketing use of social media by Polish Catholic weeklies. The first article (Adamski et al. 2020) contained a presentation of the theoretical and methodological framework of the whole cycle. Firstly, it carried out a literature review regarding close relations between religion, Catholic media and social media (the following topics were analysed: the mediatisation of religion, religious marketing, the concept and definition of Catholic media in Poland, the description of the Polish Catholic weeklies including their online incarnations and the theoretical approach to the marketing use of social media by traditional media). Secondly, the previous article indicated the research framework for the entire project, presenting its objectives, questions and research methods. However, it should be pointed out that the aim of the research, of which the results are presented here, is to analyse how the selected media use Facebook (FB) to create a media product, distribute, price and communicate its content (including self-promotional activities). In other words, the main research question focuses on what the marketing functions of Catholic media profiles on FB are.

As it was mentioned in the cycle-opening paper, the second article—this one—would focus exclusively on the communication of nationwide Catholic weeklies on Facebook (hereinafter referred to as FB). We decided to explore this platform as the first among other popular social media websites due to its position in Poland and the fact that it is used by all the media from the research sample.

FB is, by and large, the strongest and most widely recognised social media website the world (Witek 2018, p. 62) and one of the most popular social networking sites in Poland (Górska 2018); its position has remained unshaken by scandals concerning privacy violations or microtargeting (including the Cambridge Analytica case). The website entered the Polish market in 2008 and has outclassed its competitors in merely 10 years. At the end of 2018, it was used by 16,780,000 Poles, which amounted to 44.1% of the population. The largest group were users aged 25–34 (29.5%), 18–24 (22.3%) and 35–44 (20.5%). In terms of gender, FB was used slightly more often by Polish women (52.6%) than men (47.4%). People under 17 years of age (8.3% of users), in line with the global trend, have started to move to Instagram and other social media (Newseria 2018); it should be noted, however, that Instagram also belongs to the empire of Mark Zuckerberg.

The IRCenter report shows that 58% of the website’s users visit it several times a day and as much as 79% remain active there, i.e., they like, comment, share or publish content (Sielicki 2017). It is also reported that in 2018, a single visit to FB lasted about 17 min, and 82% of the portal’s users were connected to it via mobile devices (Starzewski 2019). According to data citied by MiroArt from Market Snapshot (MiroArt 2017), Poles used FB to keep up to date and check the status of their friends (79% of respondents), use Messenger (74%), contact their friends (67%) and follow the news (61%). Thus, the service performed communication (including marketing communication) and information functions, which is confirmed by the nature of the content shared: photos (66%), friends’ posts (55%) and articles (44%).

It must be added that, all over the world, this platform not only serves individual people. Due to its enormous popularity and real impact on human life, it has become an object of interest for a number of scientists, also in Poland, who have researched it in the following terms:

• psychological—e.g., addictions (Ciszewska 2014), narcissism and self-creation (Melosik 2017), relations with others (Halawa 2013), polarisation of public debate (Sawicka 2019); legal—e.g., privacy protection (Bogucka 2017);
• political—e.g., role in electoral campaigns (Stopczyński 2015), activities of local governments (Piechota 2012);
• marketing—e.g., social media marketing implemented in the practice of countless industries (Syrkiewicz-Świtała and Świtała 2012; Buchnowska 2013; Koszembar-Wiklik 2015);
• ethical—e.g., disinformation and fake news (Łódzki 2017);
• linguistic—e.g., the context of online communication (Martens 2012);
• technological—e.g., algorithms, artificial intelligence (Kreft 2018);
• educational—e.g., the use of the service for working with students (Knoch 2017);
• ethnographic (Dołowy-Rybińska 2016).

The influence of FB on the private and professional lives of Poles is an interdisciplinary and multithreaded issue. Thus, due to the subject matter of this paper, we decided to focus exclusively on one of the many aspects of using the platform: how Catholic media (print weeklies) function on it. The main focus is therefore on the marketing approach of the FB use by the Catholic weeklies rather than the often adopted historical, apologetic and evangelising context.

The basic aim of this paper is to analyse how the selected media (Gość Niedzielny, Niedziela, Przewodnik Katolicki, Idziemy and Tygodnik Rodzin Katolickich Źródło) use FB to create a media product, distribute its content, potential content evaluation and brand communication, aimed at building and maintaining relations with the public, as well as at self-promotional activities.

2. A Symbiosis between Traditional Media and FB—Theoretical Approach

The first part of the cycle was devoted to general relations between traditional media and social media. Here, therefore, the authors focused on FB. It occupies a special place among media activities in the social media environment. Its strong position was emphasised by (Ingram 2015), who argued that “anyone who works for (…) a publisher knows that social referrals have become a crucial source of incoming traffic, and have been vying with search as a source of new readers for some time”. Berry (2014) mentioned that FB makes it easier “to engage with the listeners and draw them into radio programmes” (p. 11). Another strength of the portal is its versatility (Neuberger et al. 2019) and “reaching, engaging audiences, and subsequent monetization opportunities” (Rashidian et al. 2018, pp. 37–40). Tereszkiewicz (2014), examining the implementation of FB by daily newspapers, noted that they publish posts providing information (using FB as a channel for news distribution), announcements and interactions (recommending journalistic materials that arouse interest in the newspaper’s offer and strengthen contact with the community of readers).

An interesting aspect of the relationship between FB and the media (in the context of the radio) was highlighted by Bonini (2012). He described social media as an ‘umbilical cord’, emphasising that thanks to them there is continuous communication between the sender and the audience, even after the programme has ended and the radio has been switched off (p. 24). Thanks to social media, listeners can stay in touch with the medium as long as they wish and need it, by commenting, replaying or sharing it with their own audience.

In the marketing context of FB use, researchers have explored building reach for media messages, strengthening aforementioned audience involvement or arranging the flow of content (and audience attention) between the social platform and other media. For example, Hille and Bakker (2014), after comparing the responsiveness of Internet users on media websites and their FB profiles, concluded that the media prefer it when content is commented on on FB rather than on the media website. The researchers indicated both negative and positive effects of such a situation, with the former being the decrease in the number of comments, and the latter ones being the rise in their quality (for example, due to limited anonymity). Studies also show that there is a noticeable influence of the social media audience on the editorial boards of magazines (Murár 2014) as well as a statistically significant positive relationship between the selection of positively charged Facebook reactions icons (like, haha, love) and the number of positive comments for a particular post (Kačániová and Bačíková 2016).

Relations between the website and FB were also observed by Larsson (2016). According to this author, an “active approach to Facebook could be seen as an attempt to encourage users to click their way from the social network site to the original news site” (p. 21). Kalsnes and Larsson (2018) added that FB “emerges as the dominating platform for news sharing”, especially soft stories such as parenting, education and health (pp. 8–9). Brambilla (2019), citing the Bell Labs study, updated and developed this observation, stating that among the most popular media threads on FB, there are also topics such as the Trump presidency, sports, arts and movies. In this context, there was an interesting observation by Larsson (2017), who believed that topics which are more often ‘liked’ and commented upon are “more or less aligned towards tabloid or soft news content” (p. 11). Moreover, the same researcher (Larsson 2018) drew attention to an interesting relationship between the types of reactions on FB and post sharing. He argued that there is indignation effect: “news that provoke the angry reaction gets shared to comparably higher degrees (…), news gaining positive reactions, such as love, wow and haha, tend to receive comparably less attention in terms of shares” (p. 10). It is worth noting that this connection between soft content of posts, their “clickability” and sharing may raise concerns about the quality of content offered by the media on FB and pose questions about the process of redefining criteria for selecting information and changes in its prioritisation.

FB itself also takes advantage of its role in the contemporary media landscape: so called Instant Articles (IA) are worth mentioning here. Thanks to this tool, published articles “were displayed in users’ news feeds immediately and in exposed positions” (Zając 2015). However, this feature was not successful in the long term as publishers resigned from it, complaining that they did not notice any increase in engagement and audience size, nor did they receive any high revenues or post reach. (PS 2017; Moses 2017). Another idea of FB to combine video materials (e.g., TV programmes) with the potential of social media is FB Watch, a platform for interactively watching films (Grodecka 2018). Today it is used by e.g., Saturday Night Live, CNBC, BBC One or The Independent.

Some dissatisfaction with the industry was caused by the update of FB algorithms, introduced in 2018, which favoured private content over branded content. As Mirković (2019) noted, “publishers who relied too heavily on Facebook and used it as a place where they could just dump their articles for their readers have experienced great loses in traffic and engagement”; nevertheless, “this platform should still probably be top choice for reaching the broadest audience” (Mirković 2019). Berezowski pointed out that in practice, the media focus more on promotional activities than on dialogue (which—in the context of algorithm modifications—cannot be a good idea for media social media marketing, since image activities, rather than pro-relational ones, come to the fore). Market players must therefore verify their approach to FB and other platforms. The set of advice formulated by the aforementioned Mirkovic may certainly prove helpful in this respect. among which it is worth mentioning: focusing on the social aspect of the activity (connecting people) rather than on the product (e.g., simply redirecting to the website); in-depth understanding of the behaviour of the brand’s recipients on its different platforms; precise recognition of social media features and proper adjustment of content and customisation of advertisements. Additionally, Mikołaj Nowak, who is in charge of social media development of the Fakty1 programme, advised to act in a multifaceted way and to create a “bridge, not an impression that this cooperation is forced” between social media and traditional ones. (Berezowski 2014).

One of the interlocutors of Sellas and Bonini (2014)—a social manager in a radio station—listed three categories of FB posts: parallel to the aired broadcast, promoting the website and creating interaction with the audience. Other interlocutors believed that FB provides a “useful space for photo galleries, to debate some topics, to organise a competition or a game show” (p. 71), but the vast majority underlined the close link between profile management and providing links to media websites in order to support their communication and increase traffic. Media workers have also developed rules for moderating content: editors happen to censor obscenity, explicit language and sometimes spam. They also state that they respond to questions, especially those relating to the programmes (although there is also an opinion: “I avoid replying to very harsh and negative comments in order to not raise debates that could degenerate”, pp. 73–74).

Although FB plays an important marketing role for the Catholic media, only a few studies have seemed to mention it. For example, Adok noted that the most important Hungarian media of this type run their channels on FB (Andok 2016, p. 187). A certain similarity can be found in Khroul (2017), who reported that in Russia “almost all the largest Orthodox websites manage pages in social networks, such as VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and Facebook” (p. 129). Hado (2016), on the other hand, claimed that Vatican Radio has as many as fifteen FB language versions (p. 83), which proves that FB communication is tailored to the needs of local audiences. The communication difficulties of institutions connected with the Church (including the Catholic media) include preconceptions about technological innovations and stereotypes among some recipients of Catholic media, and on the other hand, the risk of dehumanisation of online communication. However, it seems that the stage of these fears is already over (Sitkowska 2010). As emphasised by Józef Kloch, a media scientist and former spokesperson of the Polish Episcopal Conference, social media “offer an incredible opportunity to reach millions of users”. (Plewka 2017). He noted, however, that “the gospel needs to be presented cleverly”. The editor-in-chief of the Catholic website Deon.pl believed that social media, including FB, are “the main channel for reaching readers” (Gdak 2017). Interestingly, the journalist admitted that the statistics of visits to the FB profile are important for the editorial board, because the aim of Deon.pl is to reach “a wide range of readers (…) and not to write for a small group of people who are already convinced”. This statement clearly shows the marketing approach to social profile management.

3. Methodology—Empirical Approach

This paper is of an interdisciplinary nature. It is attributed to media and social communication studies, but it also contains references to marketing and religious studies. The theoretical assumptions for the analysis of the content of communication in social media were based on Robert Merton’s (2002) concept of American functionalism, which Dennis McQuail described as still providing a useful language to explain the relationship between the media and the society (McQuail 2007, p. 111). This paper is based on the notion of the given function of the media, which—according to Roman Bartoszcze—is equivalent to the functional potential contained in the analysed message (see Bartoszcze 2006).

The following research questions were formulated for the purpose of this text. They match the questions for the whole cycle, indicated in the first article, and have been adjusted to the context of FB.

• RQ1: Are the social profiles of Catholic weeklies emanations of their media brands and the carriers (additional channels of distribution) of their content, or, apart from marketing, do they have additional functions of evangelising, apology or community-forming?
• RQ2: Is the content of FB profiles original or copied from the content published in other distribution channels of these magazines (such as websites)?
• RQ3: Are the FB profiles managed regularly, according to a certain schedule? How large is post reach and is there a noticeable connection between their topics and the reactions of the audience? Do people who post comments accept the convention of the profile as a place of marketing the weekly’s content, or do they treat the profiles as a place of expressing religious feelings, evangelisation, apologetic-polemic activities?
• RQ4: Do FB profile administrators interact with those who comment? How do they react to possible polemic, apologetic, evangelistic behaviour of their users?
• RQ5: Do administrators use FB features? What is the scale of using profiles for self-promotional purposes?
• RQ6: Which types of post (video, graphic, text, mixed) are the most common?
• RQ7: What are the topics of FB posts? How do the issues related to self-promotion compare against this background?
• RQ8: Are there any differences and similarities between the marketing methods of FB use by the Catholic weeklies?
• RQ9: Is there a deliberate concept behind FB management, or is it a chore which needs to be treated as a burden due to the lack of a clear concept and management strategy?

The hypothesis is as follows: the editorial boards of Polish Catholic weeklies do not take full advantage of the marketing possibilities of FB, so their profiles are managed in a moderately professional manner, which is reflected in a small number of interactions and low ranges of posts. Thus, FB’s functions are limited to supplementing the main communication channel, which is the printed weekly and its website.

In order to answer the research questions and verify the hypothesis, the authors use three research methods: a theoretical one (literature review referring to marketing use of FB by traditional media), and two empirical ones: a case study of the five FB profiles of the Catholic weeklies mentioned above and a content analysis (quantitative, qualitative, comparative) of these profiles.

In addition to the theoretical approach (which was the literature review), two empirical research methods are implemented in this paper.

The first one is the case studies of the FB profiles of nationwide, Catholic opinion-forming weeklies in Poland (Gość Niedzielny, Tygodnik Katolicki Niedziela, Przewodnik Katolicki, Idziemy, Tygodnik Rodzin Katolickich Źródło). The analysis is based on the description and comparison of these profiles. The data included, for example, the number of fans, visual presentation of the profiles, references to other social media ran by analysed weeklies, contact details, ratings issued by fans, or elements of cross promotion and content commercialisation.

The second one is quantitative, qualitative, comparative analysis of the content of posts published on Catholic weeklies’ FB timelines. In these cases, the content of posts, their form, as well as the reactions of Internet users were taken into account. The content analysis was carried out between 18th and 24th November 2019. The time range was drawn and formed a constructed week. We also wanted to choose a full week that would not be burdened by church/state holidays/celebrations (such circumstances could have influence on an increased frequency of social media use: in the meantime, we wanted to explore the daily approach to these platforms).

The content analysis was based on two-stage calculations, made with the use of extended categorisation keys. The first stage of coding involved the aggregation of data on the time of publication, the type of posts (e.g., text, video, mixed, etc.), the number and types of reactions (“like”, “love”, “haha”, “wow”, “sad” and “angry”, sharing, commentaries), the scope in which the features offered by the platforms are used, the origin of the posts, the geography of the posts (i.e., which areas of the world they concern) and their belonging to thematic macrocategories (such as religion, society, politics, economy, culture, sport, law, self-image and others). Detailed data on this subject are presented in

Table 1. Content coding schedule for Facebook (FB) profile—Stage I.

Coding Subject	Answering to Research Question	Explanation
Date of post	RQ3	Allows to specify the regularity of profile management
Time of post	RQ3	As above
Format of post (e.g., text, graphic, video, link, mixed, etc.)	RQ1, RQ5, RQ6:	Allows to specify the relation (visual, textual) between social media profiles and media brands; allows to specify the proficiency in creating different types of posts
Total number of reactions	RQ3	Allows to specify the post reach and connection between posts’ topics and the reactions of the audience
The number of ‘like’, ‘love’, ‘haha’, ‘wow’, ‘sad’ and ‘angry’ reactions	RQ3	As above
Number of shares	RQ3	As above
Number of comments	RQ3	As above
Does the medium respond to comments	RQ4	Allows to specify the quality of the interaction between administrators and those who comment
Use of # (hashtags)	RQ5	allows to specify the proficiency in creating different types of social media posts
Use of emoticons	RQ5	As above
Use of background	RQ5	As above
Use of tagging	RQ1, RQ5	As above + allows to specify whether the medium has its own hashtag
Use of events	RQ1, RQ5	As above + allows to specify whether the medium has its own events supported via social media
Post authorship (original/borrowed)	RQ1, RQ2	Allows to specify the range of posts prepared exclusively for social media + posts linking to other components of the analysed media brands
Geographical references in posts
Assignment to macrocategories: religion, society, politics, economy, culture, sport, law, self-image, other (each post could belong to several thematic categories)	RQ1, RQ7	Allows to specify the topics of the posts on the profiles (also the extent published posts are related to self-achievements when comparing it to other topics)

Source: Personal collection.

.

In the second stage of coding, each of the thematic macrocategories was broken down into more specific categories (

Table 2. Content coding schedule for FB profile—Stage II.

Macrocategory	Categories
religion	faith, homosexuality in the Catholic Church, church events and celebrations, the Ten Commandments, history and important figures of the Catholic Church, moral scandals in the Catholic Church, other
society	upbringing/education, health, migration, LGBT/gender, euthanasia/abortion/contraception, patriotism, non-corporate media, moral scandals, history, other
politics	elections, activities of the government/the ruling party, activities of the president, activities of the opposition, EU activities/relations with the EU, US activities/relations with the US, activities of other countries/relations with other countries
economy	state budget, financial condition of Poland, financial condition of the EU, condition of the global economy, the euro currency, social benefits, new taxes, other
culture	events, books, films, theatre, painting and sculpture, music, people of culture, cultural laws, other
sport	events, sports promotion, athletes, sports laws, other
law	legislation, CJEU, judges, Polish Constitution, criminal and civil cases, other
the magazine’s own achievements	event (including patronage), market success, success/information about employees, next issue of the magazine, insert to the magazine, patronage granted, social campaign, link from the magazine’s own medium, other

Source: Personal collection.

), which meant that each selected social networking site was examined according to 61 thematic threads. Additionally, the aggregated posts were analysed in the context of text (e.g., emotional tone) and visual aspects (e.g., specificity of illustrations, their emotionality). It is worth adding that the breakdown into categories mainly pursued the first and seventh research goal—especially in the area of indicating the thematic diversity of self-image/self-achievements in FB posts (it enabled to specify what was promoted and how often). As it can be seen, other macrocategories were also broken down into categories, but the results of their analysis are not part of this article because they are outside its scope.

Table 1 and Table 2 show close links between the research questions (No. 1–7) and the content analysis. The research questions number 8–9, due to their summarizing nature, are answered in the conclusions.

It should be stressed that in order to ensure the reliability of coding results, the coded information was cross-checked by all researchers. In case of any doubts, unclear data were discussed and coded together.

4. Empirical Approach. Results and Discussion

4.1. Case Studies

A detailed information of selected weeklies (and their publishers) was presented in the first text of the cycle. Here the authors focus exclusively on FB profiles of the magazines.

The largest medium in the study group is Gość Niedzielny (hereinafter: GN). The GN profile on FB has been functioning since 4th January 2010 (https://www.facebook.com/goscniedzielny/). The editors provide the phone number and the Internet address. The profile, which is currently managed by 15 people, is “liked” by 131,989 people and followed by 129,2122 users; 205 check-ins have also been recorded. GN also “likes” other profiles, mostly of a Catholic nature (its own regional sites, convents, religious events, communities, etc.), but also secular, whose presence is somewhat surprising, e.g., “Hobbicka Nora” (Hobbit’s Den) or “Cała Polska czyta dziennikarzom” (The Whole Poland reads to journalists).

The rating of the profile is not very high: 4.2 points out of 5 (based on 2140 opinions). The editorial staff occasionally and only briefly responds to positive news (recently in September 2019) and does not react to harsh criticism (e.g., “A socialist propaganda tool at the service of the one and only right option, which divides the Catholic community into the superior and inferior without the right to speak. Because of using distasteful censorship practices, I do not recommend.” or “You are so very Catholic, yet your interest ends where the interest of socialists and Jews from the Law and Justice party begins […] You are nothing but snakes! Ugh!”)3.

On the other hand, the profile is graphically coherent and aimed at brand exposure: both the profile photo and the cover photo show the logo; the second picture has been enhanced with a collage of photographs of the Pope and some nuns, as well as the motto: “At the centre of events since 1923. For you.”

Importantly, it is possible to transfer directly from FB to other GN media—the left side of the page shows a table of contents with links to profiles on YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. There is also a GN shop which offers religious books, Christian music and editorial gadgets (e.g., Drawings of Mr. Jujka, an illustrator for the weekly). It can be accessed either through the table of contents mentioned before or through the bar above the first post. It should also be noted that there is a ‘Shop Now’ button between the background photo and the shop. The Videos tab is worth mentioning; it contains the “Gospel with Commentary” series, testimonies of faith of ordinary people and references to new issues of the magazine (e.g., presentations of covers or comments on the most interesting articles).

However, there is much to be desired regarding the Events tab—there is one upcoming for 2020, while in 2019 and 2018 there are only four in total. Compared to previous years, e.g., 2016, the activity of the editorial staff has decreased in this respect.

GN manages one public group called “Idziemy Drogą Krzyża” [“We Follow the Way of the Cross”], with 403 members who are interested in a deeper experience of faith. Administrators encourage activity, but in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church and free from advertisements and promotional activities. Interestingly, while the members of the group post their thoughts there, the editorial staff is not particularly involved in them (the group’s page is not visually coherent either, except for a single reference to the GN logo).

The second largest Catholic opinion magazine in Poland is Tygodnik Katolicki Niedziela (hereinafter: TKN). TKN has been operating on FB since 10th February 2010. (https://www.facebook.com/goscniedzielny/). The editorial staff there provides the address, the map, the opening hours, the telephone number, the website and personal details of one team member. The profile, which is currently managed by 15 people, is “liked” by 49,558 people, while 50,241 users follow it (there is no specific number of check-ins).

TKN highlights links to other sites (all of a Catholic nature), it “likes” other profiles, too (of archdioceses, religious events, communities, etc.), including those under its patronage (e.g., a pro-life activist Abby Johnson).

The administrators do not publish opinions about the profile, and it is therefore unknown what users generally think about it. The editors have limited interactivity and, in a way, blocked the chance for their fans to present their impressions of the magazine.

The FB of the magazine is graphically coherent and exposes its brand. The profile photo shows a round logo, and the cover photo contains the cover of the latest issue of the magazine along with its logo.

TKN does not offer links to other brand components; in other words, it is not possible to move from FB to the shop, YouTube or Twitter. There are no references to Groups on the page and the Events tab is not updated frequently: the last post is from the beginning of December 2019 (there were four invitations in total in 2019 and eight in 2018). Thus, activity in this field has been carried out on an irregular basis, with almost no activity at present.

The page compensates for this deficiency with video materials: eight were published in January. All of them referred to issues concerning faith, presented in an accessible and friendly manner (a report from the Cavalcade of the Magi, Christmas nativity scenes, artists’ comments). It should be noted, however, that the publications were quite unsystematic.

Another analysed magazine is Przewodnik Katolicki (hereinafter: PK). On the main FB page (active since 23rd January 2010), PK provides the address, the map, the telephone number, the website and the working hours. The profile, which is currently managed by nine people, is “liked” by 12,602 people and 13,242 follow it; 48 check-ins have been recorded.

There are links to other websites (including Tygodnik Katolicki Niedziela and Szymon Hołownia, who is running for President of the Republic of Poland in 2020), as well as profiles which PK “likes”. These include Catholic pages, such as other media of PK (Mały Przewodnik Katolicki, Katecheta), parishes, dioceses, religious and pro-life organisations, religious orders, church officials and foundations. The “liked” group also includes people/institutions connected with politics, such as Prawica Rzeczpospolitej [The Right Wing of the Republic], the Committee of Legislative Initiative of the Act on Restricting Retail Trade on Sunday, media (e.g., polish public TV station—Telewizja Polska SA) and culture in its broadest sense.

The profile was rated 4.3, based on the opinion of 73 users. Administrators often react to positive comments (either verbally or with FB reactions), but they rarely engage in discussions with critics, e.g., “The so-called Przewodnik Katolicki [The Catholic Guide] has long ceased to be Catholic. It explicitly opposes what is contained in the Bible. (…) The editors and journalists lack charisma and leadership. In their publications they are moving away from the Doctrine and defending false ideologies, calling for disastrous tolerance (…) I wish I had ever grabbed this magazine.”

It should be noted that in the visual context the profile of PK is coherent: the profile photo shows the magazine’s logo, while the cover photo presents the cover of the latest issue placed on a photograph of the open weekly. This communicative homogeneity is supported by the Przewodnik Katolicki Information box; after clicking on it, a transparently arranged business card develops, embedded in the visual brand identity.

PK’s profile does not provide links to other social media of the weekly, but just below the cover photo there is a ‘Shop Now’ button.

Przewodnik Katolicki administers a private prayer group called 5 min z Bogiem [5 Min with God]; there is only a black and white logo referring to the magazine. The group is not very active: in January 2020, none of its 20 members published a single post.

As regards the Events section, the last invitation was published in July 2019 (last year three in total, six in 2018, and three in 2017). Finally, the Videos tab is worth mentioning, which has been regularly updated with self-promotional videos (usually up to 20 s) since 2019, showing the covers of the magazine and the most important content of its latest issues.

The next Catholic magazine is Idziemy (hereinafter: I). The FB profile (created on 11 October 2011) is currently managed by four people. As for contact details, the editorial staff only provides their phone number and web address. The website is “liked” by 6743 people and is followed by 7105 users. There is a map and address, but no such information as the number of check-ins or working hours. Among the related pages there are Catholic media (e.g., Tygodnik Katolicki Niedziela), while among the “liked” ones we can find profiles of Church authorities, media and journalists (e.g., Vatican News, Tygodnik Sieci, employees of TVP SA), pro-life organisations, dioceses, communities, and the Institute of National Remembrance. Interestingly, one can also find such names as “Satanism Shall Not Pass—a Successful Consumer Boycott” or “Faithfulness Is Sexy”. The page was rated at 4.6 based on the opinions of 68 users. The administrators occasionally react to positive comments (usually by “liking”), although it is worth mentioning that the editorial staff once asked for a merit-based explanation for the lowest rating.

On I’s profile, there are no links to other social media of the magazine, nor groups, nor a ‘Shop Now’ button. The Events tab was last updated in mid-November 2019; however, what should be emphasized is that of all the analysed media, the Events section in Idziemy has been run most intensively, although irregularly (16 times in 2019, 4 times in 2018, and almost 30 in 2017).

Until mid-2019, videos were published relatively regularly, in accordance with the magazine’s publishing cycle; from June, the number of films decreased until the activity stopped in August. The main role in the Videos section was played by subsequent issues of the magazine, although there were also short reports of strikes and religious ceremonies. As far as visual identification is concerned, the profile photo and the Tygodnik Idziemy Information section present the same logo. The cover photo stands out, slightly disturbing the colour consistency of the profile.

The last of the analysed magazines is Tygodnik Rodzin Katolickich Źródło (hereinafter: TRKŹ). Its FB profile (created on 6 September 2018 and managed by one person) is rather modest: only 141 people “like” it and 153 users follow it. The editorial staff only provides the phone and website address. Among the related and liked pages, there are only those that offer Catholic content, e.g., other media, pro-life associations, and church organisations.

The administrators do not expose other social media, the Events section nor the ‘Shop Now’ button. They manage no groups, and the Videos section contains only one video from 2018. Internet users have rated the profile at 3.0 on the basis of two opinions (no response to the negative one), but this information is not displayed on the main page.

In this case, it is difficult to evaluate visual identification, which seems to be unfinished and careless; the profile photo shows a part of the magazine cover with an incomplete logo, while the cover photo contains only the logo.

After conducting the case study of the FB profiles, it can be concluded that none of the profiles fully exploit FB’s potential offered by its systemic and functional features (a comparison of basic data on the conducted case study is presented in

Table 3. Comparison of the profiles—analysis results (for the 24th February 2020).

Basic Information	GN	TKN	PK	I	TRKŹ
Date of page creation	4th Jan, 2010	10th Feb, 2010	23rd Jan, 2010	11th Oct, 2011	6th Sept, 2018
Date of print magazine foundation	yes (1923)	yes (1926)	yes (1895)	yes (2005)	yes (1992)
Short description of the magazines (its worldviews, editorial policies, mission statements)	yes	0	yes	yes	0
Information on awards, market successes	0	yes	0	yes	0
Administrators	15	15	9	5	1
Website	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Office address	0	yes	yes	yes	0
E-mail address	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Messenger address	yes	yes	yes	Yes	Yes
Map giving directions	0	yes	yes	yes	0
Office phone number	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Working hours	0	yes	yes	0	0
Number of “likes”	131,961	49,788	12,675	6800	141
Number of followers	129,280	50,491	13,332	7172	152
Number of check-ins	205	8	48	6	0
Team members indicated	0	yes	0	0	0
Related pages	0	yes	yes	yes	yes
Pages liked	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Rating	4.2	0	4.3	4.6	3
Number of ratings/opinions	2124	0	73	68	2
Replies to positive opinions	rare	0	yes	yes	yes
Replies to negative opinions	0	0	0	yes	0
Graphic coherence	high	high	high	relatively high	moderate
‘Shop Now’ button	yes	0	yes	0	0
Links to other social media	yes	0	0	0	0
Links to events	yes	yes	yes	yes	0
Links to Shop	yes	0	0	0	0
Links to Videos	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Links to Groups	yes	0	yes	0	0
Events updates	rare	rare	rare	frequent	0
Videos updates	yes	yes	yes	rare	rare

Source: Personal collection.

). The main problem seems to be the minimal engagement of the administrators in building relations with the community in terms of profile reviewing and group management. In the first case, while the media happen to react to positive opinions (usually with a “love” or “like” reaction), the criticism, sometimes very harsh and explicit, is met with silence. Avoiding confrontation is naturally a way of preventing controversy and avoiding a further exchange of opinions, but it can be interpreted as an unwillingness to defend one’s own brand, which sometimes verges on a consent to undermine its credibility and reliability. Paradoxically, failure to act in this respect may stimulate, rather than prevent, an image crisis. In the second case, it should be noted that only two weeklies have created their own groups: proper management of such a community (regular posts, participation in discussions, embedding a brand in the world) can enhance the brand’s image through establishing and deepening relationships with its fans. GN and PK do not get involved in the lives of the groups, leaving them alone. The effect is quite similar: these micro-communities, without any top-down stimulation, either stop communicating (PK) or do not engage in their members’ (GN) posts.

Events are also problematic for the media—most profiles update them rarely and non-systemically. It is worth noting that invitations to events can be used for activities related to self-promotion (events held by the brand itself), promotion (implementation of patronage objectives), the product (strengthening the magazine’s editorial policy) and the price (supporting paid admissions). It should also be stressed that inviting people to participate is a form of recommendation of an event, i.e., a part of authority building (according to the principle which says “I am strong enough to recommend certain life experiences to others”).

It is also surprising that four out of the five analysed profiles do not refer to other social media managed by the brands: by doing so, they lose the chance for a better and more intensive flow of fans between different content media and limit content convergence. Naturally, all editorial boards mention their websites and Messenger addresses, but in the age of media multiplatforms, such a solution seems to be insufficient.

The administrators also do not seek to commercialise their social media content: only two profiles visibly displayed the ‘Shop Now’ button, and only one launched the Shop module (although other magazines also have them).

Attention should also be drawn to the pages which are related or “liked”. Typically, they are “ideologically coherent”; however, there are also surprising choices (controversial names, politics). This may indicate a certain carelessness in establishing relations and suggests a lack of long-term strategy (some profiles are rather frivolous, which contrasts with the opinion-forming function of the surveyed weeklies). On the other hand, some of the analysed profiles “like” the media which are part of their own media corporations; it is a good solution because it builds a network of mutual support between various brand media (not all magazines use it).

All of the profiles show concern for the proper exposure of the brand’s visual identity—profile and cover photos show the magazines’ logo and, most of them, their covers. In some cases, the message would need to be slightly more coherent (I and TRKŹ). The Videos sections can be considered to be a relatively strong side of the magazines’ FB activities: except TRKŹ, updates are frequent, and the materials are closely linked to the magazines’ editorial policies. What is more, they are used for self-promotional activities (previews of upcoming issues) as well as purely journalistic (coverage) and communication ones (statements of clergymen, readers and Internet users).

Undoubtedly, GN deals best with FB. The profile has the highest number of fans and ratings (the audience’s willingness to contact the editorial team can be seen) and is the only one to build a bridge between the brand’s social media and to place emphasis on commercialisation (the Shop tab and the “Shop Now” button). However, it lacks engagement in the discussion with the audience and regular event management (as well as other analysed magazines). TKN’s mistake, on the other hand, is the surprising lack of the Reviews section as well as references to other social platforms (the latter can also be seen in PK, I and TRKŹ). Apparently, TRKŹ is at the other extreme, with its insignificant number of fans, the missing Events tab and only one material in the Videos section.

4.2. Content Analysis. The Perspective of the Weeklies—Posting and FB Functions

A total of 242 FB posts were analysed over the adopted research period, resulting in 89 posts for TKN, 46 for I, 14 for PK, 91 for GN and 2 for TRKŹ.

The total number of posts per day of the week is presented in

Table 4. Share of the number of posts on FB on subsequent days of the week (%).

	18th Nov	19th Nov	20th Nov	21st Nov	22nd Nov	23rd Nov	24th Nov
	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
TKN	19	22	8	16	17	9	9
I	26	15	15	20	9	9	7
PK	7	21	7	14	29	7	14
GN	12	14	13	16	15	18	11
TRKŹ	0	0	0	0	100	0	0

Source: Personal collection.

. In the case of the analysed weeklies, there is no clear pattern or regularity in the publication of posts. It may be cautiously assumed that they appear more often on weekdays—especially in TKN, I, TRKŹ. GN is the most regular on FB, while other magazines do not follow a precise strategy in this respect: strong fluctuations are visible in TKN (8%–22%), I (7%–26%), PK (7%–29%) and TRKŹ (0%–100%).

As for the share of the number of posts in the times of the days of the analysed week, apart from TRKŹ, where the time of publication of the post was not identified, a feature common to all the profiles can be observed: namely, the communication stops after 9 p.m. (

Table 5. Share of number of posts on FB at a given time throughout the week (%).

	TKN	I	PK	GN	TRKŹ
7:00–8:00 a.m.	10	0	0	7	0
8:00–9:00 a.m.	1	2	14	8	0
9:00–10:00 a.m.	6	0	14	8	0
10:00–11:00 a.m.	10	4	7	6	0
11:00–12:00 a.m.	11	11	21	6	0
12:00–1 p.m.	7	13	14	9	0
1:00–2:00 p.m.	10	4	7	4	0
2:00–3:00 p.m.	7	11	0	3	0
3:00–4:00 p.m.	8	7	7	9	0
4:00–5:00 p.m.	6	15	7	4	0
5:00–6:00 p.m.	5	7	0	9	0
6:00–7:00 p.m.	2	7	0	8	0
7:00–8:00 p.m.	7	11	7	9	0
8:00–9:00 p.m.	6	4	0	6	0
9:00–10:00 p.m.	2	2	0	2	0
10:00–11:00 p.m.	2	2	0	2	0
n.a.	0	0	0	0	100

Source: Personal collection.

).

It is worth noting that GN distributes its activities evenly. PK is more likely to be active before noon, TKN around 10 a.m.–12 p.m. and 1 p.m.–2 p.m., and I between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. With a great deal of caution, it is therefore concluded that for most weeklies, the right time to post is “before noon”. Later on, the activity of each of the media varies.

The profiles of the weeklies were also analysed in terms of making their posts more attractive (using hashtags, emoticons, background colours, tagging) and announcing events (as timeline posts). The scope of implementation of content management tools on FB is presented in

Table 6. The scope of enhancing posts by Catholic weeklies’ profiles (%).

	Hashtags	Emoticons	Colours in the Background	Tagging	Events
TKN	0	3	0	7	0
I	9	10	0	0	0
PK	0	9	0	29	0
GN	0	6	0	0	1
TRKŹ	0	0	0	0	0

Source: Personal collection.

. The first observation is as follows: the magazines do not use the potential of FB instruments. None of them uses the option of adding the background to posts, and only one magazine (I) uses hashtags. As for tagging, TKN does it rarely and PK does it often, while emoticons are used by TKN, I, PK and GN. The list ends with TRKŹ, whose administrators have not used any of the indicated FB features.

4.3. Content Analysis: The Perspective of the Weeklies—The Form and Authorship of the Posts

Further, forms of the published posts were analysed (

Table 7. Form of posts published on FB (%).

	Only Text	Only Photo/Graphics	Link + Video	Text + Photo/Graphics	Text + Link Video	Text + Photo + Link Video	Text + Photo/Graphics + Link	Other
TKN	0	1	0	2	0	0	94	2
I	0	0	0	0	0	0	98	2
PK	0	0	7	21	7	0	57	7
GN	0	1	0	2	0	0	96	1
TRKŹ	0	0	0	0	0	0	100	0

Source: Personal collection.

). As can be seen, the magazines adopt similar solutions: all of them prefer multimedia, convergent posts, based on a combination of text, illustrations (graphics or photos) and a link.

Such a solution ought to be considered as a proper one; after all, visual and pictorial elements are fundamental for modern online communication. It can be considered that in this field, the studied media show an understanding of social media marketing mechanisms.

All the magazines are also keen on linking, so the sources of these links and the authorship of the posts were examined (i.e., whether the posts were prepared especially for FB, or based solely on borrowed content, and if so, which platforms the content is shared from). The results of the analysis are presented in

Table 8. Post preparation (%).

	Post Prepared Especially for FB (No Link Included)	Only Shared Post	Mixed Post (Prepared for FB + Shared)
TKN	2	1	97
I	2	0	98
PK	29	0	71
GN	3	0	97
TRKŹ	0	100	0

Source: Personal collection.

. Four magazines base their profiles mainly on mixed posts, combining FB-prepared content with a link. The exception is TRKŹ, which not only published just two posts, but also completely borrowed their content.

Afterwards, the sources of links were checked (

Table 9. The published links transfer to… (%).

	Magazine’s Own Website	Magazine’s Own Media (Other than the Magazine Itself)	Other Media
TKN	98	1	1
I	100	0	0
PK	60	10	30
GN	88	13	0
TRKŹ	0	0	100

Source: Personal collection.

). It turns out that, apart from TRKŹ, most of the posts on each profile transfer their audiences to the magazines’ websites (successively: www.niedziela.pl, www.idziemy.pl, www.tygodnik-katolicki.pl and www.gosc.pl). What is more, apart from links to websites, FB posts can also lead to websites of other media owned by particular publishers. Hence, from TKN’s profile, one can move to www.niedziela.tv television and from GN’s profile it is possible to get to the regional sites of the magazine and to the www.gosc.pl/Blogi blog.

Links to other media corporations are in the minority; they lead to foundations, associations, charities and diocesan centres. The practice shown can be seen as a marketing activity aimed at intensifying traffic on the websites of the magazines, guaranteeing the flow of content between multiplatform media and promoting their offer among social media users.

4.4. Content Analysis: The Perspective of the Weeklies—Post Topics (Geography, Macrocategories and Self-Promotion)

First of all, it should be stated that individual topics belonged to nine macrocategories and 61 categories were not mutually disjointed, i.e., one topic could have many meanings and therefore the results do not add up to 100%. It also turned out that certain media groups, more often than others, dominate most research criteria. This means that the FB profiles were multi-thematic in nature and were assigned to several metacategories/categories at once.

As can be seen from

Table 10. Post topics—geographical aspect (%).

	Poland	Europe	The World	Relations: Poland—Europe	Relations: Poland—The World	Relations: Europe—The World	Relations: World—The World	n.a.
TKN	62	10	4	1	1	18	0	3
I	50	13	9	0	0	22	2	4
PK	71	7	7	0	0	7	0	7
GN	66	7	3	3	1	11	0	9
TRKŹ	50	0	0	0	0	0	0	50

Source: Personal collection.

, the magazines are mainly focused on Poland. Their interest is also aroused by the relations between Europe and the rest of the world, which is connected with the pilgrimage of Pope Francis to Thailand and Japan (more than 95% of posts in the category “relations Europe—the world” referred to this). The weeklies also informed about the countries of the Old Continent, focusing on the Vatican and Italy, France (reconstruction of Notre Dame Cathedral) as well as occasionally Germany (in the cultural context) and the Netherlands (the idea of accepting euthanasia for children under 12).

It can be presumed that content which does not refer to Poland seldom meets the editorial criteria for information selection. Focusing on topics concerning Poland and Europe has also a communicative touch to it, as it helps to build a coherent brand, which prioritises issues and events that are closer to the audience and fulfils its editorial policy.

The range of thematic macrocategories on the analysed profiles is presented in

Table 11. Post topics (%).

	Religion	Society	Politics	Economy	Culture	Sport	Law	Self-Promotion	Other
TKN	84	28	9	0	8	3	0	98	0
I	72	28	24	0	4	0	7	100	0
PK	71	29	0	0	21	0	0	64	0
GN	59	36	13	1	12	2	3	98	1
TRKŹ	0	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Source: Personal collection.

. Several observations can be made on its basis.

There is full coherence here (this observation does not apply to TRKŹ) between the threads taken up and the magazines’ editorial policies, which is based on Catholicism. All the magazines (TKN most frequently, GN least frequently) publish posts on religion, mainly on Francis and his pilgrimages, the Polish clergy, events in the life and history of the Church as well as religious customs. The weeklies generally avoid politics (except I), whereas they are more willing to deal with social issues (the topics of abortion, euthanasia, but also health, education or disability), which cannot be very surprising in the context of a clearly defined editorial philosophy. Sometimes culture appears in the posts, most often in the context of Christian music, books or films, but also in a secularised version (e.g., fairy tales for children, the Junior Eurovision Song Contest being won by a Polish singer). There are hardly any posts on law, sport or economy, which might imply that FB is used for soft, easy-to-read posts. Self-promotional messages, which occasionally (in TKN, I and GN) are more frequent than popular religious topics, should also be considered as such. This is an unquestionable proof of the fact that the discussed platform is used for communication purposes of press brands.

4.5. Content Analysis: The Perspective of the Weeklies—Self-Promotion as a Thematic Thread of Posts

Table 12. Primary and secondary self-promotional categories (%).

	The Magazine’s Own Event/Patronised Event	Market Success	Information about Journalists/Employees	Magazine Issue (Current or Future)	Insert	Social Campaign/Unique Reporting Material	Link to the Magazine’s Own Media (Inc. Other Brands)
TKN	1	0	1	5	0	0	99
I	2	0	7	0	0	4	98
PK	0	0	0	22	11	0	78
GN	2	1	19	2	3	0	99
TRKŹ	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Source: Personal collection.

presents the results of the analysis relating to posts previously classified as self-promotional. As part of them, several categories were distinguished, which can be described as image-primary or image-secondary. The first one clearly shows the brand of either the magazine itself or a brand of other media within a given media corporation. In other words, the weekly is noticeably distinguished, either textually or visually. The indicated collection includes e.g., references/information on events held (or under media patronage); commercial achievements (e.g., sales, readership, awards); in-house employees; current or future issues of the printed magazine; printed magazine inserts, social campaigns or special journalistic materials, book/music/film patronage, references to other media under the brand, etc.

As regards image-secondary categories, the reference to the brand takes on a background form, with the main focus on non-promotional topics (e.g., political, social, etc.). In this group, it is possible to indicate, first of all, links to the magazines’ media, which, as already mentioned, strengthen the flow of content and interest of audiences between the media, but do not specifically expose the media brand.

As can be seen in Table 12. It is secondary categories that dominate in self-promotional posts. It is worth noting, however, that the magazines under study also implement image-primary categories. Of course, the range of their application is more modest; however, for the sake of order, more details should be provided here.

Therefore, the magazines inform through FB on the current paper issue, encouraging users to buy it or read the articles. Importantly, the text layer of these posts is accompanied by photos of the front covers of such issues. Here are examples of such posts:

• in TKN: “In the new Niedziela: Laymen in the Church” (23rd Nov, 7.59 p.m.), “Read a unique interview with Fr. Jerzy” (24th Nov, 10.41 a.m.);
• in PK: “In the latest issue… [15 points listed]” (22nd Nov, 4.58 p.m.);
• in GN: “In the latest Gość we heartily recommend an interview with Małgorzata Musierowicz about the power of tenderness and gratitude” (13th Nov, 7.45 a.m.);
• In self-promotional posts, there are also references to journalists, often enriched with quotations from their statements and a portrait photo, e.g.,
• in TKN: “Interview with Bonnie L. Engstrom by Agnieszka Bugała in Tygodnik Katolicki Niedziela—coming soon. Don’t miss!” (20th Nov, 11.34 a.m.); “Read a unique interview with Fr. Jerzy” (24th Nov, 10.41 a.m.);
• in I: statements from commentators and columnists (e.g., Krzysztof Ziemiec, 20th Nov, 7.31 p.m.);
• in GN: opinions from commentators and columnists (e.g., Marcin Jakimowicz, 18th Nov, 8.14 a.m.; 19th Nov, 9.34 a.m.) and bloggers (e.g., Fr. Wojciech Węgrzyniak, 19th Nov, 8.15 a.m.; 23rd Nov, 8.36 a.m.).

The weekly also devotes a lot of attention to its late colleague Zbigniew Jujka, who was the author of the illustrations for the magazine. Therefore, such posts can be found: “Zbigniew Jujka has passed away. The outstanding illustrator, whose drawings could be admired, among others, in Gość Niedzielny, died on Monday morning, at the age of 84.” (18th Nov, 7.10 p.m.); “See his last 10 drawings for Gość Niedzielny. Zbigniew Jujka died on Monday at the age of 84. His jokes entertained the readers of Gość since January 2005.” (19th Nov, 12.55 p.m.).

The weeklies also inform about the inserts attached, usually by presenting photos of them. For example, PK recommends an “issue with a 5 min with God prayer book”. (22nd Nov, 4.58 p.m.), and GN—a calendar with St. John Paul II (21st Nov, 8.05 a.m. and 3.06 p.m.).

Other self-promotional content occurs sporadically. For example, I highlights its contribution to the preparation of journalistic material (“We have been told by the developer that the street now belongs to the city, so we tried to find out something from the Praga-Południe District Office”—18th Nov, 4.00 p.m.), and GN proudly announces its sales results (“Gość Niedzielny is first in the sales ranking of Polish weeklies […] Our magazine leads both for the first three quarters of this year and for September 2019”; 20th Nov, 9.23 a.m.) From time to time, the weeklies also publish invitations to mass broadcasts, concerts of Christian music, common prayers, cultural events (TKN: 22nd Nov, 7.33 a.m., I: 19th Nov, 4.27 p.m. and GN: 18th Nov, 8.24 p.m. and 24th Nov, 12.12 p.m.).

Looking at the extent to which FB’s self-promotional potential is being exploited, it can be concluded that none of the magazines function in a fully professional way. The mere linking, although useful and in line with the principles of social media marketing, is not enough. There is a lack of a coherent concept for presenting the content of upcoming issues or an attractive exposure of special content (including inserts). It should also be considered insufficient to promote the magazines’ own employees, which currently seems rather random and simplistic, based on the publication of controversial and/or emotional quotations. There seems to be no concept of how to strengthen and deepen the interest of Internet users in the long run in order to turn it into an important stage in the process of creating brand ambassadors for the magazines in question.

Market achievements of the magazines are not emphasised either, and no community of recipients is systematically built up (e.g., posts addressed directly to the readers), thus making it clear that brand communication takes place in one direction along the line between the magazine and the Internet users, rather than around the circle containing the magazine—the Internet users—the magazine.

4.6. Content Analysis: The Users’ Perspective—Reacting, Sharing, Commenting

All posts generated 20,970 reactions: 11,316 for TKN, 1408 for I, 803 for PK, 7441 for GN and 2 for TRKŻ. It is worth mentioning that in the case of TKN, GN and TRKŹ, all published posts received some kind of reaction (from “like” to “angry”). As far as I and PK are concerned, the data are not so optimistic: in the first case, 52% of posts received a response, and in the second case—93%.

The general distribution of reactions over the week is shown in

Table 13. Reactions of Internet users on particular days of posting on FB (%).

	18th Nov	19th Nov	20th Nov	21st Nov	22nd Nov	23rd Nov	24th Nov
	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
TKN	12	9	3	6	9	15	46
I	18	17	14	18	11	11	11
PK	2	24	1	62	3	1	6
GN	9	21	13	9	16	14	17
TRKŹ	0	0	0	0	100	0	0

Source: Personal collection.

, and over the day in Table 13. The purpose of both lists is to examine the correlation between specific days and times of posting and the scale of acquired interactions. In the case of TKN, the degree of reactions is usually lower than the frequency of posting (except for the weekend). As for I, Saturday and Sunday get the lowest level of response. For PK and GN, the most interactive are the single days of the week (for GN, also Sunday). In other words, it is again difficult to point out a feature which would be common to the analysed profiles. It can also be seen that in the daily view, the recipients do not display constant reaction habits, which may mean that most of the published posts simply do not evoke any specific emotions. One hundred percent effectiveness can be observed in TRKŹ, but this is not a very significant achievement, given that only two posts were made. I and GN seem to get the most response. It is also worth noting that there are days that gather above-average numbers of responses—Sunday for TKN and Thursday for PK.

When describing the reactions of the Internet users according to the times of posting, TRKŹ has to be omitted again. As far as the other profiles are concerned, you can see (

Table 14. Reactions of Internet users on particular times of posting on FB (%).

	7:00–8:00 a.m.	8:00–9:00 a.m.	9:00–10:00 a.m.	10:00–11:00 a.m.	11:00–12:00 a.m.	12:00–1 p.m.	1:00–2:00 p.m.	2:00–3:00 p.m.	3:00–4:00 p.m.	4:00–5:00 p.m.	5:00–6:00 p.m.	6:00–7:00 p.m.	7:00–8:00 p.m.	8:00–9:00 p.m.	9:00–10:00 p.m.	10:00–11:00 p.m.	n.a.
TKN	6	0	1	40	6	2	6	3	2	1	2	4	3	13	9	1	0
I	0	3	0	5	12	17	6	9	9	5	7	12	9	3	2	0	0
PK	0	6	24	1	4	1	0	0	62	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
GN	11	9	7	14	6	4	3	2	4	2	4	6	21	5	0	2	0
TRKŹ	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	100

Source: Personal collection.

) that the recipients are not very active at night (i.e., after 10 p.m.), while they are very active until noon/early afternoon (9 a.m.—12 p.m. and 12 p.m.—1 p.m.). In the case of TKN, we can observe an increase in the response, which coincides with a slightly higher number of posts between 10 a.m. and 11 p.m. and 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. It is similar in the profile of I: a larger group of posts at 12 p.m.—1 p.m. and 7 p.m.—8 p.m. generate more responsiveness. The same can be said about PK around 9.00 a.m.–10.00 a.m. (but not 3 p.m.–4 p.m., when only a few posts aroused great interest). On the other hand, GN, posting relatively systematically, offers content that is of interest to users at 10 a.m.–11 a.m. and 7 p.m.–8 p.m.

FB also provides tools for sharing emotions (

Table 15. Types of reactions on FB profiles of the Catholic weeklies.

	Like	Love	Haha	Wow	Sad	Angry
TKN	81	13	0	0	4	1
I	75	11	1	2	9	2
PK	85	10	1	1	0	2
GN	71	15	2	1	8	3
TRKŹ	50	50	0	0	0	0

Source: Personal collection.

). It comes as no surprise that “likes” dominate here—it is the oldest feature of this type and the recipients use it almost intuitively. Moreover, “love” reactions are popular, while “sad” or and “angry” ones are relatively rare. Therefore, it can be assumed that FB posts of Catholic weeklies generally arouse quite positive reactions.

Another feature is content sharing. During the analysis, TKN posts gained 2148 “shares”, I—368, PK—170, GN—2075, and TRKŹ—0. The two most active profiles, TKN and GN, take the lead. Internet users shared 92% posts of the former weekly and 98% of the latter. Slightly lower results were achieved by posts of I (76%) and PK (79%), while TRKŹ was not shared even once. It can be seen that, in the opinion of the recipients, it is mainly TKN and GN that publish materials which are worth sharing with others online.

However, there is no denying that reacting or sharing alone does not require special effort from the recipient, as opposed to more engaging comments. During the adopted research period, 1882 Internet users’ responses were collected, of which 478 under the posts of TKN, 84—I, 113—PK, 1207—GN, 0—TRKŹ. After conversion into percentages, it turns out that the comments were made on 56% of TKN posts, 59% of I posts, 57% of PK posts and 68% of GN posts. Apparently, TRKŹ is in the worst situation again. The undisputed winner of the ranking is GN, which has evoked the greatest response among Internet users. The remaining profiles obtained similar results (it is worth remembering that PK published only 14 posts: it seems that about 60% of the obtained responses are slightly easier to achieve than what TKN and PK work out).

However, it should be noted that against the background of considerable reader involvement, the responsiveness of the editorial team is poor. It turns out that the weeklies do not actually respond to the audience: TKN and I do not do it at all, GN reacted to 1% of the comments and PK reacted to 7%. This is surprising, given that some of the comments made by Internet users are highly inappropriate. Lack of monitoring from the administrators may indicate either a fear of arousing discussion or unawareness of the content appearing on their profiles. Otherwise, there is no way to explain the failure to react in the following cases (translated from Polish colloquial speech; the mistakes and punctuation have been left in deliberately for the sake of linguistic authenticity):

• TKN: “Niedziela uses leftist babble?” (21st Nov, 9.12 p.m.); “They were afraid of profaning the cathedral for this pervert his not worthy lying in such a place, he should be lying in the car park.” (18th Nov, 10.14 a.m.); “RELIGION TURNS OFF THE LIGHT OF REASON” (22nd Nov, 1.30 p.m.); “Kneel behind me and kiss my ass, I’m your master.” (23rd Nov, 9.33 p.m.);
• I: “Under the fence”—as a suggestion for the burial place of a controversial Polish priest (18th Nov, 11.34 a.m.); “[…] Why doesn’t the Pope preach the Gospel to them. ? ????? This is the Christian’s greatest duty, and in particular the duty of the shepherd!! (21st Nov, 10.30 a.m.)
• PK: “Religion is the worst thing man has ever invented. It has killed more people than all the wars put together […]” (19th Nov, 9.09 a.m.);
• GN: “According to the cover of the paper, Jesus is a deity like Zeus” (21st Nov, 8.05 a.m.); “I’m not buying GN any more too much politics. Not much about JESUS. Not much of the objective truth. You distort things. A lot of relativism. It’s time to go back to ABSOLUT TO GOD. The God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Time to return to Jesus Christ, time to return. The point is, then there would be no sponsorship” (19th Nov, 9.34 a.m.); “I’m surprised that the editorial team of a weekly that considers itself serious makes articles out of such “news”. It’s a Fakt4-like trick” (20.11, godz. 11.48); “go to Jews or muslims who kill to scoff halal. You’ll have Judeomahomethan mercy, you moron.” (18th Nov, 5.05 p.m.).

It is worth emphasising that the above quotations (original posts) are not only vulgar and primitive. Some of them are racist and xenophobic, they stir up hatred and incite against religious minorities (they are also directed against the LGBT movement). There are also those that are targeted at faith and at God (they verge on blasphemy). There are also opinions that attack the weeklies themselves, accusing them of being unreliable, tabloidised, and of moving away from the ideas of the Church. There is no denying that these are very serious accusations, and being silent about them can damage the reputation of the magazines, not only in terms of image, but also in a deeper sense. The lack of reaction to the overt aggression against Jews or Muslims might suggest a silent consent to such behaviour from the media which are, after all, of a Catholic nature. This observation may also lead to the conclusion that the Catholic media do not quite have an idea of how to react to the emotional posts of their users, attempts at dispute or even online fights. Thus, they limit the use of social media to marketing functions. They do not always do it effectively, though, allowing their users to potentially threaten their brands; the lack of reaction to them is publicly visible.

It is interesting to compare the percentage share of the number of published posts with the percentage share of reactions, shares and comments received (

Table 16. Share of profile posts and profile reactions in the context of total posts and reactions (%).

	% of Profile Posts in the Total Number of Posts	% of Profile Reactions in the Total Number of Reactions	% of Profile Shares in the Total Number of Shares	% of Profile Comments in the Total Number of Comments
TKN	37	54	45	25
I	19	7	8	4
PK	6	4	4	6
GN	38	35	44	64
TRKŹ	1	0	0	0

Source: Personal collection.

).

The largest share of individual profiles in comparison to all published posts belongs to GN (38%) and TKN (37%). I comes third, followed by PK, and TRKŹ comes last. If we look at these results from the perspective of the share of reactions registered within the profiles compared to all reactions, it turns out that the leader’s position is held by TKN, which provokes the strongest response from Internet users. The responsiveness of the GN profile is satisfactory (although it is lower than the share in the number of posts).

It could be mistakenly assumed that PK is doing well: it should be noted, however, that it is not difficult to obtain 4% of reactions with a 6% share of posts (especially in comparison with the larger activities of the already mentioned TKN and GN). There are no doubts about the poor results of I and TRKŹ: the first profile gained little response in relation to the number of posts, the second one (in the studied period) practically did not function.

In the case of sharing, it can be seen that the users prefer to share content offered by TKN and GN (the results are similar), and in the case of GN, the recipients prefer sharing to reacting. This relationship also appears for comments. Here, GN undoubtedly takes first place on the podium: its advantage over other weeklies is undeniable. TKN and I perform worse in this respect, unlike PK, whose results for posts and comments are identical (6% each).

Comparing the data for all the weeklies, one can say that TKN arouses interest among the users, yet at a rather superficial level, as evidenced by the low (in relation to the number of posts) rate of sharing of comments. GN, on the other hand, can count on simple reactions to a lesser extent; however, opinions expressed in the posts are more likely to appear. The recipients are therefore more involved in activities that require more effort and time. I, compared to the number of posts, performs worst in the comments area, but the overall responsiveness here is moderate. PK’s activity seems to be almost masterful in this field: however, one should remember its low activity in publishing posts. The ranking is closed with TRKŹ, which is the weakest in all categories.

An additional quite important result observed during the analysis is that the behaviour of the users of the surveyed weeklies’ FB profiles shows that they expect the publishers to perform an apologetic and evangelising function. This is evidenced by emotional statements about faith, which remain unanswered. Meanwhile, by limiting the use of FB’s potential for effective communication with customers or engaging with the community from a marketing point of view, the administrators actually make these functions impossible (after all, in the case of Catholic media, interaction, engagement and maintaining the attention of the recipients, which are the keys to effective brand marketing communication, are at the same time the evangelisation tools). Social media, which, by their very nature, create communities, must be regarded as essential tools for spreading the faith, especially with regard to the contemporary recipients of the gospel (homo medialis), who not only passively accept the content addressed to them, but also, above all, want to engage in dialogue and communication with the preachers of the Good News. It is thanks to social media that communication has ceased to be a one-way street; intercommunication is being encouraged by both individuals and institutions (Chmielewski 2014, pp. 220–21). However, the necessary condition for such evangelisation is the consistency of the evangeliser’s actions with their deep faith, rooted in their personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is possible, after all, that under the guise of evangelisation, a kind of anti-evangelisation takes place, which leads to distortion of the image of the Church, faith, and Christians (Maciaszek 2012, pp. 13–14).

5. Conclusions

The Catholic media market in Poland today is quite extensive and dynamic, and Catholic media publishers must use modern business solutions to keep their publications on the market. “Christian media can attract fans and create content for them in today’s popular Internet environment” (Graca 2020, p. 118). One of these possible solutions is to use social media platforms extensively, thus offering the audience a much more complex media service than just the printed version. This social extension of the life cycle of the magazine is not only connected with recreating the media product into cross media content, but also with new marketing possibilities, which nowadays seem to be the necessity rather than a choice.

Concluding the analysis presented in this paper, the main hypothesis has been verified positively: the editorial boards of Polish Catholic weeklies do not take full advantage of the marketing possibilities of FB, which may suggest that they underestimate this tool as an effective channel of reaching their audience. Their profiles are managed in a moderately professional manner, which is reflected in a small number of interactions and low post reach. Thus, FB’s functions are limited to supplementing the main communication channel, which is the printed weekly and its website.

Answering the detailed research questions, we may state that the social profiles of Catholic weeklies are quite imperfect carriers of the content, but not the emanations of religious brands of these magazines (RQ1). The managers of the profiles hardly use the FB functions other than the marketing one (such as evangelising, apology or community-forming). FB profiles multiply the content distribution channels (and thus the media product itself), as well as participating in brand communication (in the least degree in its commercialisation). The content consists of posts displaying mostly religious themes (RQ7); however, it is based on multiplying the previously released content rather than delivering new details, specifically dedicated to FB profiles (RQ2). This is evidenced by:

• characteristics of published content (mainly multimedia posts, based on the marketing effectiveness of visual messages, referring to the pages of the weeklies, and thus promoting brands and media products offered; RQ6),
• relatively high attention to the graphic consistency of the profiles and visual exposure of the brand (RQ6),
• important role of self-promotional posts (although not fully used; RQ7).

At the same time, as it was once more confirmed, the analysed media do not fully exploit the marketing potential of FB, which is based on the regularity of publications (RQ3) (it can be observed only in the case of one magazine), interactions with the users, thus building a relationship with the community (the so-called customer-centricity—see Shih 2012, pp. 65–69). By not reacting to the readers’ comments, almost completely ignoring them or reacting rarely (which may prove that the content published by the Internet users is not even followed by the administrators, let alone moderated), they do not establish actual relationships with the recipients (which are useful for building brand loyalty) nor do they prevent possible image crises (no reaction to harsh and critical comments or radically blocking the option of expressing opinions about the weekly) (RQ4). The weeklies also limit the reach of the published posts, treating them only as a supplement to the main communication channel, which are the printed editions of the weeklies and their websites.

It is believed that the most important component of FB’s success and popularity is the involvement of its users who want to participate, cooperate and have a real say over the products and services they use (Shih 2012, pp. 42, 65). Interaction is positively perceived not only by the users, who appreciate meeting their expectations (potential personalisation of the offered products, e.g., by raising a topic in the weekly or an editorial staff’s statement). The use of casual, informal communication with customers (which are, after all, the readers of the weeklies) is a constant source of information for press publishers about their needs and expectations. Understanding them is a key to developing a media product (such as a weekly magazine), strengthening brand identity, and referring directly to customer opinions formulated on FB in advertising and sales activities (see Shih 2012). It can be concluded that publishing random standard offers and announcements is passé now (Shih 2012, p. 65). However, as the analysis shows, this is what the communication of the surveyed weeklies on FB looks like. Posts promoting the weekly are only an additional channel of publishing existing content in the weekly (RQ1, RQ4). It can also be considered a marketing negligence that other features offered by the platform to make the messages more attractive (such as adding the background, hashtags or emoticons) are not used (RQ5).

Summing up, despite the different level of proficiency in using FB features, it can be concluded—as the content analysis proved—that Catholic weeklies in Poland definitely treat the platform offered by FB as a marketing tool, favouring this function over the potential apologetic or evangelising ones; this concept of FB management seems to be common among the studied magazines, as they are clearly lacking in thoughtful and consequent strategy (RQ9). It seems that there is no deliberate concept behind FB management by these weeklies, which might be a good starting point to further investigate the problem, using the tools such as in-depth interviews with the people responsible for the management of these FB profiles and marketing departments of the magazines as well.

In the case of the activities of Polish Catholic weeklies described in this paper, it can be also concluded that the idea of exposing the marketing function of the magazine’s profile at the expense of the evangelistic and apologetic-polemic function was not successful. The recipients were not entirely able to adapt to the marketing convention by transferring their religious commitment, which, however, often has more to do with obstinacy and xenophobia than with testimony of faith. On the other hand, profile administrators, by refraining from any reaction to this situation, allow content that is harmful both from a marketing and evangelistic point of view. As a result, there are serious reasons to ask whether such a strategy of managing the social media fan page brings more harm than benefits to the analysed weeklies. Nevertheless, the answer to this question may become the subject of further research.