Is online public engagement a new challenge in the university communication plan? A managerial perspective

This paper proposes to explore the marketing communications that university websites use for promoting their public engagement (PE). The aim is to propose best practices that could guide universities towards community-orientated strategies advancing, in this way, the university PE agenda. This research explores this construct by means of a website content analysis on a sample of 50 American universities and elaborates a PE index with which to evaluate university PE. Moreover, the paper individuates the best practices from 10 universities that demonstrate a high PE index for each approach of university PE online individuated in the literature. The evaluation of engagement activities can provide units and departments with valuable suggestions for improving the stakeholder engagement. Moreover, the universities can provide selfevaluation of their level of PE addressing their resources and competencies to fill their gaps.