Metrics in digital platforms of Pope Francis

Metrics in digital platforms of Pope Francis

The time of confinement caused by COVID-19 was characterized using digital platforms. The consumption of content in applications was one of how it became possible to cope with the delicate situation that affected the socialization of human coexistence.

On the other hand, religion was also influenced by the mutation of the scenario for digital environments, more specifically in the case of Pope Francis, in which all public interventions require a significant number of people.

Therefore, given the limitations of public agglomerations, the common scenario was the digital platforms, hence the relevance of analyzing the metrics on the digital platforms of Pope Francis, during the confinement.

As specific objectives, the accounts of Pope Francis and Vatican communication were identified, and metrics were captured for each of them. Thus, the forms of communication and their impact on the audience were identified, along with the elements of interaction that social networks register.

The study is analytical, with a quantitative, transactional approach since it addressed the metrics from March 9 to October 3, 2020. The capture was performed between November 1 and January 30, 2023.

The accounts analyzed were of the official media of the Holy See, the YouTube profile Vatican News in Spanish; of Pope Francis; on Twitter @Pontifex_es; and Instagram: @Franciscus.

During the study period, the Vatican News profile broadcast 64 Masses daily from Pope Francis' residence, the Domus Santa Martha, which accounted for 349 billion views and more than 43 hours of transmission. It is worth noting that previously only an excerpt of the pope's words was broadcast, however, during the confinement it was possible to know the entire celebration.

In the area of the Instagram account, 97 posts were published during the study period, with 35% in video format, and 65% in image format with photo carousels. Posts with videos have an average of 200 thousand likes; however, the post of March 27, 2020, has more than 1.1 thousand plays, 371 likes, and more than 9 thousand comments. A comparison based on 1.2 billion accounts on the platform stated that the reach exceeded 9 million followers of the profile.

On Twitter, 393 tweets were posted from the @Pontifex_es account, and on March 27, 4 hashtags were positioned between 18:00 and 23:00 Rome time, with more than 690K mentions. The trends were: #Pope; #PopeFrancisco; #Vatican; #UrbiEtOrbi.

The data reflects the viral nature of Pope Francis' persona on digital platforms, as well as the Vatican's adoption of the use of apps and social networks, as well as the audiovisual format to connect with the audience, in the complex scenario of the Covid-19 confinement.