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Purpose This study aims to determine whether the communication of Universities in Madrid (Spain) on social networks through their official channels has caused positive results in students’ perceptions of their trust in university institutions during the first semester of the 2020–2021 term and to measure whether the implementation of happiness management strategies in the communication within university governance affected students’ happiness levels, as well as on the recognition of their belonging to the university. Design/methodology/approach With an exploratory-correlational approach and a quantitative study, this study conducted a statistical-descriptive analysis based on the premise of a general linear regression model with correlations between the variables, using a data collection instrument, whose construct and content validity was previously assessed by experts, which was answered by 564 students of the Degrees in Communication and Marketing from the Complutense University of Madrid, University of La Laguna, and ESERP Business and Law School. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test and Bartlett’s test of sphericity were implemented to analyze the correlation between variables; Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and Pearson and Spearman’s coefficients were also used. Findings Those students who used social networks to receive news from university institutions about the COVID-19 pandemic deem these channels official, sound and credible. Similarly, the use of official information from university institutions on social networks increases students’ happiness levels. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies aiming to provide scientific evidence of the relationship between happiness management and university governance. This research’s practical implications lead to attributing added value to these types of means for the university governance that seeks students’ happiness.

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In the current era of the attention economy, users find themselves in social networks over-saturated with advertising that tends not to catch the public’s attention or have great credibility. In this sense, brands are trying to get closer to their audiences by using non-invasive, user-generated storytelling strategies with a more natural and experience-focused message. This research aims to compare which narrative elements used by the official accounts of 5 Ibero-American nation brands on Instagram and by the users (UGC) of hashtags promoted from those official accounts generate greater organic interaction on that social network (likes and comments). With a correlational view, we seek to compare whether the promotion of countries generates greater interaction between those generated by owned media and by users (UGC). For this purpose, two analysis sheets were designed and validated to perform quantitative, descriptive, and correlational content analysis and were applied, on the one hand, to 5 official profiles of Ibero-American countries (Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, and Venezuela) and on the other hand, using the hashtags promoted from these official accounts, the 100 posts of user-generated content (UGC) with greater relevance according to the platform were chosen. The main results show that Reels reach almost five times higher than any other type of posts in UGC accounts, while on the contrary, in corporate accounts, they are the types of content with the least interactions. Unlike what one might think, contests (giveaways) on official accounts generated fewer likes and social responsibility content, and posts featuring influencers and celebrities also failed to achieve significant interactions. Overall, official accounts generate the same amount of likes as UGC but significantly fewer comments. Brands only outperform UGC in likes in individual Photographs or Photo Rolls, while UCG outperforms brands in Reels for both metrics.

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