Communicating social sustainability through social media to mobilise citizenship in rural places

Place managers increasingly deploy social sustainability communication to encourage support for rural places. Yet its effects on visitors' discretionary citizenship behaviour, and its potential relevance for addressing visitor-mobility pressures, remain underexplored. Across three studies, we examine how social sustainability communication influences citizenship behaviour toward rural places through social connectedness and psychological ownership. Study 1, a qualitative social media analysis, uses a Gioia-informed data structure approach to analyse #socialsustainability posts on X, formerly Twitter, to examine whether these constructs appear in naturally occurring social sustainability discourse. Study 2, an online experiment using Kerry on Instagram, shows that social sustainability communication increases anticipated recommending, helping, and feedback behaviours, with effects operating primarily through social connectedness. Study 3, a second online experiment using the Faroe Islands on Facebook, provides further support for the role of social connectedness and shows psychological ownership contributes mainly through a serial pathway for helping behaviour. Results show that social connectedness strengthens psychological ownership, thereby increasing helping. From a practical standpoint, communicating social sustainability offers place managers a lever to deepen visitors’ connectedness and motivate helping behaviours that benefit the place and support visitor coordination and place sustainability.