COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATION SYSTEM

Bachelor of Science in Public Administration

Course Number : PA 311

Course Title : KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND ICT FOR PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Credits : 3 units (3 hours lecture)
Module No. :7
Duration : 1 week

I. LEARNING OUTCOME(S):
At the end of the topic the learners will be able to:
1. discuss social media and its characteristics;
2. determine social media tools and technologies; and discuss their purposes; and
3. determine the benefits of social media in the government; and
4. discuss the effects of social media in life.

II. TOPIC(S):
Lesson 1: Government use of Social Media
Lesson 2: Social Media used in Government
Lesson 3: Social Media Management Strategy for Government Institutions

III. REFERENCES:

i. Reddick, Christopher (2018). Public Administration and Information Technology.

Burlinton, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning – e-Book -
(https://www.worldcat.org/title/public-adminitration-and-information-
technology/oclc/870334775)

IV. COURSE CONTENT:

SOCIAL MEDIA IN GOVERNMENT

Introduction

Growth of Social Media is Noteworthy

• This growth and tools also present unparalleled opportunity for implementing a transparent,
open, and collaborative government.
• However, lack of know-how, skills, and resources make it hard to leverage the tools.
• As a result, governments around the world ignore or mishandle the opportunities and threats
presented by it.

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Lesson 1: Government use of Social Media

What is social media?

• Social Media is the future of communication, a

countless array of internet based tools and platforms
that increase and enhance the sharing of information.
This new form of media makes the transfer of text,
photos, audio, video, and information in general
increasingly fluid among internet users. Social Media
has relevance not only for regular internet users,
butGovernments and businesses as well.

• Social media consists of a variety of tools and technologies that includes:

Collaborative projects (e.g., Wikipedia and wikispaces),
Blogs (e.g., WordPress) and microblogs (e.g., Twitter),
Content communities (e.g., YouTube),
Social networking sites (e.g., Facebook),
Virtual game worlds (e.g., World of Warcraft),
Virtual social worlds (e.g., Second Life),
All other Web 2.0 platforms that facilitate the creation & exchange of UGC.

• Content and interactivity is the key.

Traditional Media vs Social Media

Facebook Revolution

Social Media Characteristics

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 GOVERNMENT AND SOCIAL MEDIA: NOT JUST A PASSING TREND

• Social media isn’t just about being social anymore.

Businesses aren’t the only one taking advantage
of social media to communicate directly with their
target audience to boost business. Government
institutions of all sizes are getting in on the act,
using social media tools to communicate important
information to constituents and improve delivery of
services.

• Government adoption of social media is on the rise and it’s “not just a passing trend,” and
governments are not doing it just because other governments are doing it, rather, it’s an
important mechanism for advancing government effectiveness.

Lesson 2: Social Media used in Government

What is Social Media-Based Government?

Social Media-based government is a governance culture of transparency, openness, and

collaboration facilitated by social media (Khan, 2013). In other words without the culture of
transparency, openness, and collaboration in place social media is useless.

How is social media used in the public sector?

Information socialization
- using social media tools mostly
for informational purposes

Establish mass collaboration

- using the collaborative power of
social media to tap in the
collective intelligence of masses

Establish social transaction

- providing tangible online
services through social media
channels

Information Socialization

Twitter: Keep Citizens Informed

✓ Twitter is an online micro-blogging service that enables users to send and read
short messages commonly known as "tweets".
✓ 140 characters
✓ Does your government/Dept. has a Twitter Account?

• Tweeter related Concepts

✓ Tweets (Retweet)
✓ Direct messages
✓ Followers
✓ Followings
✓ Listed
✓ Favorites
✓ Mentions

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Facebook Pages: Network with Citizens

• What are Facebook pages?

o “Pages are for organizations, businesses, celebrities, and bands

to broadcast great information in an official, public manner
to people who choose to connect with them.”
(source: facebook.com).

YouTube Channel: Educate Citizens

• What is YouTube Channel?

o YouTube channel is a public online space (or page) over YouTube.
o YouTube channel allow you to upload videos, leave comments, or
make playlists.
o You may use it for posting:
training videos
awareness,
educational material, and many more.

Blogs: Talk to Citizens

• Blog (short for web log) is a type of personal Web site on which
an individual (or organization) post opinions and information

• Who Provides blog systems?

o A lots of companies
▪ Blogger.com
▪ http://wordpress.com/
▪ TypePade.com
▪ Wikispaces.com

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 May social media tools are available. Think how you can leverage based on your department
requirement. Find where your community is and engage it there. If the available tools don’t work for
you, create one. Setting-up is the easy part. Managing social media effectively is what matters. Plan
a head: social media policy, strategy, and resources needed. Sustain it, Monitor it, Be responsive,
Built trust.

How can Government benefit from Social Media?

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 Social Media Threats

Social Media is a great opportunity for government institutions in Kuwait and the Arab world
because of the enormous growth rates in the Arab region in the digital and social spectrum, but at
the same time, it may represent a threat to those institutions when it’s not managed correctly.

✓ Privacy & Security issues

• The most glaring disadvantage of social media is risk of identity theft and fraud.
• The difficulty of controlling content and conversations

Lesson 3: Social Media Management Strategy for Government Institutions

Defining Objectives:
• It’s important to define a clear set of objectives before start using
Social Media .So then your strategy will be guided by your objectives

• Examples of Social Media Objectives:

– COMMUNICATE key messages
– BUILD an infrastructure for effective crisis &
emergency management
– ADDRESS queries & issues online
– LEVERAGE customer service through social
media
– CREATE awareness

Monitoring & Analysis:

• Before Jumping on Social Media and engaging with your audience, you need to understand
a couple of things about this audience such as:
– What are the top discussed topics?
– What are the top social media platforms they’re using to communicate?
–Who influences your audience?
–The demographics of your audience
Planning:
• According to the output of the Monitoring & Analysis phase, you should now develop a plan
to engage the target audience. This plan usually includes:
–Who will be in charge of managing your social media presence? Do they need
training?
–What is the public policy of interacting with your target audience? Are there any rules
or limitations?
–Workflow and internal coordination between different departments
– Prepare content plans
–Possible scenarios, how to manage social media crises

Engagement:
• Now we have a clear plan, we can start engaging
the mass audience – usually includes:
–Develop relative content
–Online Community Management and moderation
–Launch initiatives and social campaigns
–Reputation Management

Measurement:
• Measurement is an essential ongoing process that
needs to be done as long as you’re on social media.
Through measurement you can know:
– Which mentions are related to your organization
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 – Sentiment analysis, are you being mentioned positively or negatively?
– What are your strengths and weaknesses from your audience perceptive?
– Which type of content is your audience engaging with?

Conclusion

Social media offers a real opportunity for government agencies to not only improve efficiency,
but also to improve their service to constituents, build trust and collaboration and better handle
real-time requirements of crisis situations.

To achieve these objectives, however, government agencies need to be smart about how they
implement social media. Rather than building individual or isolated groups of employees to handle
limited programs, think of how best to integrate these efforts with the processes, people and
technologies you already have. Where possible, automate social media processes around
business rules that you revisit regularly.

The agencies that have demonstrated the greatest success are the ones that have carefully
implemented best practices and built processes around social media, monitored and tracked their
efforts, and shared their learning throughout the agency for continuous process improvement.