Disciplining social media: An analysis of social media policies in 26 Swedish municipalities

Abstract

Social media can be seen as a resource for increased interaction between municipal authorities and citizens. However, as authorities attempt usage of social media, practices can become entrenched in traditional regulatory frameworks that emphasize openness and transparency rather than interaction with citizens. Social media usage by authorities tends to touch upon a broad range of regulatory elements, some of which are legal in character and others that we see as embedded in the technologies themselves as well as practices developed in connection with the technologies. In this paper, 26 Swedish social media policies produced by municipalities are analyzed in order to better understand how the conflict between transparency and interaction is dealt with in practical guidelines. We are concerned with how the diversity of social media is understood and how public functions are identified. By analyzing challenges and policy strategies outlined in these documents, it becomes possible to identify four alternative foundational positions based on social media being perceived as a problem/possibility or homogeneous/heterogeneous. The general tendency in all material is that routines of command and control are established in order to create clear goals and practices for individual social media activities and thereafter to discipline social media activities to remain firmly within the intentions of the blueprint. This explicitly disallows activities to adapt to needs developing through interaction with citizens. Nevertheless, we have also found a number of participatory strategies that are either aimed at increased quality of community services or at extending the marketability of the municipal brand.

Breaking the Ice

“…This approach has led to a hobbled social media where many of the main advantages are lost." 16 Lyn Mettler, founder of a Step Ahead, Inc., a company that develops social media campaigns for clients, believes "the positives of being on social media and the goodwill and customer service and awareness it fosters are well worth a couple of negatives" that could occur in personal social media pages. 17 However, many experts on legal issues related to social media, such as Jon Yarbrough, agree that institutions should adopt policies that "establish clear ground rules.…”

The social media participation framework : studying the effects of social media on nonprofit communities

“…The use of social media should have a pre-defined goal to be effective. After studying the social media policies of 26 municipalities in Sweden, Klang and Nolin (2011) stressed the importance of concrete and measurable goals as an integral part of social media planning. Nonprofit communities could, for example, consider goals for improving the community or to promote the activities of the nonprofit community.…”

“…Rice's Media Appropriateness Theory from 1993 as discussed in chapter 3). Klang and Nolin (2011) say that affordances and limitations are set by the technological infrastructure. Thackeray et al (2008) emphasize the importance of looking into the social media habits of the priority population.…”

“…Meaning that on the one hand the strategy will exploit the potential benefits and provide the community with the advantages of social media, such as reaching potential new members and on the other hand, it regulates the downsides of use, such as reducing the impact of social media attacks toward the community. In addition to having an integrated approach, it is important to understand that there is no one-size-fits-all strategy, but that the strategy is, to a large extent, dependent on the chosen social media channels, the specific nature and goals of the community and its environment (Berthon et al, 2012;Klang & Nolin, 2011).…”

“…(Dutta 2010;Klang & Nolin, 2011), the traditional managementof-ICT approach is considered to be too limited to capture the richness of the social media phenomenon. In the end, this research should contribute to science by providing more comprehensive and standardized theory to measure and evaluate the community effects of social media, deliver specific assessment of the impact of social media on nonprofit communities and insights in the key factors for effective use.…”