Social media in government offices: usage and strategies

Abstract

PurposeThe current study seeks to present and examine the strategies, management and dissemination of information on social media platforms by Israeli government organizations and agencies.Design/methodology/approachThe article uses the “Case Study” approach, through semi-structured, in-depth interviews conducted with directors in charge of the use of social media in government departments.FindingsThe findings indicate that government agencies tend to favor Facebook over other social network platforms, in order to reach the widest possible audience. They do this by adhering to the platform's limitations, such as regularly using sponsored advertising to increase reach and visibility, and also by publishing visual content, such as videos and images, at the expense of text. In addition, the impact of respondents to adopt social media outweighs the use and importance awarded to traditional government websites. A clear preference is evident toward cultivating and strengthening existing information on social media at the expense of further developing official websites.Originality/valueFindings and conclusions from this type of research can help digital media directors and content editors in government agencies, to improve the quality of their content and improve the accessibility of the information they share online. In addition, the findings of the study strengthen the growing body of knowledge focused on the relationship between government ministries and social media.

Social media for government information dissemination: content, characteristics and civic engagement

“…Our findings indicate that most of the links lead to internal content from within Facebook (other posts and pages). This finding is, however, in line with the identified pattern as described by Yavetz and Aharony (2020) of digital media directors' tendency to promote and prioritize content that originates from Facebook pages, sometimes at the expense of official websites. This also highlights Hofmann's et al (2013) previous findings, which suggested that adding a link to external websites leads to more negative comments than do posts without them.…”

“…This aspect is even more critical when we look into a highly diverse society like Israel, where it was found that the probability of using e-government services is much lower for non-speaking Hebrew minority groups and residents of small localities (Rosenberg, 2019). Despite these issues regarding the Israeli national portal for e-government, Israel has made substantial progress in developing strategies for governmental social media (Yavetz and Aharony, 2020). Israel's ministries and government authorities have fully implemented social media in their work plans and strategies, as they mostly prefer Facebook as their primary tool for communication and citizenry dialogue (Yavetz and Aharony, 2020).…”

“…Despite these issues regarding the Israeli national portal for e-government, Israel has made substantial progress in developing strategies for governmental social media (Yavetz and Aharony, 2020). Israel's ministries and government authorities have fully implemented social media in their work plans and strategies, as they mostly prefer Facebook as their primary tool for communication and citizenry dialogue (Yavetz and Aharony, 2020). Research in the field of online government in Israel has, however, largely focused on political information related to parties, candidates and elections campaigns (Aharony, 2012; Bar-Ilan et al , 2015; Bronstein et al , 2018; Lev-On and Haleva-Amir, 2016; Markowitz-Elfassi et al , 2019).…”

“…Another emerging research topic focuses on local and municipality authorities' activities on social media in the Israeli context (Lev-On and Steinfeld, 2015, 2016). In the only cross-national research dealing with a similar manner, Yavetz and Aharony (2020) studied the strategies and practices of Israeli government ministries on social media, through interviews with managers and decision-makers. This current study examines, for the first time, the content, information and data disseminated on social networks by Israeli government ministries to broad and diverse populations, as well as citizens' engagement and participation.…”

Digital communication in Swiss cities: A closer look at the low adoption and usage of social media platforms in a technologically advanced and innovative country

“…So far, most contributions in the literature have developed frameworks to analyze governments' activity on social media platforms or measured their activity on Facebook more particularly (Guillamón et al, 2016). This results mainly from the fact that studies have been conducted in North America and Western Europe, where a vast majority of governments are active on at least one social media platform (Facebook initially) 1 , and most often on more (Yavetz & Aharony, 2020). At the local level, North American and European cities are increasingly present on these platforms to improve their communication with the public.…”