Mahajan-Cusack, Lisa. The impact of social media on local government transparency and citizen engagement. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3Q52RVD
DescriptionNow that social media has become such a dominant form of communication and interaction among the population in general and in the business world, public sector organizations arguably have an important duty to adopt these tools in order to provide the types of personalized and transparent services expected by citizens and businesses. Governments benefit considerably from the use of these communications and engagement channels, using them to improve the effectiveness of public service delivery (both generally and when faced with emergency situations), to generate information and data, and to build trust-based relationships that help restore confidence in local government. Overall, then, the use of social media is likely to improve services of local government and contribute to more efficient use of public resources. Adopting and generating value from the use of social media at the local government level requires knowledge and understanding of best practices, as well as the potential pitfalls and challenges. This study is intended to contribute to the knowledge and understanding of social media usage by local governments, based on a diverse sample of local government organizations nationally which have already established social media practices.