Social Media Marketing for Public Sector:

The power of Social Media Marketing is not limited to private sector only. Government can use social media effectively to promote different public programs.  Different social media tools can be leveraged to support the ammunition needed for public programs.  Authorities such as web masters, communications managers, PR directors and other such people who are the voices waiting to be unleashed within government offices can bridge the gap between their voice and public by the help of social media platforms. Other than attention, by unitizing the social media strategically, Government can reach the following objectives:

1. Public Engagement: by sharing real voices and stories which will help bringing the mission of a particular agency into action more effectively.
2. Public Poll: by demonstrating widespread public support for an issue or department's mission government can promote more transparency and thus promote the program.
3. Availability: by being easily assessable by staffers who are the first point of research for any policy or legislation motivation to participate can be accelerated.
4. Voice: by activating the most passionate voices internally and externally an agency's mission can be promoted more effectively.
5. Measurement of success: by managing negative comments or content on a particular issue or policy acceptability of any program can be varied which will enhance democracy.

                                        

Traditional or risk-averse the leaders of a particular government agency might be reluctant to use the power of social media but it the advantages are more profound than the disadvantages.  

Several responders on Twitter and people leaving comments shared the point that a social media strategy shouldn’t be avoided and limited. Yet there are some fictions about using SMM in public sectors which are

·         Audiences can be reached easily with social media.

·         Social media will change the public behavior dramatically.

·         All the target audiences use social media.

·         To use social media effectively one need to be on Facebook and Twitter.

Social media marketing is a two way communication and people can choose their content of interest and not all are comfortable using internet and computers. Hence the myths mentioned above prevail. Yet the coverage by social media is more effective than TV and print media in terms of all recourses needed for any campaign. The popularity of using social media is growing at a 3 digit growth rate worldwide and the usage of mobile devices in Social media has minimized these gaps even further. Therefore, this new media is simply an un-avoid in promoting public campaigns.

What are some other potential scopes of Social Media Marketing in Public sector? 

References

Forrester’s NACTAS Q4 2006 Devices & Access Online Survey, Forrester Research, Inc.

Preece, J. and B. Shneiderman (2009). The Reader-to-Leader Framework: Motivating Technology-Mediated Social Participation. AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction, (1) 1, pp. 13–32.