Social Media in European Governmental Communication

Since 2005 the phenomenon called "Web 2.0" or "Social Media" has been growing rapidly, with services gaining more and more users every month. Social Media platforms provide room for users to express and present themselves, create and share content and communicate with each other. As using Social Media has become an everyday task for a part of the world's population, organizations both commercial and non-profit are beginning to take part in the online discussions. They leverage Social Media to reach their stakeholders directly. Many are very successful at that, learning from their stakeholders, building trust and securing their market position. While the success of economic organizations in Social Media communication increases, most European governments seem to ignore this new form of communication. Politicians campaigning for elections try to leverage the possibilities of Social Media which include word-of-mouth marketing, bi-directional communication, a higher level of trust among users, cost-efficient use of various platforms, and viral distribution of content. After the elections, however, many politicians' Social Media accounts stay silent. On the other hand, political protests and initiatives are commenced and spread very successfully with the help of Social Media tools. They form a strong counterpart to governmental content on Social Media. In order to aid governments in using Social Media as a new communication channel, this paper provides a conceptual process model for a communication strategy. The objectives of this strategy are building trust, encouraging dialogue, reaching the online-savvy segment of citizens, and encouraging citizen participation. After a basic definition of Social Media, the use of Social Media platforms and the implementation of Social Media functionalities by European governments will be analysed to give an overview on the current political Social Media communication state of the art in Europe. The analysis is based on a conceptional process model which will also be the basis for recommendations for the optimization of Social Media communication on a governmental level provided in the final section of this paper.