Page 10 - Approved Social Media Framework and Guidelines

4.5 Challenges in Using Social Media

a) Why to use social media: Departments sometimes find it difficult to define the need
or objective to use social media. Is it for providing information, seeking feedback, generic
interaction, etc. Due to this lack of clarity, departments often either choose not to use social
media or attempt to be present on all platforms at once.

b) Which Platforms to use: Given the plethora of platforms and even types of social
media, it is very difficult to choose the type and no. of platform on which to engage and how
to create inter-linkages between these platforms.

c) Who will engage: Most departments have limited capacity to engage with traditional
media itself and since social media demands a deeper and constant interaction, availability
of such resources is even more limited. A closely associated question is that of authority i.e.

who is authorised to respond on behalf of the department, whether such a response will be
made in personal or official capacity and from personal or official account etc.

d) How to engage: Use of social media is an ongoing process and requires long term

commitment. Many have questions around rules of engagement – how to create and
manage an account, what should be response time, what are the legal implications etc.

In order to help departments and government agencies to meet these challenges,
Guidelines for use of Social Media have been drafted. In the following section, various
elements of the Framework and the Guidelines to use the different elements of Framework
have been detailed.

V. Social Media Framework & Guidelines for Government

Organisations

The Social Media Framework for the Government of India has been created to enable
government agencies to use these platforms more effectively and reach out to their
stakeholders and understand their concerns and hear their voices. The Framework
comprises of the following 6 elements:

· Objective: Why an agency needs to use social media

· Platform: Which platform/s to use for interaction

· Governance: What are rules of engagement

Page 10 of 38