Page 25 - Approved Social Media Framework and Guidelines

Annexure-I - Social Media Types

Kaplan and Haenlein in 2010 classified social media into six different types: collaborative
projects, blogs and microblogs, content communities, social networking sites, virtual game

worlds, and virtual social worlds. A brief description of various types of platforms is given
below to help the agencies understand their main characteristics and also lists some of the
currently popular sites in each of the categories as well as examples of use of such platform
by Indian or other governments across the world.

· Social Networking: Currently, social networking sites are the most prominent
platform of social media. It is an online service that enables its users to create virtual
networks with like minded people akin to social networks in real life. It often offers the
facilities such as chat, instant messaging, photo sharing, updates, etc. FaceBook with over
800 million users is one of the most well known social networking site. A few Indian
government departments and agencies are using FaceBook including, Prime Minister’s
Office, Planning Commission, Ministry of External Affairs and a few Municipal Corporations

and Police Departments, etc.

· Blogs: Blogs are descriptive content created and maintained by individual users and
may contain text, photos and links to other web sites. The main interactive feature of Blogs
is the ability of readers to leave comments and the comment trail can be followed. A
community of Blogs is referred to as Blogosphere and can be used very effectively to gauge
public opinion. While many websites offer free space for blogging, this activity can also be
undertaken on the existing government websites. Many government officials blog in their
personal capacity on various issues. The Digital Engagement Blog of the UK government is
an initiative to use the Blog format to for consultation on as well for pronouncement related
to existing and proposed policies.

· MicroBlogs: MicroBlogs are similar to Blogs with a typical restriction of 140

characters or less, which allows users to write and share content. It can be done in the form
of text message, instant message or even email. Twitter is a microblogging site that enables
its users to send and read text based messages or “tweets” of upto 140 character length.
These Tweets are posted on the user’s account and the site allows others to “Follow” the
user. While Tweets are public by default, they can also be restricted to just the followers.
Tweets can be generated via web, smartphone or even through SMS on some mobile
phones. Due to limitation of characters, url shortening and content hosting services are
often used accommodate posts that are normally longer. Twitter collects personally
identifiable information of users and shares it with third party users. Twitter is estimated to
have over 200 million users. Twitter is useful for short and crisp messaging and being used
by Ministry of External Affairs, Chief Ministers of many states, Members of Parliament and

Prime Minister’s Office
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