Page 5 - Approved Social Media Framework and Guidelines

Guidelines for Use of Social Media by Government

I. Introduction

The advent of social media is transforming the way in which people connect with each other
and the manner in which information is shared and distributed. It is different from
traditional media such as print, radio and television in two significant ways – first, the
amount of content that can be generated by the users themselves far exceeds the content
generated by news/opinion makers and second, its “viral” ability for potential exponential

spread of information by word of mouth and interlinking of the various social media
platforms, thereby considerably reducing the control over spread of any such information.
These characteristics denote the paradigm shift from Web 1.0 technologies that enabled
simple information sharing and basic two-way transactions to Web 2.0 – where literally
everyone is/can be a user as well as generator of content. Social media is redefining the way
people communicate with one another.

In order to encourage and enable government agencies to make use of this dynamic

medium of interaction, a Framework and Guidelines for use of Social Media by government
agencies in India has been formulated. These guidelines will enable the various agencies to
create and implement their own strategy for the use of social media. The document will
help them to make an informed choice about the objective, platforms, resources, etc. to
meet the requirement of interaction with their varied stakeholders.

II. Need for Social Media Guidelines

Given its characteristics to potentially give “voice to all”, immediate outreach and 24*7
engagement, Social Media offers a unique opportunity to governments to engage with their
stakeholders especially citizens in real time to make policy making citizen centric. Many
governments across the world as well many government agencies in India are using various
social media platforms to reach out to citizens, businesses and experts to seek inputs into
policy making, get feedback on service delivery, create community based programmes etc.

However, many apprehensions remain including, but not limited to issues related to
authorisation to speak on behalf of department/agency, technologies and platform to be
used for communication, scope of engagement, creating synergies between different
channels of communication, compliance with existing legislations etc.

Page 5 of 38