Page 7 - Approved Social Media Framework and Guidelines

used for seeking inputs into policy making, building goodwill or even seeking feedback into

delivery of public services.
Pictorially, the characteristics have been depicted below to show the inter-linkages between
all characteristics and their mutual dependency.

Figure 1: Characteristics of Social Media

4.2 Need for Using Social Media

With the ever increasing diffusion of ICTs in all walks of lives, connectedness is increasingly
becoming a given part of our lives. This connectedness brings with it many opportunities
and also presents many challenges. From the perspective of governments, the following
represent some of the reasons for using social media:

· Enhanced Outreach: As the recent world events have demonstrated, social media

have emerged as a powerful platform for forming an opinion as well as generating mass
support. In India, FaceBook alone has over 40 million users each. Even a microblogging site
Twitter has about 16 million users. These sites offer an opportunity to reach out this
audience at a key stroke. Many of these facilitate access through mobile devices and with
nearly 900 million mobile users in India, it offers an unprecedented outreach.

· Real Time engagement: Social Media releases the shackles of time and place for
engagement. They can connect policy makers to stakeholders in real time. In recent Libyan

crisis, Ministry of External Affairs used social media platforms such as Twitter to assist in
locating and evacuating Indian Citizens from Libya.

· Individual Interaction: In tradition forms of media, interaction with individual user is
either not possible or is very limited. Social Media platform offers the ability to connect with

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