Exploring the use of social media by politicians and government
Every time I get asked what I teach, people seem to be surprised that I teach in the department of political science. Well, my comprehensive exams and my minor are in cross-national comparative public policy (focus on environmental policy). I have taught public policy analysis at the domestic (national) level, and this semester I’m teaching comparative public policy. I am also an enthusiastic user of social media tools, and I love to combine both my interests.
Last year, I was asked to be the editor of an online, pluralistic, non-partisan website that aggregated information from all sorts of online sources to inform citizens about the choices they could make for Premier of British Columbia. On this blog, I interviewed Carole James (NDP), Jane Sterk (Green Party) and Gordon Campbell (Liberals). As someone who teaches public policy, and uses social media tools (and sometimes teaches ABOUT social media), I am always looking for good case studies and examples of “good” use of social media by politicians and government officials and agencies.
I asked the question on Twitter, and I’ll be compiling the responses. However, if you do have some ideas as to good examples and case studies, please let me know. I look forward to hearing from you all!
Related posts:
- My interview with David Berner on The Power of Social Media in Public Policy
- My talk at @BCIT on Social Media, Politics and Public Policy
- On authenticity in social media
- My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria
- Being a social media expert? Disclosure as a best or worst policy
You Gotta Be Here?
http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=public+health+agency&init=quick#!/pages/Public-Health-Agency-of-Canada/10860597051?ref=search&sid=90410127.3872550029..1
Public Health Agency of Canada has a Facebook presence!
Raul – I’ve got a short overview of Canadian governments, mostly local govts, and use of social media. It was compiled at the end of January 2010. It isn’t exhaustive, and new ones keep popping up since then. My intention was to give a client some material to help prep a local govt for possible use of social media. The client was happy; the local govt was still very cautious. We’ll see what happens over the next year as we get into our project with them. Give me an email address to send the pdf file to.
hpm
Our politicians are doing a really great job using Social Media…
I’ve studied this alot and found that the BEST website is http://politwitter.ca
They give different MP’s social media scores based on the platforms they use, interaction, and followers. They also have riding association pages and people who are political tweeters (top one being my friend @graciestyle, and back when my focus was on #cdnpoli I too was on this list)
The stats and everything are really interesting to look at and compare throughtout different months, hope that helps!