My presentation at the European Project eCitizens II, event organized by Municipality of Bologna, Italy. My speech was about the role of social media for public communication, focus on the potentialities of these platforms for administrations. Moreover I also discuss some empirical outputs coming from some studies I did with some colleagues. In the last part I discussed the managerial implications and guidelines

1. SOCIAL PAs AND
NETWORKED CITIZENS
Communication Strategies
and
Organizational Changes
Università degli Studi di Siena
Alessandro Lovari
Department of Communication
alessandro.lovari@unisi.it
1
Bologna 6 March 2012 – eCitizen II Joint Seminar

2. What we are going to talk about
today:
• What are social media and their impact on Public
Administrations
• The new role of citizens
• Effects on public communication strategies
• Organizational implications and changes
• Toward guidelines
2

3. Excuse me! What are Social Media?
It is difficult to give a precise definition.
Many authors and scholars gave their definition focusing on technological
or social perspectives (boyd, 2008; Shirky, 2008; Qualman, 2010).
Social media are “a group of Internet-based applications that build
on the
ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that
allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content” (Kaplan
& Haenlein, 2010, p. 31).
It is an umbrella term embracing several applications and interactive
platforms.
In particular there are 6 types of social media:
- Collaborative projects (i.e. Wikipedia),
- Blog
- Content communities (YouTube e Flickr),
- Social networking sites (Facebook, LinkedIn),
-Virtual game worlds (World of Warcraft) Pagina 3
- Virtual social worlds (Second Life).

4. SM become a “hot issue”
In the public sector the use of social media
is becoming a hot issue:
> on one side institutions and government
agencies are enriching their
communication mix with interactive
online platforms to connect and better
communicate with citizens and stake-
holders;
< on the other side media consumption
patterns reveal an increasing importance
of social media in citizens’ communication
mix (Nielsen, 2011; Pew, 2011; Censis
2011).
4

5. Why this is happening right now?
Several reasons:
There is a general request for a new phase of
transparency, openness and participation for PAs (Sirianni, 2009;
Noveck, 2009) where citizens can have an active role in
stimulating innovative services and practices of communication and
dialogue (van Dijck, 2009; Shirky, 2008; Tapscott, 2009).
Evolution of media consumption – emerging patterns for
information scouting related to civic and governamental issue
(Smith, 2010; Istat, 2011)
Media coverage:mainstream media set the agenda on social media
and SNS in particular (West, 2005) .
Bandwagon effect: citizens go social, brands go social….why
shouldn’t PA?
5

6. PAs go social ☺
In this scenario Public Administrations are evaluating social
media, and social network sites in particular, as an opportunity
and a challenge (Quocirca, 2007; Human Capital Institute, 2010).
The positive echo of these innovations is influencing many public
agencies all over the world, stimulating administrations and
public managers to create or colonize interactive and
participatory platforms to connect with citizens and other
publics.
Some institutions in North America, Europe and Asia are adopting
social network sites with an internal focused purpose such as to
stimulate employee learning and development or, most often,
with an external function to foster communication and civic
participation (Human Capital Institute, 2010; Kuzma, 2009; Serrat,
2010; Lovari & Parisi, 2012).
6

7. Social Media: the reasons why..
Community
Citizen information
Transparency City branding
Sourcing
Dissolve
PAs dedided to invest and use Silos of
Knowledge
social media for many reasons
Listening Live
and streaming of Crisis
customer events Management Partecipation
satisfaction
7
Public involvement spectrum in decision making

8. Some examples
8

9. 9

10. PAs’ footprints on Social Media
There is a lack of empirical researches on the presence of
Italian PAs on the main social media platforms.
There is a rich debate in PAs but this topic it is not sistematically
studied by associations and university researchers.
Main studies on this topic are:
• Comuni 2.0 - Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia – April
2011
• TwitterPA - Giovanni Arata - November 2011
• Social media and Italian Universities – Alessandro Lovari
and Fabio Giglietto – december 2011
10

11. No official profiles? Let’s party!!
In the case PAs do not (want to) to create and manage an official
presence on SM, Public Administrations and their services become
a topic of conversation in the Social Web.
According to Solis e Breakenridge (2009, p. 153):
“if you are not part of the conversation, answer,
questions, suggestions, complaints, observations, and
eventually incorrect perceptions will go unmanaged,
unresolved, and unchallenged. Even worse, competition
or uninformed peers will step in and engage communities
in your absence”.
There are many cases of counterfeit pages and fake profiles of
municipalities and PAs in general, created by citizens.
Manipulation of public communication vs partnership with citizens who
substituted PAs.
11

12. SM? Not just for teens!
The SM users are not just teenagers or digital natives.
The biggest increase in the use of these media is in the age range of adults
(Pew, 2009; Madden, 2010)
In Italy:
67,8% of Italians knows at
least one SM. It is about 33.5
milions of people.
Facebook is used by 49% of
Internet users (88.1% among
teenagers), while YouTube is
used by 54.5% of users (86,5%
a.t.). 12
(Censis, 2011)

13. Empowering Citizens..
Thanks to SM citizens can have an active role in producing and sharing
information related to PAs; they can contribute to create new services, or
reshaping the existing ones, remixing data and activities; they can develop
singular or collective actions.
Citizens can raise their public voice toward PAs (Rheingold, 2008)
Pew Research Center (Smith, 2010) defines ‘government social media
users’ those citizens using digital tools other than web-sites to search
and get information from government agencies and institutions.
The study reports also the existence of ‘online government participators’,
: they actively participate in online debates about government policies or
public issues.
Citizens are active sources in the informational network especially in local
communities: 41% of adults can be labeled as “local news
partecipators” because they produce information about local communities
via social media (Rosentiel et alii, 2011). 13

14. Toward Networked Citizens
Citizens who
activate themselves
within civic frames,
thanks to the
digital networks.
They are active in
digital and off line
environments to
scout information and
express their public
voice
They consider PA as
a valuable node in
their networks.
The existence of connected communities 14

15. Which are the communication
strategies adopted by PAs?
15

16. Searching for a SM communication
strategy
Mergel (2010) identified three different strategies of social media
colonization by public administrations, starting from an analysis of the
existing platforms in the USA:
(a)‘Push strategy’, in which a social medium is used as an
additional tool and as an extension of an existing Internet presence;
(b) ‘Pull strategy’ using social media applications to bring publics
back to the institutions’ websites;
(c)‘Networking strategy’, where institutions adopt social media to
stimulate interaction with users and reach specific publics in order
to share and create knowledge.
16

17. An empirical study: Italian municipalities
and Facebook
Provide an exploratory description of the
prevalent uses of FB pages by Italian
municipalities.
Pilot study investigating the online interactions
emerging in the Facebook Pages of 4 Italian
capital cities of provinces for 6 months:
Rimini – Modena - Reggio nell’Emilia - Venezia
All these municipalities satisfied the following
conditions:
• Municipality of medium-big size (inhabitants
between 100,000 and 300,000);
• The presence in the first 30 positions of Italian
rating regarding the so called “Digital Cities”;
• Facebook institutional pages created in 2009 in
order to analyse 6 months of online interaction Pagina 17
Source:
with citizens. Lovari A. Parisi L., Public administrations and citizens 2.0, in
Comunello F. (2012), Networked sociability and individualism, IGI
Global, Hershey, PA.

18. MODENA RIMINI
REGGIO
EMILIA VENEZIA
18

19. Let’s post it again!
What are the main topics published in the
Facebook Walls?
1. Information about public services and opportunities for citizens
2. Events promotion
3. Online communication self-promotion
4. Alert about emergencies and disservices
5. Call for civic participation
6. News related to municipality life
7. Culture and civic heritage discovery
8. City images display
9. Other
Source:
Lovari A. Parisi L., Public administrations and citizens 2.0, in
Comunello F. (2012), Networked sociability and individualism, IGI
Global, Hershey, PA.
19

20. What I wanna post today….
Municipality Walls show traits of different communication strategies adopted
by PAs to reach different objectives in a situational perspective:
a) to spread information about municipality services; b) to publicize
events organized by PAs; c) to stimulate citizens’ participation about
public and civic issues; d) to alert citizens about disservices and
emergencies.
Source: Masini M., Lovari A., Benenati S. (2010), Dal digital divide ai media sociali, Bonanno Editore, Roma-Acireale 20

21. Some examples of
events’
promotion and
other
communication
strategies
21

22. Facebook for activating civicness
Municipality of Modena uses FB fan page as a tool for enhancing
civic memory and belonging.
Adopting quizzes and games the Page stimulates the interest and the
participation of citizens, revitalising a communitarian sense of
belonging to the city life and to its history
Comments and likes are very frequent. Participants belong to
different age ranges, stimulating competition between generations.
22

23. Facebook for listening citizens
Municipality of Rimini uses FB as an expansion of the Office for
Public Relations (URP).
Facebook is used as an additional channel to publish news regarding
city opportunities and public services and to host and to reply to
questions raised by inhabitants addressing them to different offices
and departments.
It becomes a strategic listening tool.
23

24. Innovative use of FB Wall by Rimini
Every post published by citizens is recorded and managed in order to
properly solve the requests involving other Departments or the Mayor.
The number of the dossier is published on the Facebook Wall and it
can help citizens to track their requests.
It increases transparency and accountability and it raises the
expectations of efficency toward citizens.
24

25. Organizational Implications and Changes
• It is necessary to identify the office/structure in charge of
managing social media
- Communication? ICT? Press Office?
- In-house vs Outsourcing
- Xmas vs Office Hours
• Connect the social media presence (digital front office) to the back
office of the PA.
• The presence of SM modifies not only the Communication Office but
all the connections/working flows between the different PAs’
Departments. The importance to create an internal network of
referees.
• The importance of cyberscanning activities to monitor digital
environment regading PAs
• It becomes fundamental an activity of training to understand the
value of social media and web 2.0 applications: how to use them in 25
the context of the administrations, defining the respective roles.

26. Giving feedback to citizens
PAs’ presence on social media is a marker of identity.
Official SM presences should be instituzionalize
PAs do not have just to publish messages but they have to show how
they channel the citizens’ feedback and public voices.
It becomes important to address ways to inform, visualize, distribute
and create feedback mechanisms in order that citizens feel their
inputs has been received and processed.
Managers must provide a clear explanation to citizens about how
their digital inputs (voices) will be used in administration
decision making processes.
26
Source: Nabatchi, Mergel (2010)

27. Searching for Guidelines
Lee and Elser (2010) proposed 9 Commandments public
administrations should follow to reach an effective social media
strategy:
a) Use SM if it is possible to identify a tangible mission-related
reason for using it;
b) PA has the duty of accountability in a democracy
c) SM works only if the PA is committed to its maintenance and
operation
d) Beware of the temptation of the population
e) Integrate with the existing external communication activities
f) Remember the KISS principle
g) Use of two-way and one-way communication (different profiles)
h) A strength of SM is public outreach
27

28. Between Hints and Guidelines
• Insert SM in a Multichannel Communication Strategy
• Adopt a social media communication plan coordinated and
integrated with the general communication plan.
• Identify a clear strategy and a policy for posting and replying to
citizens. Share the policy with top managers and with citizens.
• Monitor the effects and redemption of PAs’ SM strategy
• Do not mix or intertwin political communication with public
communication (platforms, news structure, policy)
• Do not do it in the old way!
(broadcasting vs conversational public communication)
• Try to engage with citizens and use SM as a listening tool 28

29. Thank you for your attention
For further information and feedback
email: alessandro.lovari@unisi.it
Titolo Presentazione
Twitter: @alelovari
07/03/2012 Pagina 29
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