Just Because we can - Governments' Rationale for using Social Media

Governments have slowly started to exploit the potentials that social media offer for their external communications. The related work reveals a quite diverse picture both in governments’ quality of social media maintenance as well as in the interaction with citizens. Our aim in this study is to understand the factors that drive governments’ decisions to use social media for their external communications as well as to comprehend their underlying strategy. Therefore, we conducted a qualitative study among 20 German municipalities. Our results reveal that hardly any government agency follows a distinct strategy when implementing social media. Furthermore, we come up with ten propositions that explain the influencing factors of governments’ social media decision. Whereas mainly ambiguous privacy regulations and financial shortcomings negatively influence the decision to use social media, initiatives by single employees, perceived external expectations and the wish to become more attractive for citizens drive the use of social media. In addition, observed social media behaviours of other governments and experiences in the governments’ environment influence the decision. Our results both give in-depth insights in governments’ decision and implementation processes of social media and serve as a basis for further (quantitative) studies.