Types of Social Media

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What is Social Media?

Government agencies regularly rely on social media to engage with their customers for improved citizen services and cost savings. Social Media integrates technology, social interaction, and content creation to collaboratively connect online information. Through social media, people or groups can create, organize, edit, comment on, combine, and share content, in the process helping agencies better achieve their mission goals. Here are the most commonly-used types of social media in government:

• Blogs (e.g., WordPress)
• Social Networks (e.g., Facebook)
• Microblogs (e.g., Twitter)
  • Twitter Town Hall Chats: Best Practices for Federal Agencies
  • Twitter Town Hall Sample Agenda
• Wikis (e.g., Wikipedia)
• Video
• Podcasts
• Discussion Forums
• RSS Feeds
• Photo Sharing (e.g., Flickr)
• Employee Ideation Programs

Resources 

• Timeline of U.S. government use of Social Media/Gov 2.0
• Government 2.0: Federal Agency Use of Web 2.0 Technologies, 111th Congress, 2010, statement of David McClure, Ph.D.
  (PDF, 16 MB, 22 pages, July 2010)
• OMB Memorandum 10-23, Guidance for Agency Use of Third-Party Websites and Applications
  (PDF, 78 KB, 9 pages, June 2010)
• Open Government, Transparency, and Social Media Presentation
  (PDF, 11,490 KB, 87 pages, April 2009)
• Examples of Agencies Using Online Content and Technology to Achieve Mission and Goals
  (PDF, 45 KB, 5 pages, December 2008)
• Matrix of Web 2.0 Technology Tools and Government
  (PDF, 45 KB, 2 pages, March 2008)
• Records Management and Recent Web Technologies, National Archives
• Social Software and National Security: An Initial Net Assessment, National Defense University research paper
  (PDF, 527.86 KB, 42 pages, April 2009)

Content Lead: Justin Herman
Page Reviewed/Updated: October 1, 2012