Today, the U.S. military in Afghanistan is using Twitter to help counter Taliban propaganda, the city of San Francisco uses Twitter to allow citizens to report non-emergency issues such as pot-holes and the Centers for Disease Control and Response uses Twitter to help prepare for and respond to public health emergencies. As Twitter adds to its already 32 million users, it will increasingly become a place where government organizations collect and share information.
Social media has drastically changed the way government organizations share, discover, and disseminate information. Conversations that used to take place behind closed doors are no longer being filtered before public release, they are happening immediately and with complete transparency.
The good news is that information is being shared. The bad news is that it’s not always accurate. Citizens can make decisions based on this inaccurate information; for example, during the recent Swine Flu outbreak the pork industry reported that at the height of the outbreak, the amount of inaccurate information posted on social media sites lead to an $18 million market hit*.
As government organizations become part of citizen conversations across social networks, they will need to start tracking those conversations to help better understand constituent sentiments. Providing good experiences for citizens starts by listening to what they are saying.
Source: CNN.com http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/30/pork.industry.impact/index.html
Kevin Paschuck
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