Improving government services with social media feedback

Abstract

Social media is an invaluable source of feedback not just about consumer products and services but also about the effectiveness of government services. Our aim is to help analysts identify how government services can be improved based on citizen-contributed feedback found in publicly available social media. We present ongoing research for a social media monitoring interactive prototype with federated search and text analysis functionality. The prototype, developed to fit the workflow of social media monitors in the government sector, collects, analyses, and provides overviews of social media content. It facilitates relevance judgements on specific social media posts to decide whether or not to engage online. Our user log analysis validates the original design requirements and indicates ongoing utility to our federated search approach.