A case study of the employment of social media in government agencies in Oman

Abstract

New technologies are affecting many different aspects of our lives. Social media is one of these, and has revolutionized communication between governments and their citizens. Both governments and citizens are benefitting through this social interaction, which has resulted in more effective services being offered to citizens. This research explores the Omani government agencies' readiness to use social media for delivering their services to the public. A qualitative approach is adopted to collect and analyze data that is related to the use of social media by Omani agencies, their benefits, challenges and their citizen/government relationship. This study contributes towards enriching the knowledge about the current use of social media by government agencies and revealing the main factors that encourage or delay the use of such sites by the government. The findings are based on an online survey and, in addition, an official talk with IT professionals in different government agencies. It has been indicated that Oman is moving towards utilizing social media sites in government services but the awareness of the potential importance of these sites in government processes is still limited. On the other hand, the relationship between government agencies and citizens is strengthening due to the transparency created by social media usage.