Yerel Yönetimlerde Sosyal Medya Uygulaması: Gaziantep Büyükşehir Belediyesi Örneği

With the Web 2.0 technology, users have been involved in a mutual interaction process and have started to meet social media tools such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. In this process, municipalities, which are the closest units to the public to inform the public about their activities and events and to use social media tools in promotional activities as they provide access to many more people than traditional media tools. In this process, municipalities, which are the closest units to the public, have also followed policies to be closer to the public, to inform the public about their activities and events, and to use social media tools in promotional activities as they provide access to much more people than traditional media tools. Accordingly, social media platforms, which stand out as a new digital communication tool between municipalities and the public, are becoming more and more important every day. Recently, municipalities have been using social media applications intensively in order to share their activities with the public and to promote the city in the process of becoming a brand city. In this study, the reasons for the use of social media tools in municipalities were inquired, and it was investigated whether social media tools contributed to the improvement of the services provided. The aim of the study is to reveal the effect of the use of social media, which is a new media tool, on the public and the municipality. Qualitative research method was used in the study and twelve questions were asked by sending a form to Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality through a semi-structured interview technique. The results of the research revealed that the use of social media contributed to the promotion of cities and governance, and revealed that municipal administrations made improvements in service delivery and changed their management policies in response to requests and reactions from social media.