8. Fostering Citizen Engagement

Governments have long attempted to actively engage with their citizens. With the advent of new communication tools fueled by the wide availability of Internet, two-way interaction between the public and government entities has become easier. However, just like with any other new tool, government agencies must learn how to incorporate social media platforms into their existing organization and how to use them effectively. The aim of this chapter is to present general principles for social media use in government related to general strategy, project implementation, organizational pitfalls, rules, and procedures for interaction. We expect that technologies will improve not only citizen engagement but also bureaucracy and cost efficiency of the government actions.