Evaluating Social Media Utilization on the Implementation of E- Government Goals in Tanzania

Abstract

Social media provide a platform that can be used by the government to communicate with its citizens. Most governments worldwide are taking advantages of the increased number of citizens who are using social media to provide required public services and information. The utilization of social media by the government increases the level of transparency and citizen’s participation in various public activities which may result into institutional changes. Despite the numerous advantages offered by social media, the Government of Tanzania has not yet adequately explored the opportunity offered by the social media. A desktop survey was conducted to evaluate the utilization of social media in 84 Tanzania government institutions. The results revealed that only 28.5% of the public websites were connected to social media. Furthermore, most of the social media platforms used by various government institutions are inactive and less frequently used. Therefore, the current study recommends speeding up the adoption and utilization of social media platform to provide information related services to citizens in Tanzania public sector.