Twitter in government: Building relationships one tweet at a time

Abstract

This research explores the adoption of Twitter by government organizations in the U.S. The recent growth of Twitter by government organizations makes it appear to be in the early adopter stage. As different government agencies utilize Twitter to extend their outreach to specific audiences, one finds novel uses for this communication medium. Since Twitter is designed to deliver short messages with a personal tone, extended conversations in which fragments of information about the users are revealed enable this channel to communicate the social presence of the users. Twitter is used in the governmental context not only for engaging stakeholders in conversation, but for building relationships by creating a social presence with these constituents. In addition to providing a status update and conversation, Twitter can be used for reporting news, sharing information, providing information sources, and coordinating projects. Since Twitter is easily accessed by wireless devices, the reach of this medium is expanded. In all, Twitter is a unique new medium enabling many novel and powerful uses for government applications. © 2010 IEEE.