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were recently established and they usually have less than 200
videos uploaded.
5. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Social media is newly introduced in Saudi e-Government websites
given the creation date of their accounts in different social media
services. In this paper we have explored the prevalence of social
media services among Saudi e-Government agencies and the
attitude towards their usage.
Our findings show that the use of Facebook and Twitter were
admirable, given the small number of Saudi e-Government
agencies officially using them. In fact, the usage of social media
services was most common in Universities and Municipalities
websites. Our analysis also showed that most e-Government
agencies publish the same content on both Facebook and Twitter.
In terms of their usage trends, we have noticed that either the
agencies’ website was up-to-date and participated in more than
one social media service, or the website is so simple, with no
participation in any service. The apparent usage pattern, as we
have stated previously, was for disseminating news and
announcements, i.e. only as a one way communication channel.
In order to overcome the problems found in current usage of
social media services we provide the following recommendations
for Saudi e-Government agencies:
• Create a clear social media strategy that prevents any
misunderstandings or misuse of the service and defines
the overall goals of its usage.
• Clarify the purpose of each social media service to the
citizens i.e. whether it is for discussions, Q&As, or
news/announcement channel.
• Verify social media accounts to give them more trust and
credibility.
• For agencies from the same category or interest, it is
advisable to get connected with each other, this will help
service the Saudi citizens.
• Allocate enough resources (personnel and time) in each
government agency for moderating and managing social
media channels.
• Learn which social media is popular among Saudi citizen
and engage and focus on that service.
• Improve the current usage of social media services by
adopting an interactive two-way communication channel
with the citizens.
• Consult and seek knowledge from the citizens about how
to improve the agency social media service.
247
Finally, it is worth mentioning that since the usage of social media
in Saudi government is very recent, there is no deep involvement
yet between policy makers and Saudi citizens. Therefore, the
recommendation was given to help improve the usage of the
current services, and hopefully in the near future we reach the
ultimate goal which is “inform-consult-empower” between policy
makers and Saudi citizens.
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