The integration of social media in online communication policy

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It's no secret that social media is a prominent part of our daily lives. This is highlighted annually in Newcom's National Social Media Survey, among other initiatives. Although social media has become so significant in the Netherlands, some public sector organizations still seem to struggle to maintain it. Why?


Let’s kick off with some statistics from the research

WhatsApp remains the most popular social media platform in the Netherlands today, with over 11 million users. Facebook now also reaches 10.1 million people, although its user base has decreased by over 650,000 compared to 2018. Instagram continues to grow rapidly: its user base increased from 4.1 million to 4.9 million between 2018 and 2019. This represents an increase of approximately twenty percent. LinkedIn also continues to grow: 4.6 million Dutch people currently use the platform.

Screenshot from Newcom's National Social Media Survey

Many public sector organizations face difficulties integrating social media or other whatsapp data technological developments into their daily communications policies.

According to Ines Mergel (pdf, 2012), a large part of this difficulty lies in the difficult bottom-up communication within this sector. There is often a lack of understanding or hesitation about reporting concerns or suggestions to colleagues. As a result, many communication advisors in the public sector remain reluctant. Moreover, social media is often still relatively new, meaning there is insufficient knowledge about it. This also leads to reluctance: people fear the unknown.

To identify the challenges of integrating social media into communications policy in the Netherlands, we conducted a survey among communications advisors in the public sector. The survey was completed 38 times.