Working the Network: A Manager’s Guide for Using Twitter in Government

Ines Mergel has written this guide, detailing the benefits - and risks - of hosting a Twitter feed.

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By

Ines Mergel

Professor, Public Administration

University of Konstanz, +49 7531 - 88 3553 ines.mergel@uni-konstanz.de

Like many technological tools, Twitter does not come with an instruction manual. To help both government executives who must decide whether Twitter is a useful tool for their organizations and frontline managers who will create and administer the Twitter account, Ines Mergel has written this guide, detailing the benefits - and risks - of hosting a Twitter feed, as well as the specifics on how to maintain a Twitter feed to achieve optimum results.

In addition to the information about Twitter itself, this guide presents material about the expanding ecosystem that is growing up around Twitter. Applications like Klout, TweetDeck, HootSuite, and Instagram add new kinds of functionality and make Twitter feeds more valuable both to government and to citizens who subscribe to their feeds.

Read the report!

Listen to Mergel's interview on Federal News Radio.

Read the article in Federal Computer Week.

Report Essay

PDF iconSocial Media Strategy Brief.pdf

A Managers Guide for Using Twitter in Government