One of the most pressing issues facing public administrations is deciding which communication channels to implement to communicate with citizens. This has become even more pressing given the situation created by the coronavirus crisis, which has limited face-to-face contact and imposed social distancing.
Until just a few decades ago, the main venue for communication between citizens and public administrations was the administrative offices themselves. When citizens needed to complete a transaction, they would go to the administration office and receive all the information they needed there.
Later, with the advent of the internet, public administrations began to establish websites offering information on the various services and procedures available, but customer service and communication continued to be primarily face-to-face. We learned at that time that it was advisable to visit the website before going to an administration office to know everything we needed to bring, thus saving us a trip later.
But all this changes with the arrival of e-government, as we face a new scenario in which, for the first time, citizens no longer need to physically visit a public administration to complete administrative procedures. Administrative procedures can now be completed from anywhere using a computer or mobile phone.
This new way of interacting with the administration has brought with it a “collateral damage” we hadn’t anticipated. If citizens no longer have to go to offices to process transactions, how will they find out about new initiatives being launched, the projects we’re promoting, or the aid we’re providing? And, above all, who will they be able to address any questions or concerns they may have?
When citizens went to the offices to carry out a procedure, they were given answers to their questions right there, and they were also given the opportunity to learn about other issues that might interest them, either through explanations from the person assisting them or through the brochures on display that they browsed while waiting to be served.
However, we now find ourselves in a situation where we must consider how we can deliver information to citizens and, above all, where we can find new spaces for this communication to take place.
Many people believe that all the information citizens need to interact with the public administration is available through the website, and while this is true, it’s also true that we must be aware that citizens are not aware of what public administrations publish on their websites every day.
The low number of visits to public administration websites is easy to verify through the access statistics provided free of charge by Google Analytics. Although it’s hard to accept, public administration websites are visited far less than we actually think and would like. It would be interesting to provide each department and area of the public administration with monthly data on the visits to the content they publish to understand the real impact.
Some people believe that citizens can also obtain information through the media, but in recent years, information considered a public service has practically disappeared from the media, except for information of particular relevance.
Another channel considered useful for communicating with citizens is the telephone, but it’s a non-scalable model that has proven ineffective when it comes to informing a large number of people at the same time, unless we want to allocate a significant number of people to the service. I’ll explore why the telephone isn’t a good communication channel in a later post.
So, what can we do as public authorities to ensure our information reaches citizens? Where can we find these spaces to communicate when citizens no longer come or can’t come to our offices?
In my experience, the only option we have right now is to bet on digital communication through its different formats, whether it’s social media management, blog publishing, podcasts, webinars, video tutorials, campaigns of e-mail marketing or newsletters, among others.
All of these tools, especially social media, are channels for disseminating and channeling the content we make available to citizens on our website, and we will need to rely on them to direct citizens to that content and the information we have to offer.
If we look at what companies like Nike or Zara do, we see that their goal isn’t to be on social media to gain followers or because it’s a matter of fashion, but rather they’re on social media to show people on Instagram or Facebook the clothes they have, and if they like them, they can “drive” them to their websites to buy their products.
If we look at what companies like Nike or Zara do, we see that their goal isn’t to be on social media to gain followers or because it’s a matter of fashion, but rather they’re on social media to show people on Instagram or Facebook the clothes they have, and if they like them, they can “drive” them to their websites to buy their products.
And that’s exactly what public administrations have to do, since we have to be present on social networks like Twitter, Facebook, or TikTok, depending on the target audience we want to reach, to tell them, “Hey, look at what I have on my website that might interest you.”
Just a glance at the data provided by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) in its 2020 Survey on Equipment and Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Households is enough to realize the importance of social media.
According to this survey, 64.2% of Spaniards between the ages of 16 and 74 are active on social media, representing more than 29 million people in our country.
Therefore, let’s put aside the sterile debate about whether public administrations should be on social media or not, whether they’re just fads or posturing, and let’s incorporate them into our communication strategies with citizens with the goal of establishing bridges and communication channels, and delivering the information, attention, and services we have for them.
Let’s use these new digital spaces to communicate, so that citizens can easily find us and we can hear what they have to say, what they think about the work we do, and, above all, so we can answer all their questions and queries.
Digital communication has therefore become essential in a situation like the current one, where the implementation of e-government and the situation generated by COVID-19 have shown us that we need new spaces to communicate with citizens.
So let’s get to work.
If you need help developing a communication plan in your city council or public administration, this guide may be helpful: “Guide to developing a communication plan in a public administration” here.
If you want to stay up to date with all the latest news in digital marketing, social media, and communications, you can subscribe to my weekly newsletter here: Digital Marketing, Social Media, and Communication Newsletter.
To showcase the work we do in public administrations, I have a 30-minute interview program that I broadcast live on my Twitch, Twitter, and YouTube channels. You can find all the information about #30minutos here. If you haven’t seen the previous programs, you can watch them on my YouTube channel. They’re also available as podcasts on Ivoox, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.
We can follow the conversation at:
- Twitch
- Tik Tok
- Telegram
- Ivoox
- Apple pódcast
- Spotify
- Google pódcast
- Novagob
- Facebook group “Social Networks and Public Administrations“
- Facebook group of “Bloggers of public administrations“
- Facebook group for “Journalists in Public Administrations“
