From blogging ambassadors to tweeting permanent secretaries, the public services are rapidly adopting social media as an efficient and low-cost way to interact with their stakeholders. Some evangelists see these tools as key to forging a new relationship between citizens and the state. However, governments must first overcome the fear that they are stirring up a hornets' nest

Social media can easily become a weapon with which to attack brands and policies. The last government's online consultation on identity cards was taken over by anti-card campaigners from No2ID, while countless brands have been "monstered" by critics attacking them on their Facebook pages and via Twitter.

But as organisations learn how to tread more carefully in the world of social media - and accept that a healthy democracy can be rude and feisty - these fears are abating.



"For a long time there was a feeling that social media was an IT and a reputational risk, either a waste of time or only needed by a small number of people. It is now accepted that civil servants have to communicate using these tools," says Steph Gray, who runs consultancy Helpful Technology.

"Now government is full of people tweeting, blogging and talking online in a public way which you couldn't have imagined civil servants doing 10 years ago," he adds.

The tools are opening up government to new levels of scrutiny and transparency, according to JP Rangaswami, chief scientist at social-media marketing platform provider Salesforce. "There is a feedback loop between government and citizens that helps ensure messages are being understood. Consultation becomes more active and valued, and much cheaper. Nearly everybody owns a connected device these days," he says.

Salesforce works with website Donorschoose.org in the US, an online charity through which teachers in US schools post requests for funding for classroom projects and donors choose which ones to give money to. When a project reaches its funding goal, the website sends the materials to the school. Rangaswami believes this could be extended to other public service too, creating a new model for funding.

He adds: "Social media offer the government a much better picture of what the citizen looks like. There is a better engagement process between the citizen and government. Social media can create a level of interaction with consultations that just wasn't possible before."

Key to giving UK civil servants and ministers the confidence to use social media effectively is Social Media Guidance for Civil Servants, published by the Government Digital Service. The document includes introductions by Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude and head of the civil service Sir Bob Kerslake. "This shows change is coming from the top, that social media is something we expect all civil servants to be able to do," says Anthony Simon, head of digital communications at the Cabinet Office. "What stands out in the guidance is the 10-point plan for using social media. This gives you confidence that, as a civil servant, if you bear these things in mind, you can succeed in social media."

Simon believes the government's push for greater use of the tools is being taken up across the civil service, but he adds: "Nothing happens overnight, you won't suddenly encourage armies of civil servants to start tweeting away, nor would we want that to happen. But when you have a digitally enabled workforce, it starts filtering through."

The main advice the guidance gives is for civil servants to have clear objectives in social media, to make sure they are familiar with the rules of each social-media space before engaging with it and, crucially, to always abide by the Civil Service Code.

Simon says social media has enabled government to interact with specific interest groups: for instance, the business department has contacted business people on LinkedIn to talk about apprenticeships.

But there are hurdles to overcome in opening up social media usage to staff – top-down organisations need to trust those lower down the pecking order to represent them. As Neil Major, strategy director at agency Yomego, says: "The pitfall is to treat social media as a technical solution – it's not. You have to appear human in your interactions." Insisting that all Tweets are signed off by a department head before being sent out, as happens in some departments, seems to defeat the object of the medium.

The government is pushing social media as a way of cutting the costs of communicating. But James Kirkham, head of social and mobile at Leo Burnett Worldwide, is sceptical of this approach. "There is a slightly misunderstood aspect of social media that it is somehow free or that it is purely about earned media and viral potential," he says. In fact, social media is labour intensive, often involving additional work. Kirkham says getting a message across in social media requires using influencers, tastemakers, cultivated followings, seeding strategies and, above all, having enormous credibility.

Simon insists social-media messaging is highly cost-effective given the huge number of people reached – the prime minister has 2.3 million followers on Twitter.

As social media is adopted more widely across government, it will quickly become clear whether the tools really do enhance our democracy. That is worth aiming for, even it means stirring up a few hornets' nests.