How do Governments Leverage the Use of Social Media? A Systematic Review

Abstract

As social media becomes embedded in our daily lives, having online presences and activities on social media is no longer an option but a requirement for private and public sectors. While businesses have successfully leveraged social media to gain a competitive advantage, the lack of literature on government social media success stories has drawn academic attention. This article aims to consolidate the existing body of knowledge through a literature review by describing the state of government and social media use and conceptualizing an integrative model for governments. In total, 56 relevant existing studies were carefully analyzed and discussed, specifically relating to trends, foci, methodologies, contexts, samples, and theoretical foundations. This article then develops an integrative model that explains the role of technological, governmental, and individual-based factors on government social media use and its impact. Our finding shows that platform quality, content quality, and government service quality are the best predictors of citizen platform use. At the same time, perceived individual benefits mediate the relationship, while perceived behavioral control moderates it. We discuss the findings and highlight the direction for future research. From a theoretical perspective, this article offers an in-depth overview of government social media use from an integrated perspective. It contributes to the field by conceptualizing a government social media use model. To government leaders and policymakers, the article presents avenues to understand better the factors influencing citizens’ decisions to use and engage with government social media pages and design adequate strategies to maximize the benefits of delivering public services to citizens through social media. We then conclude this article by noting its limitation.