Exploring Social Media Purposes and Strategic Approaches Among US Municipalities

Social media represents a strategic tool for governments to disseminate information, build relationships, and achieve outcomes consistent with stated political, social, and administrative missions. As a digital ecosystem, social media is an essential part of any modern communication strategy, though there is little research into the purposes behind the municipal use of specific platforms or the specific strategic approach employed. This study uses a digital ecosystem perspective to explore the social media communication practices of a sample of US municipal governments. The results show that information-sharing related concerns—including accountability, transparency, and financial reporting—are the dominant purposes regardless of platform. US municipalities follow a primarily deliberate rather than emergency strategic process, indicating a desire to plan their communications rather than react to environmental stimuli. Municipalities where managers handled social media operations alone were found to use a significantly more emergent strategy. US Census region was found to predict the number of purposes for using specific platforms, with Western US municipalities embracing more purposes on more platforms. This study extends the literature on political communication and social media by exploring the strategic purposes behind social media use, as well as the strategic approach municipalities utilize within these ecosystems.