According to a Straits Times article reported
yesterday (13 Apr), Government agencies are now trying to use Net
games, attractive prizes and various other activities in an effort
to better engage Singaporeans through social media.
A number of
agencies are looking to beef up their online capabilities, with one
even getting a consultant to formulate a long-term strategy.
All these
online moves intensified after MICA’s Minister, Yaacob Ibrahim
announced that the Government will raise the bar to engage the
public via social media. Last Oct, he noted that while most
ministries used various social media tools, the quality of
engagement was important and had to go beyond providing mere
content.
LTA, for
example, are trying to draw more netizens to their Facebook pages
with contests and attractive prizes. LTA is launching a game to win
more Facebook fans. The game lets players blast away rocks to
create a tunnel and at the end of the game, players could stand a
chance to win an iPad 3 and shopping vouchers.
The game is
part of the LTA’s efforts to gain more “friends” for its 1-year-old
Facebook page, which has garnered 2,536 ‘likes’ so far. LTA also
uses Twitter to push out traffic news, road announcements and news
updates to about 4,000 followers. LTA said, “Using social media
along with other communication channels helps us to reach more
people to keep them current on what is happening, as well as get
public feedback.”
Looking at
LTA’s Facebook postings however, shows that there were few comments
despite using iPads and shopping vouchers to attract netizens to
its Facebook page.
MICA,
meanwhile, has engaged a Norwegian-based software company,
Meltwater Singapore, to provide a Web-based tool to track
Mica-related social media coverage in blogs, and on Twitter and
Facebook. MICA wants to monitor online chatter and sort postings by
their sentiments – into positive, negative and neutral – so that
officials can track online discussions about hot or sensitive
issues.
HDB on the
other hand, has a Facebook application allowing people to vote on
ideas for ‘better living’ in flats while MCYS is looking into ‘fun’
Facebook contests to encourage young people to volunteer and engage
in philanthropy.
The chairman of
the GPC for Information, Communications and the Arts, MP Indranee
Rajah, welcomes moves to track social media, “The marketing arms of
companies that sell products do that all the time. You want to know
what your customers are thinking, what works, what doesn’t. For
effective government, you want to know what your people are
thinking; and if an initiative is not working, you want to know
too.”
