Bureaucrats brushing up social media skills after Narendra Modi’s diktat on having twitter, Facebook accounts

NEW DELHI: Bureaucrats scrambling to follow the Narendra Modi-led government’s diktat for all ministries to open official Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts are ironically turning to a set of guidelines issued by the previous regime to brush up their social networking skills.

The new government at the Centre has asked bureaucrats to use the guidelines for social media drawn up in 2012 by the department of electronics and information technology as the ministries rush to meet the deadline of August to embrace social media.

Each ministry is setting up a team of three-four officers which will handle a social media cell, with a nodal officer who will be in-charge of posting updates on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, a senior government official told ET.

The ministries will update their social media platforms with new content at least once every week, the official said, adding that this would be “institutionalised” by integrating it with the existing communication structure.

The guidelines issued under the Congress-led UPA government had “encouraged” all government departments to use social media since only the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the external affairs ministry had a presence on Twitter at the time. However, no other ministry obliged. This is set to change under the Modi government. “The government’s work needs to be amplified through social media,” the official said. The ministry of home affairs has already joined the social bandwagon with the twitter handle @ HMOIndia and the PMO posted a

thumbs up message on YouTube as well by releasing a video on its one month in office last week. As per the guidelines, all accounts must be created and operated in official capacity only and as social media demands round-the-clock interactions, some criteria for responsiveness must be defined and a dedicated team put in place to monitor and respond.

“There should be congruence between responses on social media and traditional media,” the guidelines say. The guidelines specify that “not all posts/comments” by others need to be responded to immediately and individually. “Also, wherever a response is required all posts should be kept short and to the point.

Relevant provisions of IT Act 2000 and RTI Act must be adhered to. All important occasions as far as possible may be broadcast using social media.