Exploring Municipal Utilization of Social Media in Performance Measurement and Management

In the last decade, governments have expanded the utilization of performance measurement and reporting techniques to include the application of social media activities. While each of the two trends has been explored distinctly, their intersection is oft en neglected. Through the analysis of the official Facebook pages from a random sample of Florida Benchmarking Consortium (FBC) participating municipalities, this study explores the utility of social media in the collection and dissemination of performance information. The results of the analysis suggest an insufficient application of social media for performance-related issues. Out of the three main social media strategies typically available to governments, push, pull and networking strategies, FBC local governments typically employ the push strategy, wherein the municipality reports performance directly to citizens, and to a lesser extent, the pull strategy, wherein the municipality attempts to engage potentially interested citizens attention. The networking strategy was not utilized, indicating the potential need for a greater use of social media platforms to engage citizen involvement in the performance measurement and management process.