NCC, NBC, NITDA missing as INEC, Police others lead in MDAs social media presence
New report released by Instinct Wave Group Ltd, a consulting firm has shown poor presence of leading government’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) agencies in the social media platforms when numbers of their followers are considered.
The report tagged; ‘Nigeria Public Sector Social Media Report’ in a statement, based its ratings on the amount of followers and likes gathered by MDAs on their Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, Instagram followership, YouTube subscribers, existing LinkedIn accounts for staff and how often they share relevant service information to the Nigerian public, likewise their feedback mechanism.
Some industry experts who reviewed the authenticity of the report however said whether the group is real or not, it is important that key ICT related agencies lead in the sector because they are the regulators and main government players.
They called on the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to wake up from slumber and lead the pack considering their day to day involvements in the field of social media and technology matters.
Details form the study showed that Independence National Electoral Commission (INEC) is the most visible government agency in Nigeria on the social media platforms as it boosts of 726,000 followers in Twitter, Facebook: 266, 151 Likes and Instagram: 37, 000 followers.
Under matters of engagement and reach engagement level, INEC has Facebook – 60 per cent, Twitter – 85 per cent and Instagram – 30 per cent. Others who follow closely are Nigeria Police Force (NPF) with Twitter: 406,000 followers, Facebook: 510, 661 Likes,Instagram: 2, 836 followers, YouTube: 224 subscribers, LinkedIn: 908 followers.
The Nigeria Police made a surprise second on engagement level and reach as it has Facebook – 70per cent, Twitter – 60 per cent, YouTube – 30 per cent, LinkedIn- five per cent and Instagram – 60 per cent. Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) which comes third on the table has Twitter: 203,000 followers,Facebook: 290, 247 Likes,Instagram: 2,626 Followers, LinkedIn: 1,011 Followers. For its engagement level and reach, FRSC has Facebook – 80 per cent, Twitter – 80 per cent, Instagram – 50 per cent and LinkedIn – 20per cent.
Instinct Wave Group said the report also implies that the use of social media applications has been averagely accepted in public sector in Nigeria. However, the acceptance, and broader adoption of sophisticated tactics that go beyond information and education paradigm, such as true engagement or networking strategies are still in its infancy.
The group noted further that “Despite embracing the use of the social media platforms, the agencies and parastatals in the sector face challenges such as leveraging the energy of a new generation, and use it to drive a new, positive culture that supports high performance, poor engagement, poor capacity building on social media knowledge (SMK), duplication of Social Media platforms and creating a non-business social media platforms”.
The group also listed lack of understanding of generating rightful and engaging content, lack of sharing of best practises with the private sector initiative, lack of new strategies and innovation of social media tools, poor knowledge of engaging and connecting with the right audience, management/analysis of social media accounts and overview of feedbacks.
Efforts to get comments from top ICT agencies on why they were missing on the top list failed at press time.
