Bodies of State Power on Social Networks: an Analysis of Moscow Government Accounts

Section: New Media

The article presents the results of a study into the communication strategy of public authorities, represented by the Moscow Government, on social networks. It is proved that the presence of agencies on Web 2.0 platforms is necessary, which is confirmed by high rates of user involvement in this type of communication. The content placed in Moscow Government accounts on VKontakte, Facebook and Instagram was used as material for examination. In the study, manual and automated monitoring methods were applied, the analyzed period being February – April 2020. The analysis was based on the following parameters: number of subscribers, regularity of the published posts, range of issues, publication format, average number of comments per post, top five of the most popular posts, top five of the most unpopular ones, and interaction with the audience. Particular attention was paid to one of the components of the Web 2.0 technology criteria, namely, the policy of conducting a dialogue (exchange of comments) between Moscow Government specialists and social network users. The key mistakes in the management of the publications on the web pages were identified, such as maladaptation to the particular social network, clearly bureaucratic publications and the like. The author of the article proposes a number of actions that can unlock the full potential of using social networks.

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