Abstract
Little is known about the extent to which public agencies are using social media to connect with their constituents or how these agencies are using social media as a communication and public engagement tool. Limited information on social media use exists for government agencies at the federal and state level, but almost none is available for local agencies. This thesis studies California cities to determine how widespread social media use is among California municipal governments, for what purposes agencies are using it, how California city governments are managing their social media tools, and what problems or barriers city governments are encountering as they use, or choose not to use, social media. Data for this thesis comes from a self-developed and self-administered survey sent to city officials throughout California in February 2012 and additional data I collected about the cities that responded to the survey. The survey consisted of twenty-five questions regarding social media use, management of the city’s social media tools, and the problems and barriers California cities face in the adoption and use of social media. I collected demographic data and information available on the cities’ Facebook pages for all cities that responded to the survey. My research found five major themes regarding responding California cities’ use of social media: most cities are using social media and doing so fairly regularly; cities are generally more interested in information-sharing through social media than constituent engagement; cities have internal control mechanisms but lack policies that address external issues; cities have encountered few problems with their social media use; and lack of adequate resources is the main issue preventing more cities from using social media. I also found that population size and location appears to affect the rate and sophistication of use of social media by cities, but per capita income of the city appears to have little effect.