ABSTRACT
Communication engagement has emerged as a useful framework to reimagine government public communication. Many local, state, and federal government offices are using media and social media to engage citizens. Engagement takes many forms but public sector organizations often blend traditional media with social media outreach to inform and serve citizens. Busy public administrators need to weigh the perceived benefits of engagement with the costs. Being able to evaluate the effectiveness of this communication engagement is crucial for government communicators. This chapter will discuss best practices in creating easy-to-use, systematic, and useful monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework that help us to measure the impact of media and social media engagement efforts. Monitoring is slowly becoming more popular in the public sector as public administrators seek evidence to prove outcomes and impacts.
