ABSTRACT
In recent years, the number of policies and applications dealing with social media and information technologies to improve the quality of government services and enable greater citizen engagement has exploded. Developing a social media policy can be an important first step for those government agencies considering using social media and can ultimately serve as a key enabler to responsibly and effectively leverage social media tools. This chapter examines the experiences of Taipei, Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing, to show that social media have been popular in the process of policy analysis. The use and extent of social media are closely related to a country's institutional environment, and its politics, economy and culture. The chapter explores social media and policy analysis, particularly the application of social media for citizen participation, in four capital city governments. The discussion indicates that government agencies increasingly leverage social media to improve the quality of government services and enable greater citizen engagement.
