Survey tells two tales about feds' social media use

Social media applications for government are becoming more popular, but significant numbers of federal employees and agencies are not making use of those tools, according to a new Market Connections Inc. research survey of government social media use.

In a recent survey of 321 federal employees, 60 percent said they use social media at home or work, while 35 percent said they were not using social media; 5 percent said they do not know about social media, John Kagia, research director at Market Connections, said. Statistics on social media utilization are just starting to be released. On July 22, the Government Accountability Office reported that 22 out of 24 major federal agencies are using social media applications, including Facebook, Twitter, GovLoop, LinkedIn, wikis, blogs, videos and podcasts. However, Market Connections' survey found a smaller percentage of utilization. Twenty-nine percent of the employees surveyed said their agencies were using social media, 48 percent said their agencies were not using social media, and 23 percent did not know whether their agencies used social media.