Social Media Content Management Strategies at the National Police Service, Kenya

Abstract

This chapter analyses the strategies used by the National Police Service (NPS) in Kenya to manage its social media content. The study from which the chapter is extracted investigated the types of social media content generated by the NPS, evaluated the competencies of the staff managing social media content, examined the policies NPS applies to social media content management, as well as analysed the challenges NPS face in managing social media content and suggest ways to overcome them. In this study, the authors focused on three social media platforms used by the NPS to interact with the general public, namely, Twitter, Facebook and the organisation’s blog. Focus Group Discussions (FDGs) were used to collect data. The participants in the FGD were purposively selected from human resource, communications, information technology, and records management departments in cooperation with the Human Resource Manager. The workshops lasted 5–6 hours a day for 4 days. Three researchers were present, one working as a moderator and two as observers, who focused on the verbal and non-verbal interaction and on crucial phases of the discussions. The study found that NPS uses a variety of tools to manage its social media content but lack competent staff to deal with them. The NPS also does not have a policy on managing social media content. Most of the staff managing records have inadequate skills to manage social media contents due to limited IT skills. The organisation needs to develop policies and procedures for the management of social media content and train its staff on use of ICTs to support social media content management.