Hey everyone!
Term is ending, and the holidays are just around the corner. Hope you guys are coping well with whatever is left of this hectic school year!
I’ll just jump straight into what I did for my individual research project.
I looked into an organisation which most of us should be familiar with – the Land Transport Authority (LTA). If you do not know what LTA does, than I suggest you get out more often. Anyway, LTA currently operates as a statutory board under the Ministry of Transport, and is in charge of planning, operating and maintaining Singapore’s land transport systems and infrastructure.
Through my research, I want to examine how a public sector organisation structures it social media use, especially since such organisations are not motivated by marketing or profit-driven purposes.
For my research on LTA, i noted that it has three main goals which it hopes to achieve. Firstly, it seeks to make public transport the preferred mode of transport for local commuters. Secondly, it wants to ensure that the various transport needs of Singapore’s growing economy and expanding population are met. Finally, LTA aims to commit itself to the nation’s road use by enhancing road networks and improving road safety.
So, with this understanding of LTA, I established my research questions as:
1) How effective is LTA in utilising social media to achieve its three main goals.
2) Using this analysis, how can LTA improve its stakeholder engagement endeavours to attain its objectives?
Through my analysis of LTA’s current use of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, I identified that LTA attempts to engage with its stakeholders and educate them on new initiatives, projects and policies. LTA’s efforts on social media appear to be rather successful as it publishes content that fit well with the characteristics of the various platforms. For instance, Facebook was used to publish detailed info due to its text-focused nature and Twitter was used to disseminate short and impactful messages as it is known to be the fastest way for news to travel nowadays. However, it seems that LTA lacks greatly in interacting with its stakeholders online, usually engaging in one-directional communication with no interest in responding to its stakeholders.
Thus, I proposed that LTA expands its use of social media to include
1) Crowd-sourcing campaigns to gather information for better policymaking
2) Feedback gathering channels to have a better understanding of issues on the ground that allows gaps in public service delivery to be identified
I hope that my suggestions can help LTA move closer to achieving its goals, connecting with the citizenry and showcasing its willingness to be an open and transparent organisation.
Thanks for reading this post and good luck to everyone!
Crystal
Marketing communication 