Alert but somewhat unaligned : public sector organisations’ social media listening strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Purpose During the COVID-19 pandemic, public sector organisations produced thousands of social media messages weekly answering citizens questions and informing the public on safety related matters. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the pandemic shaped social media listening in Finland's public sector organisations, and how these organisations aligned their listening and strategic communication to address emerging questions, news (real and fake) and rumours during the pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach Building on a theoretical background from strategic communication, organisational listening, digital marketing and public sector communication, qualitative interview data included communicators (N=14) from all central Finnish public sector organisations in charge of COVID-19 communication. Findings were themed and analyzed qualitatively to understand the level of alignment of strategic communication on social media.

Findings The findings revealed that the pandemic had strained public sector organisations' communication capabilities, forcing them to align their processes and resources reactively to enable useful content and limit false/misleading content. The results confirmed that organisational listening remained somewhat unaligned. A dual role of public sector communication as speakers but increasingly as listeners was highlighted.

Originality/value Our findings point to organizational listening on social media being a central requisite for public sector organisations overcoming a crisis.