Revisiting social media institutionalization in government. An empirical analysis of barriers

Social media have become a common organizational resource of governments and public administrations in different contexts. Previous authors have stated that social media institutionalization encompasses a process including stages from experimentation to complete command of the innovation. However, an understanding of barriers to social media institutionalization in public administration needs to be developed. In this article we focus on exploring what factors operate as barriers of the social media institutionalization process. Methodologically, we use a mixed-methods strategy combining different sources of data for triangulation purposes, including a survey on social media conducted to Spanish largest local governments. Based on this data, and following the literature on social media institutionalization, we construct a Social Media Institutionalization Index (SMI). Our SMI is founded on a set of variables measuring to what extent social media have been embedded in public sector organizations. Also, we conducted a case study in a city council based on semi-structured interviews. Our results suggest that social media institutionalization has not been fully developed in our sample of local governments. In addition, different variables (including security, lack of resources for maintenance, control and evaluation, organizational culture, or absence of governance framework) are perceived by public managers as institutionalization barriers, whereas the governance scheme of social media seems to be the critical variable. At the same time, we emphasize that some inhibitors might be overvalued by public employees. This article encourages future avenues of comparative research and practical recommendations to public managers leading social media in the public sector. •Social media institutionalization barriers are studied in largest local governments in Spain.•We use mixed methods approach to study social media institutionalization.•We find that the absence of a governance framework negatively impacts institutionalization.•Public employees tend to overvalue the effect of certain external inhibitors.•GG Governing organizational factors are essential to reduce social media barriers.