Focus Group Based Evaluation of Social Media Usage in Indonesia's Digital Government

This article attempts to explain social media use within the relationship between the public and government of Indonesia in the era of digital government, as well as to consider public opinion on this matter. This research is based on the application of social media logic and the theory of dialogic communication and action. A qualitative descriptive approach was used to observe the general behavior of social media use by 34 ministries in Indonesia, including interviews with the resource persons within the ministries and focus group discussions with members of the public and observers. The research shows that the relationship between the public and government is accommodative and in line with social media logic. The public sector implemented social media as its platform, which has been further adopted by all ministries. The public sector cannot avoid social media, as it has become part of basic connectivity, even though the use of social media by the government still tends to be in the form of presenting public information. There are advantages and disadvantages of the usage of social media by the government. The advantages include allowing the government to be more open via social media so that communication between the government as the ruling organization and its public can be more fluent. Social media provides space to the public sector in the practice of digital government. Some disadvantages arise as logical consequences that usage of social media cannot be separated from the implementation of digital government. The adaptive behavior of social media by the government can be found by following social media logic as part of digital government implementation. Social media logic causes the government to follow the rules of social media. In this context, the strength and power of the country seems to be regulated by social media. Therefore, more studies on how social media is managed in the context of its usage as digital government support is needed.