Analysing Social Interactions and Conflicting Goals: Australian Government Ecosystem Context

There is an increasing use of social media platforms by government agencies for active interactions with community. In particular, the Australian government agencies are the major users of Facebook pages for actively interacting with the community. While active interactivity seems useful, however, this also marks the need for understanding and addressing tension and conflicts between government and community goals for effective interactions and mutual benefits. There is limited analysis and research into the use and impact of Facebook pages on the Australian government and community expectations. This chapter aims to address this gap and reports findings from the analysis of the Australian government Facebook pages. It is anticipated that findings from this analysis can be used by agencies to identity and address conflicting goals when redesigning their social media platforms such as Facebook pages for interactions with the community.