Re-tweeting the Ayatollah

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the sudden emergence of official government voices using social media as their first platform for communication creates new opportunities to understand how those voices are influenced and by whom.

Design/methodology/approach

The article examines some recent examples of social media use by government entities from around the world, particularly the Middle East.

Findings

This examination of social media use by government entities suggests that this usage provides significant clues about what government leaders are paying attention to. The social media outputs from these sources creates for the first time a unique signature of what these leaders react to and also how the various publics to whom they speak react to their utterances.

Research limitations/implications

By virtue of the small sample size of the examples reviewed, the findings are of necessity subjective opinion.

Practical implications

If in fact, this social media “exhaust” from governmental sources continue to grow, companies and organizations for whom the evolution of government opinion is important will be able to gather fresher and powerful insights into public policy and views.

Originality/value

Cyberspace continues to offer an ever expanding set of data tracking both the opinions and behaviors of various community stakeholders. To the best of authors’ knowledge, the viewpoint presented in this article is among the first to examine the ramifications of the shift to social media by government leaders from around the world.

Citation

Hirsch, P.B. (2015), "Re-tweeting the Ayatollah", Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 36 No. 2, pp. 49-52. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBS-02-2015-0011