How to adapt one’s communication skills to social networking sites was the theme of the workshop for Press Information Bureau officers held by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and Facebook.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is known for being active on the social media, and following his footsteps are most of the Cabinet Ministers and government officials. Till now, Twitter has been a popular mode, but now government wants to use Facebook for communications between citizens and authorities.

“The challenge before the government is to re-orient and recalibrate its approach and strategy in communicating with the citizens with the right content and knowledge so as to empower them,” Rajyavardhan Rathore, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, said.

This is important in view of the rising demand for quality and precise information and social media being a dynamic medium of communication where views were instantly formed on critical issues. This would not only strengthen institutional capacity of the government but would also enable it to mainstream a 360 degree communication strategy across social media platforms.

Rathore said, today, deliberations and debates in the countries across the world were shaped by the responses and reactions on social media. The emerging perspective dominated other media platforms also.

Citing the example of the communication approach undertaken for the Budget, the Minister said that there was a need to communicate with the citizens in a timely, sustained, personalised, creative and interesting way.

For this purpose, infographics and creative graphics were designed to simplify Budget provisions so that people could understand them in a simple manner and can benefit from the schemes and initiatives of the government.

The workshop was a joint endeavour of the Press Information Bureau and Facebook, where over 250 officers from various Ministries and Departments of the government participated.

Key officials who took part in the event include Secretary I&B, Ajay Mittal; Director-General PIB, Frank Noronha; officers from Ministry of Information & Broadcasting; Facebook’s Policy Director for India, South & Central Asia, Ankhi Das, and Global Director (Politics and Government), Facebook, Katie Harbath.

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