Rethinking IT-governance: Analytical review of IT governance for social media based on the COBIT standard

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is considered to be one of the most critical innovations that enable governments to improve service delivery, encourage effective citizen participation, and achieve organisational goals. A type of ICT which is growing which governments have recently started to utilise is social media (SM). This technology brings many advantages for governments in the form of ease of reaching, communicating and interacting with citizens in a direct and timely manner. Yet, despite such advantages, many government agencies are challenged by how to govern this technology so as to ensure a solid alignment between actual use and organisational objectives. IT governance is an area of research which ensures that the utilisation of technology is in line with organisational goals, objectives and strategies. Most existing social media guidelines were created based on best practice rather than by using established IT governance standards. This research analyses and synthesises a handful of existing SM guidelines, crosschecking their similarities and differences and examining the extent to which they align with established principles of IT governance.