Let's kick off with some statistics from the research
Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 4:03 am
It is no longer a secret that social media are a prominent part of our daily lives. This is highlighted annually in the National Social Media Research of Newcom. Although social media have become so big in the Netherlands, some organizations in the public sector still seem to have trouble with maintenance. Why?
WhatsApp is still the most popular social media platform in the Netherlands with over 11 million users. telegram data Facebook now also reaches 10.1 million people, although the number of users has decreased by over 650,000 compared to 2018. Instagram continues to grow rapidly: the number of users increased from 4.1 million to 4.9 million from 2018 to 2019. That is an increase of around twenty percent. LinkedIn also continues to grow: 4.6 million Dutch people currently use the platform.
Screenshot from Newcom's National Social Media Survey.
Source: National Social Media Survey by Newcom 2019.
The integration of social media in online communication policy
Many organizations within the public sector are faced with a difficult integration of social media or other technological developments in their daily communication policy.
According to Ines Mergel (pdf, 2012), a large part of this difficulty lies in the difficult bottom-up communication within this sector. There is often a lack of understanding or hesitation to report concerns or suggestions to colleagues. As a result, many communication advisors within the public sector remain reserved. Moreover, social media are often still relatively new, which means that there is not enough knowledge about them. This also results in reservation: people are afraid of the great unknown.
In order to find out where the problems with the integration of social media in the communication policy in the Netherlands lie, we have sent out a questionnaire to communication advisors in the public sector. The questionnaire was completed 38 times.
WhatsApp is still the most popular social media platform in the Netherlands with over 11 million users. telegram data Facebook now also reaches 10.1 million people, although the number of users has decreased by over 650,000 compared to 2018. Instagram continues to grow rapidly: the number of users increased from 4.1 million to 4.9 million from 2018 to 2019. That is an increase of around twenty percent. LinkedIn also continues to grow: 4.6 million Dutch people currently use the platform.
Screenshot from Newcom's National Social Media Survey.
Source: National Social Media Survey by Newcom 2019.
The integration of social media in online communication policy
Many organizations within the public sector are faced with a difficult integration of social media or other technological developments in their daily communication policy.
According to Ines Mergel (pdf, 2012), a large part of this difficulty lies in the difficult bottom-up communication within this sector. There is often a lack of understanding or hesitation to report concerns or suggestions to colleagues. As a result, many communication advisors within the public sector remain reserved. Moreover, social media are often still relatively new, which means that there is not enough knowledge about them. This also results in reservation: people are afraid of the great unknown.
In order to find out where the problems with the integration of social media in the communication policy in the Netherlands lie, we have sent out a questionnaire to communication advisors in the public sector. The questionnaire was completed 38 times.