How Do Local Governments Use Social Media in Japan and the USA?

Adam Acar

In our social media seminar, each student is assigned a research project. Haruka, a senior stduent majoring in English, looked at the differences between the posts of American and Japanese local governments. Sampling: Collect the last 10 posts of the 10 most populous local governments in Japan and the USA in the month of January, 2013.

HOW?

SNS Presence (by January 25, 2013)

Facebook Twitter Both (Facebook + Twitter

74%

58% 58%

28%

55%

17%

the U.S. (Out of 50 states)Japan (out of 47 Prefec-tures)

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Sample: The last 10 tweets of the 10 most populous Japanese prefectures and he last 10 tweets of the 10 most populous American states. Japanese prefectures: Tokyo, Kanagawa, Aichi, Saitama, Hyogo, Hokkaido, Ibaraki, Hiroshima, Kyoto and Niigata. American states: Texas, New York, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina, Indiana, Missouri, Maryland, Alabama and Kentucky.

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Conclusions• American local governments mostly tweet about local

news while Japanese prefectures tend to focus on informing people about local events and activities.

• American local governments ask many questions but Japanese prefectures don’t.

• American local governments tend to thank followers and show appreciation (verbally) while Japanese prefectures don’t.

• Reference to blogs is almost nonexistent in the US.• Tips & useful information is almost nonexistent in Japan.