ParticipationCymru do great work to achieve better public engagement in Wales and I was fascinated to read the latest results on how public sector organisations here are using social media.

There were an impressive 576 respondents of which 50% were from local government, 19% Third sector, 17% Welsh Government and 7% NHS and 6% other services.

There’s a long way to go in getting us to be a completely socially engaged country but these results show most of us are on our way now.

One finding I thought was encouraging is that lack of knowledge and/or skills (86%) and the fear of negative feedback and how to manage it (53%) were seen as the main challenges to effectively implementing a social media approach in organisations.

Well that can be fixed with a bit of training, experience and confidence! If this is the main barrier to getting nearer to engagement on social media then we can get started right now on starting to jump over that hurdle.

I’m really looking forward to reading the full analysis of the results but for now the headline findings are interesting food for thought.

[Photo by Sarabbit]