MUMBAI: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has come up with policy guidelines for empanelment of social media platforms with Bureau of Outreach and Communication (BOC). The new policy guideline is aimed at improving the social media outreach along with putting in place a policy framework which enables ministries and BOC to engage with social media platforms on the basis of various criteria, terms and conditions and processes stipulated in the guidelines.
“A number of ministries and departments of government of India have a substantial presence as well as organic reach across various social media platforms which they utilise to connect to the members of the public. However, the organic reach is limited to only such people who have connected with the social media handle of the concerned ministry/department. At times, the need is felt to reach or connect to people who are not connected/linked with social media handle of the concerned ministry/department,” MIB stated.
“It is important for the ministry to determine modalities for engaging social media platforms for assured reach. Hence there is a definite need for policy guidelines for engagement of social media platforms so that assured reach may be attained on payment basis to increase visibility of socially relevant messages,” it added.
The new policy guidelines will remain valid for a period of five years.
Media planning and execution of campaigns:
BOC will determine which social media platform(s) is/are relevant in light of planned outreach activity of the client ministry/department based on target audience, theme and content of proposed activity, budget and duration of the campaign.
In doing so, preference may be given to the social media platforms which are based in India without affecting the desired outcome from the campaign activities.
BOC will prepare a media plan within the indicated budget wherein the suggested platforms and the expected deliverables would be indicated to the ministries/ departments along with the tentative cost. However, since the models are based on dynamic pricing/auction/bidding, the actual delivery (as against expected deliverables) and the actual buying rates (as against indicated in the plan) would be found out on the final completion of the campaign.
The difference between the media plan conveyed to the client and the media plan actually executed will be communicated to the client ministry/department post execution with details. These terms shall be communicated by BOC to the client Ministry/Department before execution and their acceptance would be obtained before executing the media plan.
The client ministry/department shall indicate social media page/handle which will be designated for the campaign activity. The ministry/department will also be required to share the credentials (such as password) of the page/handle. Thereafter, the BOC and client ministry/department will nominate personnel to execute and monitor the campaign.
BOC will schedule the activity in such a manner that more deliverables may be generated at a lesser cost wherever timelines for undertaking the activity permits such scheduling.
The ministries/departments would have to convey approval for outreach activity to BOC at least five days in advance for the campaign to get started.
The ministries/departments would place 100 per cent funds in advance with BOC for campaign to be run. This is non-negotiable as default in payment by one ministry/department may adversely impact social media campaigns of other ministries/departments of the government. If the actual expenditure exceeds the planned expenditure, the balance shall be paid by the client ministry/department to the BOC.
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