Factors Impacting Social Media Adoption in Public Sector Organizations: Case of Oman

Millions of people around the globe are daily interacting with each other and with organizations through social media platforms, which is a very convenient way of communication. Accordingly, public sector organizations around the world realized the importance of social media and thus are increasingly using it for communicating with their citizens. Although social media provides various benefits but risks also exist that are not only related to time, money, and effort losses; but also extends to include risks such as reputation and trust losses. Hence, it is critical for organizations to understand which factors impact the social media adoption most. Based on the literature review, this study initially identifies 20 factors that are important for social media adoption. We short-listed the identified factors to nine, based on the criteria that three or more researchers identified them as important in their studies. Then we asked experts in social media in Oman to rank those factors in the context of their importance. We used the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method to rank those nine factors. Results of the AHP show that some factors such as Social Media Strategy, Training and experience of Staff, Community Influence and Top Management Support are more important in a developing country as compared to developed countries.