The Australian government’s Public Diplomacy Strategy points to the importance of “diaspora diplomacy”. It promises to take steps to “engage diaspora communities drawing on their linguistic skills, social networks and cultural community connections”, by making active use of “online and social media as public diplomacy tools”.

We can get hung up on the number of social media accounts a foreign ministry has, how many likes a tweet received, or how many followers we have. These numbers are great: they are easily measured [...] But they don’t go to the heart of Sam’s question: What difference has it made? In the end, as public servants, we need to demonstrate to taxpayers why it is worth investing in digital.

For the people of the Balkans the social media coincides with the period of democratic transition, with parliamentarian democracy, political pluralism, freedom and human rights, free market economy and the opening up of Euro-Atlantic integration. In this premature phase the social media entered with a great speed in the reality of the Balkans. 

The use of social networks to reach the public needs to be prioritised by the Vietnamese government and related agencies, especially during a period where the country is increasingly integrating into the global community.

Social media does more than share information about Syrian refugees; it offers ways you can help them. Here are five ways that highlight how social media supported Syrian refugees. [...] Since the crisis began, the U.S. has contributed more than $5.1 billion in humanitarian assistance to people affected by the conflict in Syria.

Though the Taliban has relied on technology for over a decade in the name of propaganda and public relations, its relationship with social media has only taken root in the last few years, in parallel with the rise of ISIS. Just as terrorist organizations in the Middle East have made Facebook pages, Telegram channels, and Twitter accounts, the Taliban has expanded the breadth and depth of its outreach to the international community in general and the news media in particular.

They called it Think Again, Turn Away. The concept? Use sarcasm as way to turn Islamic State images into an argument against their grim techniques of terror. The creator and producer? The U.S. State Department. Today, everyone agrees the message was worse than ineffective. It played right into the hands of the terrorists.