Determining the attitude of municipal employees about the use of social media: Ankara province example

The aim of this study is to determine the attitudes of municipal personnel towards social media and to investigate whether there are significant differences in terms of gender, age group and working time. The study group of the research consists of 360 participants working in the metropolitan municipality and five district municipalities in Ankara. The research method is a quantitative research method and the data collection tool is the Social Media Attitude Scale consisting of 35 items developed and adapted by Otrar and Argın (2016). Data analysis is conducted by using explanatory factor analysis and MANOVA technique with IBM SPSS 20.0 program. The scale was checked with Cronbach Alpha reliability analysis and explanatory factor analysis that it is a valid and reliable tool to measure the attitude of municipal employees, and then the new five-factor structure of the scale was reached. It has been determined that there are statistically significant differences in the five factors of the scale, which are fondness, entertainment and sharing, sociability and attracting attention, education, open communication, according to gender, age, education level and length of service of municipality employees. Women are more fond to social media applications than men. While municipal employees aged 18-22 use social media mostly for entertainment, sharing and open communication, employees with 16-20 years of service think that it would be right to use social media for educational purposes. In addition, it has been observed that municipal employees who are university graduates are more fond of the use of social media, if municipal employees who are high school graduates, use social media more to attract attention. The results of the study were discussed with the literature and were made suggestion to the municipalities.