In the digital world, public and private entities ensure that communication strategies are simple and strong to reach the target audience.
But when it comes to government decisions and achievements, often the twitterti or social media influencers subject it to unqualified comments and harsher criticisms. They comment on anything under the sun without the qualifications to do so and make it muddy. The result is good deeds drown in a barrage of negativities.
Each organization needs to reinforce the corporate identity and build a trust with its beneficiaries. When we talk about identity, we do not mean security and safety, because Omanis have passed this stage and become a main contributor in preserving the country’s resources and they are familiar with the country’s facilitators and challenges as well. Organisations whether public or private must ensure effective communication with the society.
Unfortunately, some organisations do not react faster to the public’s demands or answer queries. They take time until they come out with their response in detail. But this delay in response is enough to generate bad press or frustration and leaves no space in the mind of the target audience even for a satisfactory response.
For example, lots of parents raised a hashtag on social media platforms against the delay in getting school books for their kids. The Ministry of Education issued a statement explaining the reasons behind the delay. The statement came after the parents raised an issue.
Had the MoE explained the reasons for the delay before the parents raised it, it would have cooled the temper of parents.
Another trend I noticed is that the majority of the entities attribute their routine work to Oman Vision 2040.
I think that we should move away from such unnecessary philosophical statements. For instance, an official representative stated: “Based on the vision plan, the citizen’s income would be RO 26,000 per annum.”
What is the connection between vision and income? There is no clarity in the statement. Is it worth announcing all the plans when they are still in preparatory stages? Should we tag everything to Oman Vision 2040?
The recent media gathering which was organized by the Ministry of Finance on the budget in the presence of officials is one of the successful models of government communication. It clarified all the questions relating to the Budget 2022. Agencies must hold meetings to review the work of the past year and present their plans for the upcoming period. Last year, the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Housing held meetings reviewing their work. We are eagerly waiting to see whether the promises they made have turned into realities.
We have to focus on promoting our achievements.
