THE DIGITALIZATION OF DIPLOMACY AND SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE: A RESEARCH ON EMBASSY FACEBOOK ACCOUNTS

Objective: The aim of the study is to put forward the effects of new communication technologies to public diplomacy within the “digital diplomacy” conceptual framework via case studies concerning social media activities. Method: For this purpose, Facebook shares and interactions (e.g. comment, like, re-share) covering the period of May-October 2018 in Facebook accounts of the Finland Embassy in Ankara and United Kingdom Embassy in Ankara, chosen as case studies, have been examined via content analysis method. In addition to that, two Facebook accounts have been compared within the scope of proactive use of social media, openness to interaction and use of multimedia features. Results: It is concluded that proactive social media use (promoting shares, benefiting social media celebrities, using interactive social media features) within the context of digital diplomacy enables that the promoted policies and aspects of a country are widely disseminated by increasing user interaction. Also, it has been observed that shares and strategies of diplomatic social media accounts examined as case studies, are consistent with the foreign policy goals of that specific countries