State plans pact with Facebook to handle CM's page

Aimed at buttressing Siddaramaiah's virtual presence

The State government, it is understood, plans to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Facebook, to handle Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s account. 

 
Facebook, according to officials, is expected to put in place a team specifically for the purpose. The online social networking service provider, it is said, will provide interactive applications, videos, audio and online chatting integration, to buttress Siddaramaiah’s virtual presence with his core constituents and followers.
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Besides monitoring the content posted on Siddaramaiah’s page to ensure only those favourable will be circulated, the team will also provide the chief minister’s office (CMO) with tools to market the not-so-technology-savvy chief minister in social media circles.

A preliminary meeting is slated between Facebook and the CMO earlier next year to chalk out a plan of action for the rest of Siddaramaiah’s three-and-half-year tenure.

Facebook, it is learnt, will be training the CMO personnel to handle Siddaramaiah’s accounts in a professional manner.

Accordingly, a training session by Facebook for the CMO will be conducted in the coming months.
It is claimed that the California-headquartered social networking giant, has exclusive MoUs with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and at least 18 Central ministers. This includes Home Minister Rajnath Singh and other Union Cabinet ministers. 

At present, the official page of the Chief Minister of Karnataka has 37,881 likes compared to 2,64,93,560 likes for  Modi’s personal page and 78,22,536 for the PMO page.

If the MoU goes through, Siddaramaiah is likely to become the first Congressman at the helm in any State to have an exclusive pact with Facebook.

Official sources said the State Budget 2015-16 will have separate allocation for managing Siddaramaiah’s social networking accounts.

It will see the present system of pro bono techies phased out to hire a proper social media wing, with professional IT personnel and social media experts for CMO.
DH News Service