Gebru, Amanuel (Phd)Yitayew, Wubareg2019-10-102023-11-082019-10-102023-11-082019-06http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/19360The technological advancement of the 21stcentury has revolutionized the communication environment in such a way that government communication has been migrated from offline into online. The use of social media in government communication has resulted in the use of blogs, twitter, Instagram and Facebook as a Public relations (PR) tool for organizations. Therefore, The purpose of this study is to explore and evaluate the use of social media as a Public Relations tool in Ministry of Innovation and Technology. As it is seen in literature in developing countries social media practices do not have a good record, Ethiopia as developing country shares same problems in the sector. A qualitative research approach was used to explore the use and practice of social media in depth. Primary data was collected using Interview, and document review was used for collecting secondary data from the literatures. The researcher developed a qualitative interview based on the practice of the PR department. The open-ended questions were asked to purposively selected participants like PR professionals and IT experts that are working in the PR department of MOIT. The researcher also conducted review of internal documents to triangulate and supplement the data obtained from the interview. For the data presentation and analysis thematic analysis was used because this has an ability to analyze the qualitative data. The findings revealed that social media platforms are moderately implemented in each phase of project implementation of MOIT in internal publics and policies and procedures are in place and implemented accordingly, but there are no standards, legal and regulatory framework for the social media platforms development. The interaction has been more from the organization to the public with few responses from the public. The researcher recommended that there should have been a need for more two way interaction between the organizations and their publics. This research recommends that the proper implementation of social media principles and more platforms are required, and standard i.e. ‘social media implementation guide’ in order to evaluate effectiveness and make improvements has to be established for future usage.en-USoffline, onlineThesis