The Application of Digital Leadership in Managing Public Political Participation on Social Media: A Case Study of the North Maluku Provincial Government’s Response
Downloads
The increasing role of social media as a space for digital political participation allows direct interaction between the public and the government, yet the extent to which digital leadership can effectively manage this participation remains underexplored. This research aim to analyzes the application of digital leadership in responding to public political participation through social media with a case study on the TikTok account of the Governor of North Maluku, Sherly Tjoanda. This research used a qualitative approach with a case study method through social media mining techniques and qualitative content analysis of public comments. The analytical framework combines the concepts of digital leadership, online political participation, and responsiveness to see the relationship between leadership character, forms of participation, and government responses. The results of the study show that the digital leadership applied meets four main dimensions, namely message suitability, timeliness, technical mastery, and the ability to build relationships. Public participation is dominated by forms of activism/extra-representational voices that show the high involvement of citizens in conveying direct demands, especially related to infrastructure. In addition, the government's response has evolved from informal responses to substantive actions in the form of field visits, involvement of relevant agencies, and policy and budget adjustments. These findings confirm that social media can serve as an arena for effective political participation while encouraging government transparency and accountability, as well as strengthening the relationship between government and society in the digital age.
Alodat, A. M., Al-Qora’n, L. F., & Abu Hamoud, M. (2023). Social media platforms and political participation: A study of Jordanian youth engagement. Social Sciences, 12(7). https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12070402
Criado, J. I., Sandoval-Almazan, R., & Gil-Garcia, J. R. (2023). Government innovation through social media: A systematic literature review. Government Information Quarterly, 40(1), Article 101800. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2022.101800
Criado, J. I., & Villodre, J. (2022). Asymmetric digital communication in government social media: An analysis of public engagement and institutional response. Government Information Quarterly, 39(2), Article 101675. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2022.101675
Ernungtyas, N. F., & Boer, R. F. (2023). The citizen trust and engagement in Indonesia government's social media and website. Mediator: Jurnal Komunikasi, 16(1), 14–26. https://doi.org/10.29313/mediator.v16i1.2159
Gao, P., & Gao, Y. (2024). How does digital leadership foster employee innovative behavior? A cognitive–affective processing system perspective. Behavioral Sciences, 14(5), Article 362. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs14050362
Giest, S., McBride, K., Nikiforova, A., & Sikder, S. K. (2025). Digital & data-driven transformations in governance: A landscape review. Data and Policy, 7. https://doi.org/10.1017/dap.2024.47
Guo, J., Wirza Mohd Zawawi, J., & Kamarudin, S. (2025). Identifying determinants for promoting public engagement via Chinese e-government TikTok in public health emergencies. PLOS ONE, 20(6), e0325967.
Kurniawan, W., Arham, M., & Muluk, H. (2024). Social media's influence on political participation: Insights from a systematic review and meta-analysis in Indonesian psychology. Jurnal Psikologi, 51(3), 236. https://doi.org/10.22146/jpsi.101469
Luttrell, R. (2025). Social media: How to engage, share, and connect. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
Manoharan, A. P., Melitski, J., & Holzer, M. (2023). Digital governance: An assessment of performance and best practices. Public Organization Review, 23(1), 265–283. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11115-021-00584-8
Meijer, A., & Torenvlied, R. (2021). Digital governance and responsiveness: Government adaptation to citizen input. Public Administration Review, 81(5), 849–860.
Narbona, J. (2016). Digital leadership, Twitter and Pope Francis. Taylor & Francis, 1(1), 90–109.
Nguyen, T. T. U., Nguyen, P. V., Huynh, H. T. N., Vrontis, D., & Ahmed, Z. U. (2024). Identification of the determinants of public trust in e-government services and participation in social media based on good governance theory and the technology acceptance model. Journal of Asia Business Studies, 18(1), 44–61. https://doi.org/10.1108/JABS-03-2023-0090
Orkamo, M., Ukko, J., Rantala, T., & Saunila, M. (2025). Leadership behaviours to promote organisational performance in private sector digital transformation: A systematic literature review. Digital Business, 5(2), Article 100155. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.digbus.2025.100155
Pandey, V., Gupta, S., & Chattopadhyay, M. (2020). A framework for understanding citizens' political participation in social media. Information Technology and People, 33(4), 1053–1075. https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-03-2018-0140
Sagbas, M., Oktaysoy, O., Topcuoglu, E., Kaygin, E., & Erdogan, F. A. (2023). The mediating role of innovative behavior on the effect of digital leadership on intrapreneurship intention and job performance. Behavioral Sciences, 13(10), Article 874. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs13100874
Shin, B., Floch, J., Rask, M., Bæck, P., Edgar, C., Berditchevskaia, A., Mesure, P., & Branlat, M. (2024). A systematic analysis of digital tools for citizen participation. Government Information Quarterly, 41(3), Article 101954. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2024.101954
Spielvogel, I., Koban, K., Juricek, S., & Matthes, J. (2026). Same same but (very) different? A mixed-method approach on security-related news consumption on traditional and social media and its relation to negative emotional responses and feelings of (in)security. Digital Journalism, 1–24.
Suryani, A. (2024). Digital dialogues: Analyzing the impact of social media on the effectiveness of public health campaigns. Social Communication, 25(1), 82–97.
Tran, T. V. T. (2025). Interactive language on social media and online forums in the digital age. Indiana Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 6(11), 1–7.
Ushaka Adie, B., Tate, M., & Valentine, E. (2024). Digital leadership in the public sector: A scoping review and outlook. International Review of Public Administration, 29(1), 42–58. https://doi.org/10.1080/12294659.2024.2323847
Yusuf, Y. M. (2025). Communication strategy for Islamic propagation on social media: Case study of the use of YouTube by religious figures. Jurnal Ilmiah Multidisiplin Indonesia (JIM-ID), 4(5), 184–194.
Zhang, R. (2025). Reconstructing public communication: A social media-based model for government short video dissemination.
Zhang, W., Yuan, H., Zhu, C., Chen, Q., Evans, R. D., & Min, C. (2024). Factors influencing public engagement in government TikTok during the COVID-19 crisis. The Electronic Library, 42(2), 210–229.
Copyright (c) 2026 Nur Fauzi Zaahirah, Tessa Utari br Sinuraya, Erlangga Pramudya Pradana, Naufal Aji Satria
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
