Telangana Govt opens Whatsapp channel to expand Social media

Aiming at expanding its social media presence, the Telangana Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) joined the newly-launched “WhatsApp Channel” platform on Wednesday, 20 September, over a week after its Karnataka counterpart joined the mass-communication initiative.“The Telangana Government is using advanced technology media and platforms to deliver official information and services to the people from time to time,” the CMO said in a press release.

‘Announcements for citizens’

Through the channel, named “Telangana CMO” on WhatsApp, the government plans to give daily updates on announcements and other initiatives to citizens.The CMO said that people could stay up to date with the news of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao using the WhatsApp Channel.

The channel had already garnered over 25,000 subscribers by 9 pm on Wednesday.Citizens may join the CMO channel by finding it in the search box of WhatsApp and following it.They may also join the channel by scanning the QR Code released by the CMO.“Make sure there is a green tick mark next to the channel name,” the CMO said.The tick is a symbol used by Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, to denote that an account is verified.

The channel is going to be managed by the Digital Media Division of the IT Department in coordination with the Office of the Chief Minister’s Public Relations Officer (CMPRO).On 12 September, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah launched a WhatsApp channel named “Chief Minister of Karnataka”.

As per reports, he became the first Indian chief minister to do so.His channel has already amassed over 70,000 subscribers till 9 pm on Wednesday.On 19 September, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also announced his entry to WhatsApp with his channel titled “Narendra Modi”.

WhatsApp Channel key features

As per Meta, WhatsApp Channels are a one-way broadcast tool for administrators to send text, photos, videos, stickers, news and election updates.Channels can be found in a new tab called Updates on WhatsApp — where users would find the Status and channels they choose to follow – separate from their chats with family, friends, and communities.

According to Meta, there are three key features of WhatsApp Channels

• Enhanced Directory, where users can find channels to follow that are automatically filtered based on their country.They can also view channels that are new, most active, and popular based on the number of followers.

• Reactions, through which users can react using emojis to give feedback and see a count of total reactions.How people react would not be shown to followers.

• Forwarding, in which whenever a user forwards an Update to chats or groups, it would include a link back to the channel so people could find out more.

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