Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt urged city officials to use social media to broadcast live progress of projects to ensure efficient communication.

Chadchart was speaking to officials of the city’s Public Relation Department during the “Governor On Tour” event on Thursday, in which he personally visited different departments across the city to monitor operations and address problems.

The event also saw the governor sharing meals with city officials in a casual setting.

Chadchart said that the key to successful public relations is efficient two-way communications. “We need to gather people’s feedback as well as let them know what we have done so far,” he said. “Showing the latest work progress has always been our weakness and it needs to be improved.”

Chadchart added that the city has made several improvements in public relations, including appointing city officials who have practical experience to be ambassadors for the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.

“Our communications must be able to reach all people, while the content must be precise and interesting, with clear indicators of effectiveness for evaluation,” he said, adding that a network of partners must be established to help expand news coverage, as secondary sources are often able to reach wider audiences while having more credibility than the primary one.

Chadchart also advised against the practice of Pak Chee Roy Na (sprinkle cilantro on top), or a gimmicky attempt to cover up negative effects of the works.

“If the project is delayed we must inform the public immediately. This message will also urge responsible agencies to be more alert in their work,” he said.

The governor also recommended using live broadcast features on social media to report the progress of projects to city residents and relevant agencies.

“We can use either Tiktok or Facebook to show the ‘before’ and ‘after’ of projects to highlight the contrast,” said Chadchart, adding that the city’s online complaint platform Traffy Fondue can also be used to communicate the progress of fixing problems raised by the public.