In recent years, there is emergent trend in ICT use of web 2.0 and social media by government agencies for better engaging with their clients such as citizens, firms and other government agencies (Bertot et. al, 2010, Chun et. al., 2010).Social media tools originating from the Internet include a wide range of tools used for facilitating interactions between diverse social entities and because of its collaborative and participative nature (Patrice, 2010), social media may facilitate greater transparency in the public sector ( Bertot, et. al, 2010).

Although some obstacles were identified by the government in using social media (Bertot et. al. , 2012), some governments have already integrated social media into their daily interactions with clients (Cho & Park, 2012a). The initial studies related to the usage of social media in government sector were mostly based , the impact of social media towards government performance (S. A. Chun & Luna Reyes, 2012; S. Chun, Shulman, Sandoval, & Hovy, 2010; Criado, Sandoval-Almazan, & Gil-Garcia, 2013), framework to interpret social interaction in public sector (Mergel, 2013a, 2013b), sharing information within and across government agencies (Chang&Kanan, 2008; Doris, 2008) and achieving transparency (Bertot, Jaeger, & Grimes, 2010; Jaeger & Bertot, 2010).

Using social media in government services, gives a lot of benefits. Among the benefits are transparency, efficiency, accountability and user convenience (Chang & Kanan, 2008; Chun et. al, 2010; Dorris, 2008; Landsbergen, 2010). The government be able to communicate more efficiently with citizens with lower cost of money and resources (Kuzma, 2010; Landsbergen, 2010).

However, despite the benefits perceived, the adoption of social media also content series of barriers. The barriers are related to record management, privacy and security issues, and accuracy (Bertot, Jaeger, & Hansen, 2012; Dadashzadeh, 2010).

The U.S. country is one of the country that have developed social media guidelines focusing on their benefits, risks and strategic components in order to assists government agencies to achieve the best practices in social media domain. Other countries like Canada, Australia and South Africa has also established guidelines making government agencies aware of the opportunities, the benefits and the risks of social media. However, to our knowledge, there is still no guideline for the use of social media in Malaysia.

This study examines the perceived risks and benefits of social media among public servants in Malaysia. Qualitative method will be used where by a semi structured interview will be done among the public servants in a selected government agency. The ideal sample would be IT personnel with the estimation of sample respondent of 12 to 15 people. From the data extracted,some strategic guidelines will be identified for social media usage in Malaysian public sector.