South Korea\'s financial regulator said Wednesday that it planned to strengthen online communications with citizens through social media as part of efforts to rapidly provide information on financial consumer protection. The Financial Supervisory Service said in a statement that the regulator planned to continue its efforts to boost online communications with general public via social media such as blogs and Twitter. The statement came after the FSS was awarded as the best communications agency in the financial sector by the Korea Internet Communication Association (KICA), a private think tank affiliated with the Korea Communications Commission (KCC). The regulator has been actively operating social networking services (SNS) such as Twitter and Facebook as well as blogs. Followers of the FSS Twitter reached 12,291 as of Dec. 1, with visitors to the FSS blog coming to a daily average of 3,967 as of the end of November. It also launched its Facebook account in mid- July to offer information on newly unveiled policies and consumer protection in an easier way.