Watching Eurovision 2012? Your Instagram could be in a music video
On the eve of Eurovision 2012, Swedish hope (and bookie favorite) Loreen is turning to her fans for support. Not only for votes, but for their artistic help in making the video for her Eurovision song “Euphoria”.
On her Facebook page, Loreen asks fans to take Instagram photos that illustrate some part of the lyrics to “Euphoria”. If they upload their photos to Instagram with the tag #Loreen12p, the photo enters the contest to be used in the official music video for the song.
Screenshot from Loreen’s Facebook page.
An innovative take on using Instagram for cultivating fans and collaborating with them. Go Loreen – best of luck in Eurovision. Here’s the current video, posted on YouTube by Warner Music in Sweden:
Thanks to my Swedish pal @Kullin, who first blogged about Loreen’s contest.
Record Twitter use in the Nordics
Recent statistics reveal near-explosive growth for Twitter in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. The social network might just get too big to ignore anymore.
Twitter has long been described as “small, but elite” – a networking tool for the chattering classes consisting mainly of journalists, politicians, and business professionals. Not so anymore:
- More than half of Sweden’s near 300.000 Twitter accounts have been created during the past year, according to the Swedish Twitter census released by Intellecta Corporate today. The number of accounts has tripled since the last census a year ago, and more than half of the accounts have tweeted in the last month.
- Twitter in Norway has doubled in size over the past two years, and now counts 11 percent of the population among the users. 410.000 Norwegians logged on weekly in the first quarter of 2012, according to stats from analytics agency TNS Gallup released last week.
- In Denmark, the number of Twitter accounts is almost doubled from late 2010 to the end of 2011, according to this beautiful infographic by Atcore and Overskrift.dk.
Swedish Twitter acounts over time. Graphics by Intellecta Corporate.
Kids lead the way
The statistics say little about possible reasons for Twitter’s growth over the past year. I can really only speak for the Norwegian Twitterverse, but my impression is that Twitter has gone mainstream. Younger users (under 30 y.o.) account for the majority of new users.
One contributing factor may be local celebrities’ use of the social network. National broadcasters NRK and TV2 have also embraced Twitter, particularly in their sports coverage. And national and international media have brought stories of Twitter as the arena for following international stars from various arenas – music, movies, sports, or politics.
Watch out!
Whatever the reasons for the recent growth spurt, Twitter is obviously a network worth keeping an eye on in the Nordics. I’ll keep my eye out for new data from Finland and Iceland as well.
In the meantime, enjoy this really interesting and fun graph from the Swedish Twitter census, where you can search for different Twitter users and see their place in the national Twitter hierarchy. Enjoy!
(Thanks to the wonderful Hanne Klintøe for sending me the Danish infographic!)
First picture of Sweden’s new princess first published on Facebook
Congratulations are in order! Sweden’s crown princess Victoria gave birth to a tiny princess this morning. The newborn princess is second in line to the Swedish throne.
Unsurprisingly, social media in Sweden – and the rest of the Nordics – have been abuzz with royal news all day. But perhaps more surprisingly, the picture everyone has been waiting for was first released on Facebook, not to the press.
Screenshot from the Swedish court's Facebook page.
The Swedish court posted a low-key picture of the small family on their Facebook page just before the princess Victoria, prince Daniel and their daughter (whose name has not been announced yet) left the hospital and returned to their home at Haga castle.
By nightfall, the post has received more than 5,000 comments, 23,000 likes and has been shared 3500 times.
Congratulations to the Swedish people, whose princess has certainly been born into a social media savvy royal family!
Norway: One in three with social media profiles don’t know how to use them
Only half of Norwegian men feel confident they know how to use social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter. But digital literacy is on the rise in the Norwegian population.
Those are some of the conclusions drawn in a survey recently presented by the Norwegian National Institute for Consumer Research, where digital competences in Norwey have been studied. The survey (in Norwegian) can be downloaded from the institute’s website, and national broadcaster NRK has summarized the findings. (Both in Norwegian.)
Below are some of the other findings in the survey.
Banking, shopping lead the way:
Digital literacy for personal finances and shopping are at an all time high:
- 95% of web users can navigate the Internet
- 94% can use online banking services
- 77% say they are competent at shopping online
- 72% can use prize comparison services online
But when it comes to social media, Norwegian Internet users do not think as highly of themselves. Only 58% of web users say they are “good” or “very good” at using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or similar tools. This is still a massive improvement from the same survey results from 2009, when only 33% felt they were skilled users of social media services.
Women rule social media in Norway:
Men feel more comfortable using most digital services – except for social media. When users are asked to rate their own social media skills, the numbers saying they are “good” or “very good” are:
- 66% of women
- 51% of men
Older users go on Facebook, too:
Digital literacy decreases with age. But even in the older age groups, social media literacy is growing:
- 89% literacy under 30 years old
- 69% literacy 30-44 years old
- 46% literacy 45-59 years old
- 30% literacy 60 years or older
So, in fact, three out of ten Norwegians over the age of 60 are quite comfortable using social media services.
Danish sports success triggers Twitter activity
Perhaps not that surprising, but an amusing statistic nonetheless: Twitter interest in sports increases with national success.
Danish blog Overskrift.dk has tracked Twitter activity related to the men’s handball team’s success in the European handball championship. And the stats connected to Twitter hashtag #emdk show that success and interest go hand in hand:
Throughout the first few matches, which Denmark lost, activity was quite low. But as the team got into the playoff, Twitter activity increased. During the final, Twitter in Denmark all but exploded with enthusiasm and national rejoicing.
Statistics compiled and presented by overskrift.dk
Look out for social media “Obama effect” in Finland’s presidential race
The Finnish presidential election is well under way, heading into the second and final round on February 5. This election marks an important change in Finnish politics, ending the era of social democratic presidents. The Finns are also guaranteed to see a change in leadership, as the incumbent, Tarja Halonen, has served her maximum of two terms as president. This will be the first time since 1982 the president is from another party than the Social Democratic Party.
Obama effect for Haavisto
No candidate received a majority of the votes in the first election round on January 22. Sauli Niinistö of the National Coalition Party leads the race, having received 37 % of the vote in the first round. He will face off against Pekka Haavisto of the Green League in just over a week.
This is no small feat for Haavisto, as this is the first time a Green League presidential candidate makes it into the second election round. But some Finnish commentators, researchers and social media experts are talking about Haavisto’s “Obama effect” in social media.
Winning, internet style
At the beginning of the presidential race , it seemed that frontrunner Niinistö was the best bet for new President, at least according to his Facebook and Twitter following. Finnish marketing blogger Pär Österlund did a survey of all the candidates’ social media following in early January (in Finnish). The situation then looked like this:
Comparison of candidates social media following as of Jan. 9, 2012. Graphics by Pär Österlund.
Since then, however, Haavisto seems to be kicking some serious online butt. Researcher Jarmo Rinne says to hbl.fi that Haavisto seems to be making more of an effort online than his opponent (article in Swedish). And on January 23, Haavisto’s Facebook Page surpassed the Niinistö Page in terms of followers.
Haavisto is focusing on social media as a campaign tool, as his election campaign have smaller budgets than that of his competitors, according to Balticworlds.com.
Live election social media feeds
Who wins the social media race to the Finnish presidency? We won’t know until the votes are tallied after the second election round on February 5.
In the meantime, you can follow the election through social media live here. And if you’re interested in an analysis of the different candidates’ social media use, try this blog post (in Finnish).
And we can be quite sure that this is the election when social media are put firmly on the map in Finnish politics.
Thanks are in order!
Reader, beware: I do not speak Finnish. My interpretation of the relevant blog posts has been constructed through Google Translate, and I apologize in advance for any inaccuracies. If you have info, corrections, or other input, please leave me a note in the comments section.
This blog post could never have been constructed without the help of my Finnish contacts Jari Lähdevuori and Anna Parikka. I hope I haven’t messed up your beautiful input too much. Also great thanks to Atle Syvertsen, a Norwegian journalist who has worked as communications adviser for Nordic Culture Point in Helsinki.
Facebook in Finland: State of the marketing nation
- The marketing department owns the social media engagement
- More admin engagement = more user engagement
- Most companies have guidelines for their Facebook pages
These social media statistics, and others, are found in a recent survey on Facebook marketing in Finland by Hill+Knowlton and VerkostoAnatoia. The results are documented in this presentation:
- The activity peaks are at 10 am. and 8 pm. each day.
- Fridays see a higher level of engagement than other days in the week.
- While Finnish women have a higher Facebook presence than men, the guys are on Facebook, too. They are just not as chatty – if it’s not a sports matter.
- The more effort Facebook admins put into their page, the more engagement they get in return.
Disclaimer: This presentation and survey are done by Hill+Knowlton Strategies in Finland. I work at Gambit Hill+Knowlton in Oslo, and the presentation came to my attention at work. I have no other interest in this survey.
Norwegian Twitter princess faces competition from fake “princess”
Last weekend, the Norwegian crown princess Mette-Marit’s Twitter debut got a mention here on Socialmedianordic.com.
In the days following her Twitter debut, the crown princess’ social media use has met some serious discussion in Norway. First, a lot of Norway’s established Twitter users couldn’t agree on whether the royal Twitter profile was real or fake.
When national news giant VG wrote an article on the royal Twitter debut, however, that debate was more or less silenced. But then, national PR experts got involved in a debate on whether or not the princess is elitist on Twitter in the same newspaper (in Norwegian).
And finally, the Twitter-sceptics’ prophecy appears to have fulfilled itself: Now a fake Twitter profile for the crown princess, @clownprincessmm, has seen the light of day. I doubt that anyone will doubt the authenticity of this fake profile (doubting its fakeness seems… unlikely), and I suppose getting an online copy is the final welcome and inclusion into Norwegian Twitter elite?
So, Twitter sceptics: I guess you should be careful what you wish for. It apparently can – and will – come true.
