Category Archives: Finland
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.
Twitter launches Danish, Finnish, Norwegian version
In a quiet tweet in the nighttime (Scandinavian nighttime, that is), Twitter has announced the launch of a Danish, Norwegian, and Finnish language edition:
I am trying to get my hands on a complete list over available languages, and will update this asap.
This adds to the growing list of social media services available in Nordic languages, following the inclusion of Swedish in the LinkedIn language community last month.
UPDATE:
I have been researching the reactions to the new Nordic Twitter versions from users.
Norway:
A few users in Norway are quite vocal in their dislike of the translation – or, rather, of the translation method.
The new translations have been crowdsourced, and terms have been suggested and voted on by the users themselves. This has caused some rather peculiar translations and frequent angloisms in the Norwegian version.
For instance, the “favorite” function (as in: @username just favorited your tweet) has been translated into “@username favoriserte din tweet”. (In Norwegian, the verb “favorisere” means something slightly different than “marking as a favorite” – it’s more or less the verb for giving someone special treatment.) Other important elements of Twitter, such as the Retweet function, haven’t been translated at all – it’s still called retweeting in Norwegian, when the term for forwarding something (the term used for emails) is suggested by several users as a preferable term.
A user who has been involved in the translation tweets that the crowdsourcing has been frustrating, and feels that several good suggestions for translations have been rejected.
“You’d think Twitter could afford to hire professional help,” tweets Pål Nedregotten, head of digital development at Norwegian media house A-pressen.
Other users are pleased with the Norwegian launch, but say they wish the “trending topic” list would add a Norwegian filter soon.
Denmark/Finland:
My Twitter network is much larger in Norway than in Denmark or Finland. But I have been on the lookout for user reactions to “new Twitter”. So far, reactions are neutral or non-existent, according to my sources.
“Not much talk about Danish Twitter yet, and reactions are mostly neutral,” tweets Danish new media journalist Ernst Poulsen when I ask.
I will update this post again if I come across more Danish reactions or hear from my Finnish contacts. In the meantime: Have you seen your local-language Twitter edition? What do you think of it?
Crowdfunding enters Scandinavian cultural scene
Crowdfunding, having the public chip in to finance great ideas and projects, is hardly a new phenomenon. We’ve seen it done successfully in fundraising for years, for instance through Kiva.org and Kickstarter.
Photo: Aslakr ond Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
The arts and culture have embraced this financing model. Starting in 1992, Finnish sci-fi project Star Wreck has been an online cult phenomenon, attracting production help, downloads, and purchases from all around the world. Though not strictly a crowdfunding project, it’s definately a forerunner of the trend.
The first Scandinavian truly crowdfunded cultural project I’m aware of, was Norwegian rock group Kaizer’s Orchestra‘s collecting money from fans toward the recording of a new album in 2010. But since then, crowdfunding is rapidly becoming mainstream activity for lots of cultural innovators.
Does crowdfunding work?
The big question, of course: Does it work? Are projects getting funded? The answer is a definate maybe, so far. While there is no lack of fundraising efforts, the Scandinavian public are somewhat reluctant in opening their wallets – yet. But it’s early days, stil, and a little too soon to prophesy doom to the Scandinavian crowdfunding projects. Instead, let’s have a quick look at the status quo.
(I do not in any way believe that this is a complete list of Scandinavian cultural crowdfunding projects. If you know of any I have missed, please leave a note in the comments section!)
Sweden racing ahead
Sweden is taking the lead. Since 2010 the public have paid up for culture through the website Funded By Me. Several projects have been realized due to collective efforts online.
People in Sweden’s capital Stockholm also have the opportunity to contribute through Crowdculture.se, where they can vote for their favorite projects and help fund their development. Crowdculture.se is particularly interesting since it is in part initiated by local authorities in Stockholm. To my knowledge, this is the first example of crowdfunding efforts by the public sector in Scandinavia.
Norwegians getting started
This summer saw crowdfunding in general entering the Norwegian cultural scene as well, since Funded By Me launched a Norwegian sister-site to their Swedish operation. A local theatre group in Oslo is among the first candidates for crowdfunding. The response to the Norwegian site seems to be so-so so far, but I look forward to following their progress.
New Danish site
The Danish cultural scene has recently been expanded by the launch of Boomerang, a new crowdfunding site for arts and culture. Not many projects seem to have caught the eye of financers as of yet – but again, it’s early days and too soon to deem any crowdfunding efforts a success or a failure.
Less culture, more crowd: Iceland and Finland
Though not a cultural project per se, the Finnish crowdfunding efforts of Hub Helsinki pave the way for new crowdfunding projects in Finland.The cooperative of people trying to change the world are attempting to raise €50,000 towards the refurbishing of their new premises in Helsinki. The Aalto Social Impact initiative has taken a serious interest in crowdfunding in Finland.
I have not been able to find examples of crowdfunded cultural projects on Iceland. This is probably due to my abysmal comprehension of Icelandic – the country which crowdsourced its new constitution must surely have some interesting projects to show for. If you know of any, please leave a note in the comments section!
If you are interested in crowdsourcing as a phenomenon, check out this extensive list of crowdfunding sites. Among the inspirations for this post are the blogs of Danish Mikael Mejlvang, a.k.a. “Municipality Man” (blogs in Danish), and Arts and Business Norway (in Norwegian). Thanks!
Islands are Facebook crazy: Iceland, Faroe Islands top Nordic Facebook stats
New post in Socialmedianordic.com series Stats on Thursday!
A fun discovery: The Scandinavian Northern European obsession with Facebook is most extreme in the west, and diminishes the further east you live.
Islands at the top
According to Facebook statistics from Socialbakers.com, Iceland has the highest Facebook penetration of the population in Northern Europe – in fact, with two thirds of the population facebooking, Iceland is the third most Facebook-saturated country in the world!
Facebook penetration gets less intense the further east you get in Scandinavia (international penetration ranking in parentheses):
- 68 % in Iceland (3. place)
- 60% in Faroe Islands (5. place)
- 54% in Norway (8. place)
- 50% in Denmark (15. place)
- 49% in Sweden (29. place)
- 39% in Finland (43. place)
Facebook penetration in the Nordic countries, according to Socialbakers.com data, September 2011
Finnish contest merges national obsessions: Social media and earth diggers
A really innovative contest came out of Finland this summer, joining the Finns over two of their national pasttimes: Social media and power vehicles.
A takeuchi digger is the prize up for grabs in the Kaivuriskaba contest. (Image from Flickr/Joost J Bakker Ijmuiden/CC-BY-2.0)
Kaivuriskaba promises a mini-excavator to the man/woman who really proves to have Finnish sisu, or determination and staying power – whoever can stay in a mini-excavator longest, wins the earth digger.
23,5 hours a day in a digger
They only get to come out for 30 minutes a day, during which time they must shower, go to the restroom and stretch their legs, writes the Ubiquity PR company on their blog (where I became aware of the contest – thanks for writing about it first! Also, I must take their word for it when it comes to the rules of the competition; unfortunately, I can’t read Finnish).)
Some people really are proving their determination. At time of writing, the contest has been in progress for 103 days – and
three of the original six competitors are still fighting it out for the mini-excavator.
Social media drives the contest
The rest of the population can watch their struggles throughout the contest, through videos, Facebook updates, and other social media efforts. In fact, the contestants must stream live video and chat with their audience throughout the contest in order to remain eligible for the big prize. More than 5,000 fans are following the contest on Facebook.
I guess this just goes to show that there is no limit to what people will do in order to drive home on a shiny, new mini-digger – at 4 km/h!
Have you seen any other Nordic examples of social media-driven contests lately? Please let me know! (And if you Finnish is better than mine and you understand more of the concept behind the contest, tell me!)
Icelanders have most Facebook friends; all Nordic countries are avid users
A number of studies have shown that web users in the Nordic countries are extremely Facebook-friendly. Iceland and Norway are both in the top 10 countries in regards to Facebook penetration in the population, according to Socialbaker.com stats.
But how friendly are we really? And how connected? A great question from Nikki Schei on Twitter (in Norwegian), how many Facebook friends does the average Norwegian have? I had to find out. And in the process, I got the stats for the other Nordic countries as well.
Scandinavians way above world average on Facebook
The answer to Nikki’s question, as it turns out, is approximately 230. That’s way above the international average of 130, according to Facebook’s own statistics page.
Average number of Facebook friends in the Nordics
I aquired this number thanks to Facebook’s Nordic account executive, Petter Høie, who was very helpful in the Facebook group for Facebook marketeers in Norway. And he helped me with the statistics for the rest of the Nordics too.
Icelanders friendliest in the Nordics
The Icelanders are the friendliest of the bunch. They average approximately 290 Facebook friends apiece.
Norwegians are in second place with their 230 friends each.
Sweden and Denmark tie for third place, they average 190 friends, while Finland are slightly less sociable: Finnish users have on average 180 Facebook friends. Still way ahead of the international average!
