Blog Archives
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.
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.
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?
@Sweden now controlled by the Swedish people
The people of Sweden have officially taken over the @Sweden Twitter account, according to Mashable. This is not the result of a digital coup, but applauded by the Swedish government.
The Swedish people - here represented by cheering soccer fans - now control their own Twitter destiny. (Photo: andregustavo on Flickr/CC-BY-2.0)
The @Sweden handle has been controlled by the national tourist agency, VisitSweden, since 2009. But through the project Curators of Sweden, the Twitterverse presence of Sweden is now handed over to the people. A string of different contributors will portray the national character online.
- No one owns the brand of Sweden more than its people. With this initiative we let them show their Sweden to the world, VisitSweden CEO Thomas Brühl said to Mashable.
The curators have been chosen because they represent Sweden’s values and skills, such as gay rights, fashion, design and innovation. Among the chosen are an ad agency founder who owns a farm, a suburban writer, a priest, a teacher and a coffee-drinking lesbian trucker.
I look forward to following the @Sweden account and will be sure to add it to my Twitter stream!
UPDATE: Swedish PR blogger Hans Kullin has made an exellent study of some of the recent content on @Sweden. Highly recommended reading – some of it is almost shocking, other items highly amusing.
