If it works for Sweden, shouldn’t it work for business? It will be interesting to see if any companies follow suit, and dare to turn off twitter powers to one of their devout fans. The PR would be fantastic…but would it outweigh all the worry? I can only image ever VP who has never seen a company tweet before sitting at the computer just waiting for the text tweet. It’s painful just thinking about it.
If you are not familiar with the story -
“Stockholm: Do you think Sweden is all about blondes, meatballs and snow? Think again.
Since December, the Nordic country has been promoting itself on Twitter by handing over the official @Sweden account to an average citizen every week.
Among those who have hosted the account are a Christian minister, an organic sheep farmer and a blogger from an immigrant neighbourhood – each painting their own, different image of Swedish society.
This week the account is controlled by Hanna Fange, who describes herself as “just your average lesbian truck driver.”
Maria Ziv, marketing director at public-private PR agency Visit Sweden, said the idea was to give the national account a more genuine voice and present a different picture of Sweden.
“Each tweeter should be a small piece in the puzzle that is Sweden,” she said Thursday.
While institutions in many other countries still haven’t taken control of their country names on Twitter, Visit Sweden and the public Swedish Institute registered the (at)Sweden account in 2009. Ziv said the latest campaign is a natural step in the organization’s efforts to use social media in their marketing.
The move has been well-received online and the account has increased its number of followers from around 8,000 in December to more than 23,000…”
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